Where Will Wolverines End Up For New Years?

With one more week in the regular season to go, U-M is one game behind Penn State and Ohio State for the Big Ten Championship. With U-M playing OSU Saturday, and PSU playing MSU, what are the scenarios for the Wolverines finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th in the conference? And what are the Bowl possibilities?

Here is the picture right now:

--- Penn State 6-1, 9-1
--- Ohio State 6-1, 8-2
--- Michigan 5-2, 7-3
--- Wisconsin finished with Big Ten schedule at 5-3, 8-3 (they still play at Hawaii)

Going team by team, here are the possibilities:

Penn State 6-1. U-M has beaten the Nits, and the Nits have beaten OSU. If PSU wins at a fading-fast MSU Saturday, the Nits are Big Ten Champs (co if OSU beats U-M) and get the guaranteed BCS bid. The Sparties are falling apart (since losing to U-M on Oct. 1 and then OSU the next week, they have gone 1-3, beating only Indiana while losing to Northwestern, Purdue and Minnesota) and may not give PSU much of a game ... although MSU has the incentive of needing to win in order to be bowl eligible.

Ohio State is 6-1. OSU lost to PSU, and of course the Nuts plays U-M Saturday. In the unlikely event of a PSU loss, then an OSU win sends OSU to the BCS. If OSU loses to U-M and PSU loses as well -- see below.

Michigan is 5-2. U-M has already beaten PSU. So:
--- if PSU somehow manages to lose to MSU, and U-M beats OSU, then U-M, PSU and OSU are tied as Big Ten Champs at 6-2 with U-M winning the head-to head and going to the BCS bowl game;
--- if U-M beats OSU but PSU wins as well, then U-M and OSU tie for 2nd in the Big Ten at 6-2, with U-M getting the #2 Big Ten bowl bid (Capital One, formerly Citrus, Bowl) by virtue of winning the head to head.
--- if U-M loses to OSU then they drop to 5-3 in the Big Ten, tied with Wisconsin for 3rd/4th. Since U-M lose to Wisconsin in their head to head, U-M would get the #4 Big Ten bowl, the Alamo Bowl.

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By the way, does Michigan have injury worries going into OSU Week? Click here to find out from our premium message board, The GoBlueWolverine Victor's Club: (non) Injuries