Big Ten record in bowl games: How has the conference fared in 2023?

Though the SEC gets the majority of the headlines in college football, there's no question that the Big Ten is one of the premier conferences in the sport. In fact, we saw that fully last year when the Big Ten had two representatives in the College Football Playoff.

It was only one CFP representative for the Big Ten in the 2023-24 bowl season, but the Michigan Wolverines earned the No. 1 overall seed after an undefeated season complete with a conference title.

How strong has the conference been in bowl season thus far, though? Let's see what the Big Ten record in bowl games has been as we come to the end of the postseason.

Big Ten record in bowl games for 2023-24 postseason

With Michigan topping Alabama in the Rose Bowl CFP semifinal, the Big Ten holds a 5-4 record in bowl season. The conference started out hot with three straight wins to begin the postseason for the conference, but saw things come back to earth around the New Year's Six games, including a couple of games that were not NY6 contests but were played around the holiday.

Big Ten bowl game schedule and results for 2023-24

• SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 23): Northwestern 14, Utah 7
• Quick Lane Bowl (Dec. 26): Minnesota 30, Bowling Green 24
• Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl (Dec. 28): Rutgers 31, Miami 24
• Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (Dec. 29): Missouri 14, Ohio State 3
• Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (Dec. 30): Ole Miss 38, Penn State 25
• TransPerfect Music City Bowl (Dec. 30): Maryland 31, Auburn 13
• ReliaQuest Bowl (Jan. 1): LSU 35, Wisconsin 31
• Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (Jan. 1): Tennessee 35, Iowa 0
• CFP Semifinal - Rose Bowl (Jan. 1): Michigan 27, Alabama 20 (OT)
• CFP National Championship Game (Jan. 8): Michigan vs. TBD, 7:30 p.m. ET

Despite having a .500 record in bowl games prior to the CFP Semifinal matchup, the way in which the Big Ten earned the conference's four wins is more than a bit surprising.

Outside of Michigan, the next three best teams in the conference would pretty undebatably have been Ohio State, Penn State and offensively-challenged Iowa. Yet all three of those teams lost in bowl season. Yes, part of that was due to opt-outs, particularly in the case of the Buckeyes, but it was still shocking to see that Rutgers, Northwestern and Minnesota were the ones to contribute to the bowl win tally.