I'm not sure how anyone can justify us over Iowa for the Reliaquest. Unless Iowa only wants to go to Music City. Or maybe Michigan wants to go to Vegas instead of the Citrus.
Bowls/Playoff & Polls Thread
- Status
Ugh, if we get the draw against Tennessee for the Music City Bowl I may decline that trip.
ESPN.com projections:
-Bonagura: ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Vanderbilt
-Schlabach: Las Vegas Bowl vs. Utah
-Bonagura: ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Vanderbilt
-Schlabach: Las Vegas Bowl vs. Utah
Fully expect Luke to suit up … Kid wants to play …
PSU is obvious for the Pinstripe Bowl out of any Big Ten team.
The issue is more that Pitt is going to be relatively high in the ACC bowl selection order, so they may already be headed elsewhere before the Pinstripe gets to its ACC choice.
Bowl game vs Mizzou would be cool.
ILL and Tenn in Nashville seems kinda like a lock.
But I'm sure Los Vages has a special place in BBs heart.
But I'm sure Los Vages has a special place in BBs heart.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
Utah fans on Twitter are some of the most obnoxious and entitled on that app. I mean Michigan Man or USC levels.
I want the Las Vegas Bowl . What’s the point of going to a bowl and getting beat. Don’t want to Play Missouri, Tennessee or Vanderbilt in a bowl especially without Luke. Missouri, Tennessee and Vanderbilt are a definite loss. I will take my chances with Utah in Las Vegas
Epsilon
M tipping over
- Pdx
That’s what CBS is projecting for us.
College Football Bowl Projections 2025-26
CBS Sports experts select the college football teams they believe will make the NCAA National Semifinals at the end of the 2025 season and give projections for each game.
www.cbssports.com
I agree, he is a gamer. I expect Jacas to play as well. Maybe X might be back in some capacity.
Yes - that one is interesting. Maybe I could see Vegas taking us over Nebraska solely because of our record (as if it comes down to traveling fan bases, bowls love Nebraska as much or more than anyone). I’m a little surprised that a lot of this forum seems to prefer the Music City over Vegas when Vegas is the lead-in to the 12/31 CFP game and likely going to be better neutral territory. The longer distance from home is counterbalanced that there are proportionally a lot more Chicago/Midwestern transplants in the West compared to the potential competition. Even though Nashville also has a lot of Chicago transplants, it’s even more of an alumni hub for virtually every single SEC school (and heaven forbid if we have to play Tennessee there) and it would be a true road game against anyone except maybe Mizzou.
It would be really surprising that there isn’t a lot of mutual interest between Iowa and the ReliaQuest as Iowa hasn’t been to Tampa this decade and they also have a really strong track record for traveling fans. I feel like the only reason why Iowa wouldn’t go to Tampa is if they end up in the Citrus instead (and that would make little sense because the Citrus would rationally want Michigan and I would wager on ABC/ESPN getting Texas into that game despite Vandy being higher ranked).
My guess for us is Vegas or Nashville. It will all depend on how much Vegas wants the Nebraska traveling fan base to take them over our better team.
I'm happy for any bowl, but I'd love to see Nashville. I haven't been to a bowl since the Sugar, but my budget won't accommodate anything other than Nashville.
Vegas picks ahead of Nashville. So to get Nashville, Iowa and Nebraska would need to be picked ahead of us.
This is what I thought as well. I find it hard to believe we aren't in Vegas.
wouldn’t Vegas be interested in Wash or USC ?
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
In the second Altmyer Bowl. Let's win again.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
How do the traditional pac 12 bowl tie ins work? At what point are they allowed to pouch USC/Washington? If it is after Citrus Bowl, then it might be hard for Vegas Bowl to take either of them.
I will say that USC to Vegas seems like a great match.
They went last year against TAMU.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
This. There are complications working against Illinois for Vegas because the bowl agreements strongly deter rematches from the regular season. It's not impossible, just harder.
That's what I was thinking. If Vegas wants USC or Udub they would prefer someone other than us simply because we've played both.
Alamo Bowl gets the first pick of former Pac-12 teams, so USC is almost certainly going there. USC is the most desirable former non-playoff Pac-12 team from a bowl perspective.
Vegas gets the 2nd former Pac-12 pick and the consensus is that will be Utah. That’s why there’s a lot of confidence that one of Illinois, Iowa or Nebraska is going there as there would be no rematch issue.
Overall, I believe that the bowls with the former Pac-12 tie-ins get priority for those former Pac-12 teams until those tie-ins are exhausted. With Oregon going to the CFP and UCLA not being bowl eligible, we won’t see USC or Washington taking one of the other Big Ten bowl tie-ins.
- Status