Penn State Football: Nittany Lions Help Bring Down Big Ten's Bowl Grade

With Michigan's overtime victory in the Sugar Bowl, the Big Ten finished the bowl season with a 4-6 record.

It was Michigan's first BCS game victory since winning the 2000 Orange Bowl (The Wolverines had lost three Rose Bowls in between BCS victories); the Big Ten picked up their fourth BCS game victory in three years.

That total will match the SEC's BCS win total, although the southern conference has the BCS championship wins to put them over the top.

Here is a rundown for the Big Ten's bowl performance this bowl season.

Best Win: Michigan State, Outback Bowl

While both schools from Michigan won overtime games against conference runner-ups, we'll give a slight nod to the Spartans, who put together a clutch drive to score a game-tying touchdown and blocked a field goal attempt to lock up a victory against an SEC team.

Michigan State trailed Georgia 16-0 at the half, and dreadful memories from last year's loss to Alabama were fresh on the minds of anyone watching, but 27 second half points put Georgia on the ropes, and a pair of Dan Conroy field goals gave the Spartans their first bowl victory since winning the 2001 Silicon Valley Bowl.

Honorable Mention: Michigan, Sugar Bowl

The Wolverines had just 184 yards of total offense but took advantage of Virginia Tech's mistakes in an overtime victory in New Orleans.

Worst Loss: Penn State, TicketCity Bowl

Penn State's season, perhaps appropriately enough, ended on a down note, as Houston quarterback Case Keenum ripped the Nittany Lions' defense to shreds from start to finish. 

After allowing 162 passing yards per game this season, Penn State gave up 532 passing yards to Keenum, who also threw three touchdowns in the game.

Houston had 600 yards of offense—nearly double the yardage allowed on a weekly basis by Penn State during the regular season.

Dishonorable Mention: Iowa, Insight Bowl

Oklahoma jumped out to a 21-0 lead heading into the fourth quarter, putting the Hawkeyes away after a brief rally.

The Biggest Game: Wisconsin, Rose Bowl (L)

When you are talking about the Big Ten, you are talking about the Rose Bowl.  Wisconsin became the fourth Big Ten team to lose consecutive Rose Bowls, joining 2003-04 Michigan, 1975-77 Michigan, and 1974-75 Ohio State.

To be fair, Wisconsin and Oregon were pretty even in the game, playing in the highest scoring first half in Rose Bowl history and going down to the wire, but the Badgers were scoreless in the fourth quarter and a questionable decision to try to spike the football with two seconds left on a running game clock ended up taking away a chance for a final play.

Results:

Rose Bowl: Oregon 45, Wisconsin 38

Sugar Bowl: Michigan 23, Virginia Tech 20

Capital One Bowl: South Carolina 30, Nebraska 13

Outback Bowl: Michigan State 33, Georgia 30

Gator Bowl: Florida 24, Ohio State 17

Insight Bowl: Oklahoma 31, Iowa 14

Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Texas A&M 33,Northwestern 22

Little Caesars Bowl: Purdue 37, Western Michigan 32

TicketCity Bowl: Houston 30, Penn State 14

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl: Illinois 20, UCLA 14

Conference-By-Conference Breakdown:

• 1-0 vs. ACC
• 0-2 vs. Big 12
• 0-1 vs. Conference USA
• 1-0 vs. MAC
• 1-1 vs. Pac 12
• 1-2 vs. SEC

Overall Grade: C-

The Big Ten went one-for-two in the big BCS games, including one in which they probably shouldn't have had a participant in the first place. 

A pair of overtime victories is nice, but the Big Ten went 0-2 against the Big 12 and 1-2 against the SEC.

The Big Ten gets a passing grade, but we're not going to get too excited about wins against the MAC, a Pac-12 team with a 6-8 record and a win against an ACC team that was noticeably overrated and played a sloppy game.

Kevin McGuire is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook and add him to your Google+ circle.