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As we entered the 2010 football season, there was quite a bit of change for the Big Ten Bowls. Out went the Alamo. In came the Gator. Goodbye Champs. Hello Dallas Football Classic (until it became the Ticket City Bowl). 2011 is a quieter year for bowls. The Big Ten will not be changing its affiliations this season. However, that doesn't mean that all will be the same. The Texas Bowl, in which Illinois beat Baylor last season, is changing its name to the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. "Wait," you say, "Isn't there already a Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte? How will I ever keep these straight?" Fear not. The old Meineke Car Care Bowl is now the Belk Bowl. So there will still only be one Bowl that cares about your car. And, that bowl will pit the 5th non-BCS selection from the Big Ten against the 5th non-BCS selection from the Big 12. Off Tackle Empire's January Bowl Projections had Michigan facing Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl. At the conclusion of Spring Practices, we'll update our bowl projections, and we'll find out who's slated to be playing in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas.

Not to be confused with the bowl formerly known as the "Meineke Car Care Bowl (of Charlotte)" ... now Belk Bowl, where BC has a perfect 2-0 record.

Stewart Mandel (SI) is projecting that the Insight Bowl will select Iowa State to play against Minnesota in Tempe. (The number of snowbirds and "native" Arizonans with ties to IA and MN may be what is so gosh-darned attractive to the Fiesta/Insight Bowl committee donchuhknow.) Meanwhile he projects Missouri to the Texas Bowl to play Navy. If that indeed happens, after the sting of the glove-slap to our collective pride wears off, once again we will probably have been done a backhanded favor. As invested as we are in Texas high school football, we should probably never cry about playing there if we are stuck in a lower-tier bowl. We gain nothing by going to Tempe that we don't get by going to Houston. Besides, I don't have the NFL Network.

The other shoe dropped after yesterday's news that the Pac-10 snuck into the Alamo bowl by offering their #2 team. Rittenberg claims we'll see Big Ten #4 vs. ACC #3 in the Gator Bowl on January 1st, 2010. In related news, the Big Ten may drop the Champ Sports tie-in for a spot in the Texas Bowl.