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Indiana coach Tom Allen spoke with the media ahead of Saturday’s game against Michigan.
Stefan Krajisnik, Special for IndyStar
Story HighlightsMichigan at IU, 3:30 p.m. Saturday, ESPN
BLOOMINGTON – The Music City Bowl will have a representative in Bloomington this weekend for IU’s senior-day matchup with Michigan, as the Nashville-based game reviews the Hoosiers for possible postseason selection.
Scott Ramsey, president and CEO of the Music City Bowl, told IndyStar on Tuesday he plans to attend.
“They are in our mix,” Ramsey told IndyStar.
The Music City and Gator bowls enjoy a joint tie-in between the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Each bowl picks a team from one of those conferences to face an SEC opponent each year.
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Under its original terms, according to Ramsey, the agreement calls for each bowl to select three teams from each of those conferences over a six-year period. But the agreement also includes flexibility, Ramsey said, “to try to get the right teams in the right places in the right year.”
Indiana — a Big Ten school with a fan base centered along the I-65 corridor between Chicago and Nashville and energized by the program’s best season in more than a decade — holds understandable appeal. Ramsey said the Music City Bowl enjoyed the response it got from Purdue fans in terms of interaction and attendance last season, when the Boilermakers faced Auburne.
“Indiana’s had such a good year. I think having not been to a bowl the last two, from our standpoint, makes them even more attractive, because you’re hoping fans respond to us,” Ramsey said. “The regional travel factor has been really successful for us.”
The Big Ten bowl picture still looks muddied with two weeks remaining.
IU currently sits in a mix of teams with a good shot at finishing with 8-9 wins, one that also includes at minimum Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Hoosiers find their bowl picture distorted both by the sheer number of teams around them with similar records, and by the uncertainty at the top of the conference.
While what happens with the College Football Playoff and the New Year’s Six bowl selections will have a direct impact on Indiana’s bowl destination — it’s just all but impossible to know how at the moment.
Ohio State looks likely for the playoff, with at least one more Big Ten team guaranteed to wind up in the Rose Bowl assuming the Buckeyes make college football’s final four. Should that be Big Ten West frontrunner Minnesota, the bowl field beneath that group would then include Penn State.
But the Nittany Lions could also find a way into the New Year’s Six. So, too, could Wisconsin, if it gets a win this weekend against Purdue, a rivalry weekend victory at Minnesota and a good showing in the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis. That would move Minnesota down.
Selection requirements — which stop some bowls from selecting teams that have already appeared in their games at some point during the life of their current contracts — add another layer of complexity.
The Outback Bowl, for example, must feature five different teams over six seasons. In the last five years, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan have all appeared in the Tampa-based game, and Iowa has gone to the Outback Bowl twice in that span. Selection procedures would appear to rule out all of those teams.
There are layers like this for several bowls, and those are further complicated by the number of games remaining that will have a direct impact on both teams involved. IU-Michigan and Iowa-Illinois this weekend, and Minnesota-Wisconsin next weekend, are a few examples.
Like many other bowl chiefs, Ramsey will have to weigh a lot of factors in the coming weeks. Who else reaches bowl eligibility will matter. What kinds of matchups each bowl can set up will matter. These last two weeks will matter.
The Hoosiers still have games to play, but given their season thus far, their geographic proximity and more, this weekend’s trip allows Ramsey to get a better feel for Indiana.
“When you factor all that in,” Ramsey said, “specific back to Indiana, certainly the way they’re playing, we’ve got a lot of interest, and think they would be a great fit for us if they can keep playing well these last two weeks.”
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.