The B1G's stellar bowl record got me wondering how much credit it will actually get. The most obvious measure will be the final polls, which will come out after the national championship.

MSU is currently ranked 16th. The Spartans blew out Washington State in impressive fashion. Can they climb into the Top 10? It's not unrealistic if a few chips fall their way.

Let's begin by assuming each of the four CFP teams all remain in the Top 10 since none of them will have more than two losses. Since the playoffs began, no Final Four team has been ranked lower than 6th in the final polls.

Ohio State, Wisconsin and PSU are currently ranked 5th, 6th and 9th, respectively, and all beat Top 11 teams in their bowl games. Consider them locks, which means seven current Top 10 teams will presumably stay in the top 10. That leaves three spots. 

Let's assume whoever wins between #7 Auburn and #12 UCF will be in the Top 10, while the other will slide. There's no way Auburn loses four games, including its last two and stays in the Top 10. #13 Stanford lost to #15 TCU, which is now 11-3, so let's assume TCU slides in as team #9.

#8 USC is 11-3, #10 Miami is 10-3, and #11 Washington is 10-3 but all lost their bowl games...and to B1G teams to boot. Stanford is 9-5 and lost its last two games.

That leaves the 10th spot to #16 MSU, #14 Notre Dame, and #17 LSU, which play each other in the Citrus Bowl. The winner will be 10-3, same as MSU but if it's ND, they'll have a 38-18 regular season road win @MSU to their credit.

If ND wins, I can see the Irish getting the nod by virtual of their head-to-head win over MSU, but if it's LSU, can the B1G's stellar bowl season impress enough voters to catapult MSU six spots and put four teams in the Top 10? Or will regionalism play a role and put prospectively a 4th SEC team in the Top 10 if both Auburn and LSU win?