Big Ten Arrow Up, Pac-10 Arrow Down, ACC Up Slightly in Bowl Action

There are still a number of big bowl games to come today and in this coming week, but at this point it's easy to draw some conclusions about what certain conferences did or didn't do with their post-season opportunities.

The arrow is pointing up for the Big Ten with Ohio State's big win over Oregon in the Rose Bowl, Penn State's topping LSU in the Capitol One, and Wisconsin stopping Miami 20-14 on the Champs' Bowl. As a point of comparison, last year the Big Ten struggled with a 1-6 bowl mark, the lone victory turned in by Iowa. The conference stubbed their collective toes in two games decided by a total of three points this past week. Northwestern lost to Auburn by two and Minnesota finished the year 6-7 by losing to Iowa State. The Midwesterners still have two games to go--in tonight's Alamo Bowl Michigan State tangles with Mike Leach-less Texas Tech and on the Orange Bowl stage Iowa takes on Georgia Tech this Tuesday night.

The arrow is pointing down on the Pac-10. The west coast conference schools finished the bowl season a disappointing 2-5. Their lone wins were UCLA having to furiously comeback to beat Temple (believe that?), 30-21, and USC bested Boston College 24-13. In a very entertaining Rose Bowl Oregon's point-a-minute offense was kept in check and fell to Ohio State 26-17 . From the bad news department, the conference took two real solid body shots delivered by the Mountain West Conference, a non-BCS league, but, nevertheless, one that should be. Cal was popped by Utah 37-27, and BYU ripped Oregon State 44-20. One of the better bowl games featured Stanford vs. Oklahoma in the Sun Bowl. The Big 12 Sooners beat the Cardinal, 31-27. But, the game that took a big swipe at the Pac 10's power ranking was another Big 12 team, Nebraska, totally dominating Arizona 33-0 in the Holiday Bowl.

The ACC arrow is slightly up, but their final game pitting their GT Yellowjackets against Iowa in the Orange will determine the conference's finish. They are 4-3 right now, but the only game that was a mild upset was Florida State sending venerable head coach Bobby Bowden out with class in a 33-21 win over West Virginia. Other wins for the conference were Auburn edging Northwestern in overtime, Clemson topping Kentucky 21-13, and Virginia Tech handling Tennessee impressively, 37-14. The ACC didn't get any help from North Carolina who lost to Pitt 19-17, and the previously mentioned games with Miami losing to Wisconsin and BC dropping their contest to USC.

By the end of next week we'll have a new national champion and the final wrap-up on other conferences like the Big East, Big 12 and SEC. Stay tuned.