Trying to get some Insight on Husker bowl picture
While Notre Dame's loss on Saturday was viewed as a positive by Husker fans (seemingly putting Nebraska in prime position for a Gator Bowl bid), it's also got me trying to figure out what exactly might happen to Nebraska if it were to lose Friday.
I'm starting to wonder if the Insight Bowl comes back into play if Ralphie stuns Nebraska. Just consider that the Gator would probably not be inclined to take a 7-5 Nebraska team and neither would the Alamo Bowl. I don't think Nebraska can slip past the Sun Bowl, but there's a slim chance.
From my understanding, the Sun Bowl has to take a Big 12 team if the Gator doesn't. But if NU did lose Friday and the Gator selected another Big 12 team, suddenly the Sun might be presented with the option of taking Nebraska or Notre Dame. In that case, you wonder if Notre Dame isn't the pick by the Sun. Notre Dame has a strong representation of supporters down that way and bowls have that whole Notre Dame fascination no matter how bad the Irish are. (That would put NU on the Insight Bowl's radar.)
It gets kind of complicated here, however, because the Sun can't take the Irish over a Big East team if the conference produces at least six seven-win teams. Rutgers has a chance to become that sixth team this week. So if it's between Nebraska and a Big East team for the Sun, you got to think the pick is NU.
Nebraska's best bet: Take care of biz Friday, keep an eye open Saturday to make sure USC handles Notre Dame, and a trip to Jacksonville seems very likely.
Stewart Mandel did a good breakdown of the bowl situation for SI.com.
He projects Nebraska in the Gator Bowl against Georgia Tech. He has Florida State in the Chick-fil-A Bowl (formerly the Peach Bowl). The Chick-fil-A gets to pick its ACC team ahead of the Gator. It distresses me to a mild extent that the Peach Bowl is now called that but I'll try to carry on.
ESPN's "experts" put Nebraska in the Insight Bowl or Alamo. As shown here, the Insight is a real longshot, so take that opinion for what it's worth. And CBS Sportsline has the same Husker projection I'd make right now: NU versus Florida State in the Gator. We'll know soon enough.