Stranger and stranger: Penn State to the Alamo Bowl.

The BCS selection show is over 48 hours away, but the second of the Big Ten's six non-BCS bowl bids has been offered and accepted: Penn State will play in the Alamo Bowl. The only explanation I can imagine is that the Capital One Bowl has made clear that it will take Illinois if the Illini are available and Michigan otherwise. Compared to the Outback, this one makes a bit more sense. Michigan was in San Antonio a couple of years ago (the dramatic finish against Nebraska described by Mike Tirico's prepubescent shrieking) and this doesn't seem like a year when many U-M fans would want to travel to Texas. I still think it's odd that the Outback didn't want Michigan, given their five year absence from Tampa and the number of Midwestern transplants in Florida. I would guess that we won't see any more movement until Sunday night. Michigan will be playing in the Citrus Bowl Stadium, either in the most prestigious of the non-BCS bowls or in a fairly new, unknown, lower tier event on a work night. Yet, if the Wolverines do play on January 1, it will come to pass because Michigan's archrival will be playing for the BCS title for the third time in six years.