Illinois and Northwestern are headed to bowl games. Here’s what to know.

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Illinois and Northwestern each accepted bowl bids Sunday afternoon, among 12 Big Ten teams playing in the postseason.

In addition to playoff participants Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon, also headed to bowl games are Washington (LA Bowl vs. Boise State), Minnesota (Rate Bowl vs. New Mexico), Penn State (Pinstripe Bowl vs. Clemson), USC (Alamo Bowl vs. TCU), Iowa (ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Vanderbilt), Michigan (Citrus Bowl vs. Texas) and Nebraska (Las Vegas Bowl vs. Utah).

Here’s a look at where the Illini and Wildcats will finish their seasons.

Illinois (8-4, 5-4 Big Ten)

Music City Bowl vs. Tennessee (8-4, 4-4 SEC)

When: 4:30 p.m. Dec. 30, ESPN.

Where: Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tenn.

Illinois outlook: A win against Tennessee — in the programs’ first meeting — would mark the first time in program history that Illinois recorded nine or more wins in back-to-back seasons.

The Illini had College Football Playoff hopes to start the season but lost to No. 1 Indiana, No. 2 Ohio State, Washington and Wisconsin. Their best wins came at home against No. 16 USC and Northwestern in the snow in the final regular-season game.

Now they’ll look to send their impactful class of seniors out on a high note, pending any opt-outs. That includes quarterback Luke Altmyer, an All-Big Ten honorable-mention selection who threw for 2,811 yards and 21 touchdowns with five interceptions this season.

Altmyer has led Illinois on six winning drives in the final minute or overtime in his three-year career in Champaign. He could join Nathan Scheelhaase as the only Illini starting QBs to win two bowl games.

Illinois coach Bret Bielema said he has had conversations with some players about whether they would participate and would share announcements at a later date.

Tennessee outlook: The Volunteers lost to No. 3 Georgia, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Alabama and No. 14 Vanderbilt.

They were led by quarterback Joey Aguilar, an Appalachian State transfer who threw for 3,444 yards and 24 touchdowns with 10 interceptions. Wide receiver Chris Brazzell had 62 catches for 1,017 yards and nine touchdowns.

He said it: “Just the buzz and the energy around our program. Obviously the offseason last year, I had a lot more coming at me from people who were interested in doing stories on us about our guys. It takes people a while to get used to Illinois being good in football. Because of that, the more we can sustain it, that’s probably the biggest deal.” — Bielema on the value of playing in another bowl game after a win last year over South Carolina

Northwestern (6-6, 4-5 Big Ten)

GameAbove Sports Bowl vs. Central Michigan (7-5, 5-3 MAC)

When: Noon Dec. 26, ESPN.

Where: Ford Field, Detroit.

Northwestern outlook: The Wildcats rode a strong defense to their second bowl appearance in three seasons under coach David Braun. After a four-game winning streak, they lost four of their last five games but eked out a victory over Minnesota on Nov. 22 at Wrigley Field to earn the bowl berth.

They had seven defensive players earn All-Big Ten mentions, including second-team safety Robert Fitzgerald and third-team linebacker Mac Uihlein.

Northwestern has won five straight bowl games: the 2016 Pinstripe Bowl, 2017 Music City Bowl, 2018 Holiday Bowl, 2021 Citrus Bowl and 2023 Las Vegas Bowl.

Central Michigan outlook: The Chippewas played one Big Ten opponent this year — Sept. 13 at Michigan — and lost 63-3. But they did enough in Mid-American Conference play to finish fifth.

This is Central Michigan’s first bowl game since 2021 and it comes under first-year coach Matt Drinkall. The Chippewas held opponents to fewer than 20 points in each of their seven wins and also forced at least one turnover in all 12 games.

He said it: “The reality around college football right now is there are so many other things going on, it can be really easy to become distracted. And this senior group, this veteran group, this leadership group won’t allow that to happen. This is an opportunity that we’re excited about. We honor by the way we prep. And ultimately we’re prioritizing making sure we’re at our absolute best to make sure we’re prepared for a really good CMU team and finish this season off the right way with a win.

“It was shown in the way those guys modeled themselves this past week in practice. We didn’t even know who our opponent was. We didn’t know where we were going. But this is something this program takes seriously, our players take seriously.” — Braun on his veterans preparing for the game

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