The bowl picture is firming up, but the Big Ten may feel a squeeze if it gets 10 bowl eligible teams, as the conference has just eight bowl slots guaranteed. A win by Purdue at Indiana would give the league 10 bowl eligible squads, meaning the Big Ten would need other leagues to fail to have enough bowl eligible teams to accommodate all of their schools.

Next up on our Big Ten season previews are the Boilermakers, who lost stars E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson but return the other popular Baby Boiler, Robbie Hummel. What’s a reasonable range of expectations for Matt Painter’s team? We have them finishing in third place.

Two legendary conferences. Two historic nights. One exclusive network.For the first time in their long, storied histories, two of America’s premier collegiate athletic conferences, the Pac-12 and the Big Ten, present their inaugural football championship games, live and in prime time on FOX.

Saturday is still five days away. But it isn’t too early to sneak a peek at the matchups. There’s a lot riding on the line for the last weekend of regular-season action. Penn State and Wisconsin will play to decide who will advance to play Michigan State in the Big Ten title game; Purdue is trying to become bowl eligible; and it’s Ohio State-Michigan week. The storyline: The Wolverines are trying to end seven years of misery and enhance their BCS at-large resume.

On Monday night, the finalists for several prestigious end-of-the-year college football awards were released. Two Big Ten players, Penn State defensive tackle Devon Still and Wisconsin running back Montee Ball, made the cut. Still is up for the Bednarik Trophy and the Outland Trophy, while Ball is in the running for the Doak Walker Award. The awards will be given out during “The Home Depot College Football Awards Show” on Dec. 8. Watch our interview with Ball from Monday night’s Pulse now.