An entire month of the season is now in the books, so bowl projections should be pretty clear at this point, right?
Hah. Of course, conference play has yet to begin (other than Penn State's win over Rutgers). That means much, much jostling remains.
But one thing we can say as September ends: Indiana is in great shape to make a bowl. Seriously!
The Hoosiers are 4-0, and with games remaining against Purdue, Maryland and Rutgers, Kevin Wilson's team has an excellent chance to make its first bowl since 2007. So that's fun.
But the fun debate we were having about the Big Ten getting two teams in the College Football Playoff might have taken a hit this week. Not because of anything a Big Ten team did but because Oregon got completely embarrassed by Utah. That takes some steam out of Michigan State's big win over the Ducks -- for now, anyway.
The big mover of the week was Michigan, which scored a huge win over BYU and whose stock improved because of Utah's showing (the Wolverines lost in Salt Lake City in a close game in the opener). Plus, Michigan's name value and the Jim Harbaugh appeal will make the Wolverines a team in demand come bowl season.
That led to a fall for Northwestern, through no fault of its own. The good news is when full-fledged conference play kicks off next week, we'll start to get a lot better idea of how these teams stack up.
College Football Playoff: Ohio State
Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual: Michigan State
Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl: Michigan
Outback Bowl: Iowa
National University Holiday Bowl: Wisconsin
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl: Northwestern
New Era Pinstripe Bowl: Minnesota
Foster Farms Bowl: Nebraska
Quick Lane Bowl: Penn State
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Indiana
