DaytonDailyNews.com

Last season, as criticism continued that the Big Ten Conference was weakening, the members didn't help themselves by winning just two of their seven bowl games.

The conference faces the same fight this season but can prove itself beginning today when Purdue faces Central Michigan in the Motor City Bowl. It will be the first of eight bowl games featuring Big Ten teams against opponents from the Mid-American, Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Southeastern and Pac-10 conferences.

"I think you really carry the flag of your conference, regardless of which bowl game you're in," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "I know when we were playing in the Alamo Bowl, I thought we were carrying the flag versus the Big 12 in that particular case."

Of the eight Big Ten bowl participants, only Purdue and Penn State (against Texas A&M) are favored. Michigan (against Florida) and Illinois (against USC) are double-digit underdogs during a bowl season that many think will be unkind to the conference.

"That's one of the fun parts about the bowl games that you get, in most cases, two good conferences with one of their real good teams facing one another," Tressel said. "There's no doubt about it, you're playing for your own group, without a doubt, but you're playing for your conference as well."

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knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.