According to college football reporter Brett McMurphy, the Holiday Bowl was planning on taking 7-5 Iowa over 9-3 Northwestern but Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and the league have been pushing back against that decision.
A couple of days ago I was told the Holiday Bowl was going to bypass Northwestern (9-3) for Iowa (7-5). Unlike other conferences, the Big Ten doesn’t have any requirements prohibiting bowls from skipping a team with one more win than another school. However, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany contacted the bowl to express his thoughts about the bowl bypassing a team with two fewer wins (he did not approve of this), so it appears Northwestern will be headed to the Holiday Bowl, marking its first California bowl since the 1995 Rose Bowl.