BIG TEN Bowl-eligible? OSU still needs one win

Michigan State needs to win three of its last four to earn a bowl berth.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Back in the dark ages of college football, before there was a Wyndham New Orleans Bowl, an EV1.net Houston Bowl or even a PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl, a football season was marked by important mileposts.
The first home win, first road win, first conference win and the top rivalry game were the key points of the season.
Now fans keep an eye on another landmark game -- the bowl-eligible win -- which gains a team entry to the not-so-exclusive world of the 28 bowl games.
That is where Ohio State (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten) resides as it travels to Michigan State (4-4, 3-2) Saturday. The Buckeyes need one more win to extend their season, while the Spartans need to win three of their final four games to start making holiday plans.
"Obviously you want to go to a bowl game, you want to go to a nice bowl game," Ohio State linebacker A.J. Hawk said. "They say you win six games and you're bowl eligible, stuff like that, but we don't want to be satisfied with winning just six games."
Bowl possibilities
The Big Ten has tie-ins to seven bowls. Should Ohio State win out, it could grab a spot in the Capital One Bowl, formerly the Florida Citrus Bowl, on Jan. 1 in Orlando. One win and two losses and the Buckeyes might draw a berth in the MasterCard Alamo Bowl, played Dec. 29 in San Antonio.
"At the beginning of a season, you always talk about this particular season you want to be in the Orange Bowl and if it doesn't work out your second choice is the Rose Bowl," coach Jim Tressel said. "Then it's, 'Let's get to work. Let's see what we earn.' "
Ross saga nears end
Ohio State's top rusher, Lydell Ross, was cleared Thursday of allegations that he passed fake in-house currency at a local all-nude strip club hours after the team's loss at Iowa last month.
Ross, a senior tailback, had been named in a complaint filed by Pure Platinum after he allegedly handed a dancer at the club $50 worth of fake or stolen Pure Platinum bills to pay for a dance on Oct. 17.
The bills Ross gave the dancer did not have registration numbers and she turned them in to club owners.
The complaint was investigated by Columbus police who determined that the Pure Platinum bills in question might have been old, unmarked bills printed by a previous owner. Detectives determined that the club did not suffer any financial loss because it did not pay the dancer for the bills she received from Ross.
An additional $1,750 worth of unmarked bills were also passed at the club in the four days leading up to the night Ross attended the club. The club was not able to determine who passed those bills.