What is the likeliest bowl matchup for each Big Ten team?

We already went through the scenarios on where Ohio State will end up in its College Football Playoff bowl game. In short, it's the Rose Bowl if the Buckeyes beat Indiana in the Big Ten Championship Game, and the Cotton or Orange Bowl if they lose (with the Orange Bowl having slightly higher odds). For Indiana, the setup is exactly the same. But what about the rest of the Big Ten? Where are they looking at traveling for bowls? And who are their likeliest opponents?

Projecting bowl games was always a bit more of an art than science. Now, though, it's nearly impossible. Until a few years ago, conference bowl contracts gave bowls a draft order. The bowls, in order, selected the available team from the conference that they found most attractive, whether due to expected ticket sales, TV viewers, or however else they saw fit. Back then, projecting bowl games meant going down the line and figuring out how bowls will draft teams.

It doesn't work like that anymore, though, at least for the Big Ten and SEC. Now, mostly, the bowl matchups are created by some type of collaboration. (There are several contractual steps in the process, with the bowls submitting preferences and the conferences making selections after the television partners make their desires known. But, for the most part, ESPN--which airs almost all of the bowl games--usually gets close to what it wants.) The Citrus Bowl still has the contract to select the first non-Playoff team, though, so there's some remnant of the old system.

A whopping 12 Big Ten teams are going to play in bowl games this year. Which is actually the perfect number, because the Big Ten will have 12 bowl spots to fill this year (three Playoff teams, seven Big Ten contract bowls, and USC and Washington get to fill former Pac 12 contract spots). So, let's go through them. I think it will be easier to go bowl by bowl rather than team by team. Let's look a the Big Ten bowls and who they'll probably take.

College Football Playoff: Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon

This is pretty easy this year, as there are no Big Ten teams on the Playoff bubble. I mentioned where Ohio State and Indiana are probably going in the intro. And Oregon won't be getting a bye, so the Ducks will be playing their first bowl game as hosts in Eugene, probably as the No. 5 or No. 6 seed.

Citrus Bowl: Michigan vs Texas

This one seems like a no-brainer. The bowl has to take a team within one win of the best available team, so the only options are Michigan, USC, and Iowa. Iowa went two years ago, and USC is supposed to go to a Pac 12 bowl. Maybe the Citrus Bowl pushes to try to get USC, who hasn't played there in almost 40 years, but Michigan is a huge draw and makes much more sense.

As for likeliest opponent, it really depends on how many SEC teams make the Playoff. If Alabama gets pummeled by Georgia in the SEC Championship Game and misses the Playoff, the Citrus will take Alabama. If Alabama does make it, the Citrus Bowl will probably go for Texas, assuming Texas doesn't make the Playoff. Vanderbilt is also an option, but Texas is just a much bigger draw.

Music City Bowl: Illinois vs Tennessee

The SEC has a real problem. It has ten bowl teams, (at least) five of which are going to the Playoff. Which means that options for the SEC in this game are rough. And since getting the best matchup is imperative to ESPN and to the bowl, finding the right Big Ten team means finding the right matchup for the SEC team. The most likely SEC team in this game is Tennessee.

Iowa is probably the best matchup for Tennessee in this game, and is one of the top available Big Ten teams, but the Hawkeyes played in this game last year. That leaves Illinois, Minnesota, and Washington as the options. Washington gets a Pac 12 bowl, and Minnesota would probably be at least a two-touchdown underdog against Tennessee. That leaves us with Iowa.

ReliaQuest Bowl: Iowa vs Vanderbilt

Again, this depends on what the best matchup is to get for the SEC team left. I'm thinking that the ReliaQuest Bowl (formerly the Outback Bowl) will be happy to take Vanderbilt, which has never been to this game before. It does leave the Texas Bowl in a bit of a pickle, but that's an issue for a different time.

So, who will be the best Big Ten team to face Vanderbilt? Quite honestly, the answer is not Iowa. The correct answer is probably USC. It would not surprise me if ESPN made a deal with the Las Vegas Bowl (which is owned by ESPN) to get USC out of the Pac 12 contract spot and into this game to face Vanderbilt. But I can't bank on predicting on ESPN self-dealing its bowl teams, so I'll go with the second-best option for this article, and that's Iowa. But Iowa fans could easily see their team in the Las Vegas Bowl instead and USC in this spot.

Music City Bowl: Nebraska vs LSU

This is the last of the Big Ten vs SEC bowl matchups, and it's getting tough to fill. I'm assuming Missouri ends up in the Texas Bowl, and I don't think that ESPN will give up an SEC team from this game. The SEC won't fill all its spots, so one of its better bowls will need a replacement team. Maybe ESPN gets some matchups moved around to get something better, but this matchup is good enough that they probably won't have to.

LSU is the only real choice left assuming other bowl games get the top-tier SEC teams. And of the Big Ten teams that match up well with LSU, the choices are really Minnesota and Nebraska. I think that Nebraska is the better draw for a big-name matchup, but Minnesota could easily end up in this spot, too.

Rate Bowl: Penn State vs Arizona State

Penn State provides an interesting conundrum for bowls this year. The Nittany Lions are a blue blood team and fanbase who went through a bad season but are probably still excited for this bowl anyway. It means that bowls that don't usually get a team like Penn State can go for Penn State. I'm thinking that will be the Rate Bowl this year.

The Big 12 has a lot of teams with better records, so whoever faces Penn State will be playing down, technically. But half of the Big 12's teams went 8-4 or better, so that's a problem the conference will have in lots of bowl matchups. I was thinking that Houston or Iowa State, but Arizona State makes a drop more sense when you go through the entire Big 12 lineup.

Pinstripe Bowl: Minnesota vs Louisville

The Pinstripe Bowl generally likes to get teams that aren't too far away, and Minnesota fits that bill (barely). The Golden Gophers played in this game three years ago, which might make Northwestern a better choice. But given that the ACC team that makes the most sense for the bowl is Louisville, Minnesota (at 7-5) provides a better matchup for the 8-4 Cardinals than 6-6 Northwestern does.

GameAbove Sports Bowl: Northwestern vs Ohio

Northwestern makes the most sense, by far, for this game. Penn State also has potential, so if the Nittany Lions don't end up at the Rate Bowl, they could be here. But Penn State has way too much talent and would be three-score favorites over even the top MAC teams. I can't see ESPN going for that type of matchup, so Northwestern it is.

After the way last year's game went and the excitement around it, there's a decent chance that the game tries to get Toledo for a repeat. (Seriously, the game was insane.) But assuming the game doesn't want the same team in back-to-back years, the Bobcats make plenty of sense.

Las Vegas Bowl: USC vs Arizona

This is a tricky won. The Las Vegas Bowl is supposed to be Big Ten vs Pac 12. USC isn't supposed to get a Big Ten bowl; it's supposed to get a Pac 12 bowl. However, there are only five Pac 12 bowl spots and six former Pac 12 teams that qualified for bowls (plus Washington State). So I think it makes sense for both the bowl and the Big Ten and Big 12 to take USC as a Big Ten team and create a former conference matchup with Arizona.

Holiday Bowl: Washington vs SMU

I'll be honest; this matchup could just as easily be the Sun Bowl. There's really no difference between the two. Both get a pretty good ACC team against a former Pac 12 team. The only former Pac 12 team left from the Big Ten is Washington. Washington is a really good team, so the only real option are the top-level Pac 12 bowls. So the only three options are the Holiday Bowl, the Sun Bowl, and the Alamo Bowl. The Alamo Bowl will probably want USC, but I'm assuming the Las Vegas Bowl gets USC so the Alamo takes Arizona instead.

The Holiday and Sun Bowls are completely interchangeable. One of those two bowls will get Washington against a good ACC team. Georgia Tech is also an option, but I went with SMU because of geography. And I chose the Holiday Bowl because it's a slightly closer trip for Washington (though it is slightly further for SMU).

This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Likeliest bowl destination for each Big Ten team