Outback Bowl CEO Jim McVay already can fill in half of the picture for his Jan. 1 game in Tampa.

"We know what we're doing on the SEC side," McVay told ESPN.com on Wednesday morning. "I'm assuming, like everybody else, that Alabama and Florida are going to be in BCS bowls. And if that happens, we're going to take Auburn."

The other half of the bowl picture, the part involving the Big Ten, remains a bit hazy right now.

Wisconsin and Northwestern are the two Big Ten squads getting the most attention from McVay and his fellow committee members. The Big Ten likely will get two teams into BCS bowls, with both Iowa and Penn State in the mix for an at-large berth. The team that doesn't get the at-large berth almost certainly will go to the Capital One Bowl, leaving the Badgers and Wildcats as chief contenders for the Outback.

There are some interesting dynamics involving Wisconsin and Northwestern:

• Wisconsin still has a game to play Saturday night at Hawaii (ESPN2, 11:30 p.m. ET), and McVay and his staff fully intend on staying up late to watch the Badgers' performance. A Badgers win gives them a better overall record than Northwestern (9-3 vs. 8-4).
• Northwestern holds a head-to-head victory against Wisconsin on Nov. 21 and finished the year with three consecutive victories, two against ranked opponents.
• Wisconsin has appeared in the Outback Bowl four times, most recently in 2007. Badgers fans travel extremely well, and Wisconsin has a larger alumni base than Northwestern.
• Wisconsin has been to Florida bowls in each of the past five years. Plus, Badgers fans making the trip to Hawaii might not hit the road again in four weeks for a bowl.
• The Outback Bowl twice has bypassed Northwestern for lesser teams in the bowl selection process. Last year, the Outback selected Iowa, a team that finished with a worse overall record than Northwestern (9-3 vs. 8-4) and had lost its head-to-head meeting with the Wildcats. Northwestern also was leapfrogged by Ohio State in 2000 when the Wildcats shared the Big Ten title with both Purdue and Michigan.

"We love them both," McVay said of Wisconsin and Northwestern. "We'll take either one of them right now. Northwestern beat Wisconsin. Wisconsin should end up 9-3. Wisconsin's a big, strong, physical team, with a heck of a running back [John Clay]. Northwestern's got a heck of a quarterback [Mike Kafka]. Both schools would be very excited about being in Tampa on New Year's Day."

McVay believes the same number of fans would come to Tampa regardless of who is selected. This might surprise some, as Wisconsin ranks 15th nationally in average home attendance (80,109), while Northwestern ranks 83rd (24,190).

But Northwestern has a scattered alumni base that is very willing to travel for bowl games, as evidenced by recent turnouts at the 2008 Alamo Bowl and 2005 Sun Bowl.

"We've noticed that," McVay said. "Wisconsin's good [with travel]. We have not had Northwestern. That's one of our discussion points."

McVay said the bowl's SEC selection has no bearing on who it picks from the Big Ten. Neither does the fact that the Outback bypassed Northwestern for Iowa last year.

"We have not decided," he said. "We've talked about it and gone to games and all those things. We just haven't forced ourselves to decide yet because no one's asked us to decide. It could be either one of those guys, and we will be very happy with either one, believe me.

"Those are two really good football teams."