Michigan and Nebraska are headed to BCS bowls this season, according to AthlonSports.com’s 2012-2013 college football bowl projections, released Thursday. The publication puts the Wolverines in the Rose Bowl, versus Oregon, and the Huskers in the Fiesta Bowl, versus Oklahoma. In all, Athlon has eight Big Ten teams bowling. See all the matchups in this post.

I’m still on the road with the Big Ten Football Preview Tour and we’re in Indiana today. Tonight at 10 p.m. ET you can catch our preview show on Purdue. This tour is keeping me busy as I preview each stop and recap each practice - it’s all over here. I’m also providing updates and photos via Twitter. Don’t forget to check out my colleagues @BTNDaveRevsine, @GerryDiNardo, and @HowardGriffith, too. Now, let’s get to my Thursday links.

Throughout the seasons, I answer your Big Ten football and basketball questions in my Big Ten Mailbag. During the BTN summer bus tour, I’m fielding questions from stops along our 3,000-plus mile trek across Big Ten country. We see Purdue practice Wednesday, and excited Boiler fans already sent me their questions. Read all of my answers to your latest Big Ten questions in this post. If you have a question, send it to me in the box at the bottom of this post or tweet it to me (@BTNTomDienhart).

It’s been a fast handful of years, and on Aug. 30, BTN will officially celebrate its fifth anniversary. Crazy to think, huh? To celebrate – not to mention kill time before the season kicks off – I’m spotlighting some of the great football careers during our existence. I’ll do it in the mold of “Big Ten’s Best,” our popular countdown show that returns this fall for another season of ranking the best in Big Ten history. My second list ranks the top five running backs of the last five seasons, aka the BTN era.

Another preseason top 25 poll was released Wednesday afternoon, but unlike previous ones, it doesn’t have Michigan as the highest-ranked Big Ten team. It has the Wolverines ranked third among Big Ten teams, in fact. Evidently, SI.com is higher on Wisconsin and Michigan State, which it has ranked No. 6 and No. 8, respectively. Michigan comes in at No. 13, while Nebraska (No. 19) and Ohio State (No. 22) round out the Big Ten contingent.