-- Central Florida's loss in the Conference USA championship game has the Knights staying close to home for the holidays against Ball State in the Beef `O' Brady's Bowl.
UCF (9-4) will make the 100-mile trek west from Orlando to St. Petersburg to face the Cardinals, who will take a six-game winning streak in the Dec. 21 matchup at Tropicana Field.
Ball State (9-3) received its first postseason berth since appearing in the 2008 GMAC Bowl, filling a slot for the Big East, which didn't have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill the league's commitments.
UCF lost the Conference USA championship game 33-27 in overtime on Saturday. Ball State went 6-2 in the Mid-American Conference.
The teams are former MAC rivals, with the Cardinals winning two of three meetings while the Knights were in the league from 2002 to 2004. They last met on Nov. 13, 2004, when Ball State rallied for a 21-17 victory at home.
"Ball State is a hot team right now winning six straight, including a road win over conference foe Toledo, which was ranked in the Top 25 at the time," bowl executive director Brett Dulaney said.
The Cardinals, who have never won a bowl game, scored at least 30 points in 10 of 12 games.
UCF is headed to Tropicana Field -- home of major league baseball's Tampa Bay Rays -- for the second time under coach George O'Leary. The Knights lost to Rutgers in the 2009 St. Petersburg Bowl.
A victory over Ball State would enable the Knights to finish with at least 10 wins for the fourth time in program history.
-- No. 19 Michigan has been invited to represent the Big Ten in the Outback Bowl against South Carolina of the Southeastern Conference..
The Wolverines (8-4) and Gamecocks (10-2) were selected Sunday.
It's the second trip in five seasons to the New Year's Day game for No. 11 South Carolina, which lost 31-10 to Iowa in Tampa in January 2009.
Michigan hasn't played in the Outback in 10 years. The Wolverines beat Florida 38-30 to conclude the 2002 season and faced Alabama in two previous trips to Tampa.
-- Nebraska will play Georgia in the Capital One Bowl Jan. 1 at the Florida Citrus Bowl.
The Cornhuskers, who lost to Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game,
are appearing the Capital One Bowl for the second straight season. They
fell to South Carolina in last season's matchup.
Nebraska (10-3) will be making its 49th bowl appearance, coming off its third 10-win season in four years.
Georgia, from the Southeastern Conference, is making its sixth
appearance in the Capital One Bowl, having last beaten Michigan State in
2009.
The Bulldogs (11-2) won the SEC East for the second consecutive year, but fell to Alabama in the conference championship game.
This will mark the second time Georgia and Nebraska have met. Nebraska defeated the Bulldogs 45-6 in the 1969 Sun Bowl.
-- Rutgers and Virginia Tech will square off in the Russell Athletic Bowl on Dec. 28.
The Scarlet Knights (9-3), representing the Big East, are making their first appearance in an Orlando bowl. The co-Big East champions have a five-game bowl win streak, tied for the nation's longest.
Rutgers is looking for its first double-digit win season since 2006. Next season will be its last in the Big East, after announcing plans to join the Big Ten in 2014.
The Hokies (6-6), from the Atlantic Coast Conference, lost twice to Big East teams this season. They fell 35-17 to Pittsburgh and 27-24 to Cincinnati.
Virginia Tech and Rutgers were Big East foes before the Hokies left for the ACC in 2004.
Virginia Tech holds an 11-3 all-time edge against Rutgers.
-- Northwestern and Mississippi State will play in the Gator Bowl.
The Wildcats (9-3) and Bulldogs (8-4) accepted invitations Sunday,
giving the New Year's Day bowl a less-than-marquee matchup. The Gator
Bowl pitted Florida and Ohio State last season, an intriguing matchup
that featured Urban Meyer's former team against his future team.
This time, the bowl wasn't nearly as fortunate.
Sure, Northwestern is playing on New Year's Day for the third time in
four years. But the Wildcats aren't known for filling stadiums. And
Mississippi State is back in Jacksonville for the second time in three
years. In 2010, coach Dan Mullen and the Bulldogs were one of the
surprises of the Southeastern Conference. This time, though, MSU comes
in having lost four its last five games.
