No matter what happens in bowl season, the Big Ten's claim of being the top conference in college football in 2016 has been set in concrete.

The league finished with four teams in the top eight of the College Football Playoff selection committee's rankings and had a legitimate argument for getting two teams into the top four. Conference champion Penn State just missed the cut in favor of Washington, a decision that will be debated in State College and beyond for a long time. But the Nittany Lions are going to the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual for the first time in eight years, and given how unlikely typing that sentence seemed as recently as a couple of months ago, they can't be too disappointed.

All four of those ranked teams made New Year's Six bowls, the first time a conference has accomplished that feat in the three-year history of the current format. Ohio State earned enough committee cred to become the first nonleague champion to make the playoff, Michigan is going the Capital One Orange Bowl despite finishing third in its own division and Wisconsin landed a spot in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl despite three losses.

That's called respect. It was more than deserved after a thrilling and compelling regular season. Now it's time for the Big Ten to go out and validate that respect. And as usual with the league's postseason draws, it won't be easy.

Several of the league's bowl opponents are loaded with talent, even if they haven't always played like it this season. Clemson, Ohio State's matchup in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl, is as good as anybody when fully dialed in. Michigan faces a Florida State team full of blue-chippers. Penn State plays one of the only teams that was as hot down the stretch as the Nittany Lions: USC.

Wisconsin is the exception among the New Year's Six teams from the conference. But the Badgers are in a virtual no-win situation against Western Michigan. Fans won't be that excited to travel to Dallas after a heartbreaking Big Ten championship game loss and to face off against a Group of Five opponent. No disrespect to the Broncos, who had a fantastic season that included wins over Illinois and Northwestern, but if Wisconsin wins the Cotton Bowl, few will be impressed. If it loses to a MAC team ... yeesh.

Having four teams in marquee bowls means the rest of the league is playing up further down the postseason ladder. Iowa is back in the Outback Bowl for the fifth time since 2003 and playing Florida for the third time in this game. Nebraska faces Tennessee in the Music City Bowl. The Gators and Volunteers had their struggles in the flaming debacle that was the SEC East, but no one would suggest they're not talented.

Northwestern squares off against Pitt -- which beat Penn State and Clemson this year -- in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. Minnesota's offensively challenged team will have to try to match points with Mike Leach's Washington State squad (though the Gophers can't complain after getting to go to San Diego for the National Funding Holiday Bowl). Indiana, which will play its first game under new coach Tom Allen following Kevin Wilson's resignation, drew a Utah team that beat USC and lost to Washington by just seven points.

Maryland fills out the lineup in the Quick Lane Bowl against Boston College, an ACC reunion no one was exactly clamoring for.

As always, there will be some geographic, uh, challenges. Such as playing USC in Los Angeles, Florida State in Miami, Florida in Tampa, Tennessee in Nashville and two Pac-12 teams in California.

In other years, these situations could be used as built-in excuses. Not so this time around. The Big Ten delivered throughout the regular season and needs to continue that strong play in the postseason. Ohio State and Michigan have been installed as early favorites, and Western Michigan will certainly be an underdog to Wisconsin. The Big Ten West was better than the SEC East this year. Go prove it, Iowa and Nebraska.

A good showing by Ohio State and two New Year's Six bowl wins seems like a reasonable baseline expectation for the league. More is possible. Less would invite criticism that the high rankings were overblown.

The Big Ten enjoyed its newfound status as the best conference in the country in 2016. Bowl season offers the chance to keep that title going into 2017.