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With no game this weekend, Penn State fans want to know just where the Nittany Lions will be playing this bowl season. They also want to know just how much of an impact the recent scandal will play in to the decision-making by a number of bowl games.
Jerry Palm, who does an excellent job predicting the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament field on an annual basis, projects Penn State to be playing in the Meineke Car Care of Texas Bowl in Houston on Dec. 31.
Palm projects Penn State to face Texas A&M, who is the last team Penn State faced when it played in the state of Texas. The Nittany Lions and Aggies met in the Alamo Bowl in 2007. Of course, Texas A&M and Penn State also met in 1999 Alamo Bowl, which has been cast in a negative light lately with a tie to the ugly Jerry Sandusky scandal.
Mark Sclabach, of ESPN, projects the Nittany Lions to be playing in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona on Dec. 30, against the Texas Longhorns. Penn State last played Texas in the 1997 Fiesta Bowl, winning 38-15.
Looking over the bowl lineup for the Big Ten, the Insight Bowl looks like the most realistic possibility. Consider the teams with a better record than Penn State in the conference. Wisconsin and Michigan State are each 10-2 and will meet in the first Big Ten Championship Game this weekend.
The winner will head to the Rose Bowl while the loser will likely be a leading candidate for the Capital One Bowl, who gets the first pick of Big Ten teams. While the Spartans were thumped in the game last year by Alabama, the Capital One Bowl has said that they would not hesitate to invite Michigan State for a second straight year if available.
Michigan is also 10-2 and they are on the verge of being eligible for a BCS at-large bid. They are likely to move up at least one spot, to become officially eligible for a BCS invite this weekend with Michigan State and Georgia just ahead of them.
The Badgers are right behind them, so one Big Ten team will be in front of the Wolverines at 11-2. Unless Georgia stuns LSU in the SEC Championship Game, Michigan should creep in to the mix. That would be good news for the Big Ten because Michigan would have an excellent shot at being invited by a BCS bowl game.
Why? They are 10-2, have one of the top brand names that will get people to tune in and they have a dynamic quarterback in Denard Robinson. Having Michigan in a big bowl game would be something people would watch, and bowls know that. If they are available, what bowl would select Kansas State ahead of Michigan?
If the Big Ten gets two teams in to the BCS, and the Big Ten championship runner-up in the Capital One Bowl, all eyes are set on the remaining New Year's Day bowl games (which are played on Jan. 2 this season).
The Outback Bowl would likely invite Nebraska for the first time, now that the Huskers are a Big Ten team. The Gator Bowl appears set on setting up an Ohio State versus Florida matchup, taking advantage of the Urban Meyer story line as its draw.
At that point it looks to come down to the two bowl games projected by CBS and ESPN. The potential candidates for the bowls would appear to be Penn State, at 9-3, and Iowa, at 7-5. The Insight Bowl would be likely to get the first choice between the two.
Unless the scandal is a deciding factor for the Insight Bowl, which is busy cleaning up its own image with a recent scandal tied to the Fiesta Bowl (the two are operated and managed by the same group), it should be an easy pick between Penn State and Iowa.
Penn State has a fantastic history in Tempe with the Fiesta Bowl and helped put it on the map in the bowl season, and the Nittany Lions own a head-to-head win against Iowa this season.
Penn State will learn their bowl destination Sunday night when all of the bowl pairings are made official. Will it be the Insight Bowl, or will there be a surprise in store for the Nittany Lions?
Follow Kevin McGuire's Penn State coverage on Twitter.
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