Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas

Week 8 of the college football season brought a number of shakeups near the top of the BCS standings, including major upsets in both the Big 12 and the Big Ten. Previously unbeaten Oklahoma and Wisconsin both lost Saturday night, leaving Kansas State as the last remaining unbeatens in those conferences.

Texas Tech, which last week was projected to play in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, traveled to Norman, Oklahoma and snapped the Sooners’ 39-game home winning streak to improve to 5-2 on the year. Penn State, last week’s pick to represent the Big Ten in the MCCBoT, improved to 7-1 with a 34-24 win over Northwestern.

The 2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas will feature teams from the Big 12 and Big Ten conferences and will kick off at 11:00 a.m. CST on Saturday, Dec. 31 and will be televised nationally on ESPN. The MCCBoT holds the fifth choice among non-BCS bowls in each conference.

After eight weeks of play, there are six bowl-eligible teams in the Big Ten and three in the Big 12. Three other schools can garner their sixth wins of the season this Saturday. Following are some projected Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas matchups from selected national media outlets:

ESPN.com (Mark Schlabach): Texas vs. Iowa
ESPN.com (Brad Edwards): Missouri vs. Penn State
CBSSports.com: Texas Tech vs. Ohio State

Following are the bowl-eligible teams from the Big 12 and Big Ten following Week 8:

Big 12 Conference

• Kansas State (7-0)
• Oklahoma State (7-0)
• Oklahoma (6-1)

Big Ten Conference

• Penn State (7-1)
• Michigan State (6-1)
• Wisconsin (6-1)
• Nebraska (6-1)
• Michigan (6-1)
• Illinois (6-2)

Following are the teams from each conference that can become bowl-eligible with a win this week:

Big 12 Conference

• Texas A&M (5-2) vs. Missouri
• Texas Tech (5-2) vs. Iowa State

Big Ten Conference

• Iowa (5-2) at Minnesota