With the first week of November down and just three weeks of the regular season remaining, college football's bowl season is right around the corner.
And just as it did a year ago, when Ohio State won the inaugural College Football Playoff and Michigan State and Wisconsin won New Year's Day games, the Big Ten figures to play a prominent role in this winter's postseason slate.
Through 10 weeks, seven Big Ten teams already find themselves bowl-eligible, four of which remain in contention for this year's College Football Playoff. With four weeks remaining until the announcement of this year's bowl pairings, five additional Big Ten teams still have a chance to get to the six wins required to become postseason eligible, which gives the conference a shot at having double-digit teams appear in bowl games for the second consecutive year.