It has been a few years since Penn State and its fans have had to wait for something like this.

On Sunday, though, it will be official. The Big Ten will announce the holiday destinations for its bowl-eligible teams, and in the year the NCAA put the kibosh to the Nittany Lions’ bowl ban, there’s plenty of intrigue into where the 6-6 Lions will head. Determining that exact locale, however, is not as cut-and-dried as it used to be.

Plenty has changed since the Nittany Lions last headed bowling, and the fact that bowls are assigned to programs more than they are accepted by them is one of the biggest ones. At one point while Nittany Lions fans were hardly thinking about bowls — in the summer of 2013, to be exact — the Big Ten adopted what several other conferences have in recent years: a tiered bowl structure that is designed to help ensure bowls aren’t seeing the same group of two or three teams year-in and year -out, in addition to giving fans incentive to travel to different locales. The announcement then came on the heels of the conference’s new tie-ins with bowls in California, Michigan and New York City, in addition to the traditional slate of Big Ten tie-ins on New Year’s Day in Florida.

Simply put, the bowl structure when it last mattered to Penn State hardly resembles the one the Nittany Lions head into this season.

So, how does the conference — at least by letter of the law, considering the schools and the bowls themselves will have considerable input — dole out the assignments?

The big games

While it is referred to as a tiered system, the Big Ten does not adhere to tiered system principles the way the Atlantic Coast Conference does. The ACC has three bowl tiers, and teams must attain a certain record to compete in games placed in certain tiers. For example, the ACC has a major tie-in with the Russell Athletic Bowl, which guarantees that game will get a team with eight or more wins. This year, that game likely will have to choose between three nine-win opponents — Duke, Clemson or Louisville — but it can not take a school with more of a perceived following, like Notre Dame or Miami, who did not reach the wins threshold. In the Big Ten, there’s no rule stating, for example, the Citrus Bowl couldn’t request a six-win Penn State team.

That said, the Big Ten doesn’t have to listen. In a scenario like that, it likely would not.

With all that out of the way, here’s the likely process:

■ The College Football Playoff committee will choose any Big Ten teams (likely only Ohio State this season) it deems worthy of playing in the national championship tournament.

■ The committee then will assign the top teams in the nation left over to the four remaining major bowl games — the Cotton, Fiesta, Orange and Peach Bowls, this season. There is no rule restricting the amount of teams from a particular conference that can be assigned to these games, but it would be unlikely the Big Ten would receive more than two bids, in the tournament and major bowls.

In any other season, the Big Ten champion or a replacement should the champ be in the tournament would automatically be sent to the Rose Bowl. But the Rose Bowl is out this season, because it is hosting a tourney semifinal.

■ The Big Ten will start doling out bowl bids — after conferring with the bowls — to the remaining bowl-eligible schools, of which there are 10 in the conference this season.

The top draws

The bowls with the most influence are generally still the ones that have always had it.

The Citrus Bowl in Orlando and the Outback Bowl in Tampa have had a long-term relationship with the Big Ten, and it stands to reason they’ll get the pick of the remaining litter. The Big Ten also has a new affiliation with the longstanding Holiday Bowl in San Diego. These are the bowls with the biggest payouts, the longest traditions and almost certainly will get the Big Ten’s best.

Michigan State and Minnesota seem to be the most logical bets for the Florida games, pending the result of Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game, of course. Both had strong seasons, and neither played in Florida last season. With variety and location providing the driving force behind many of these moves, Nebraska — which has played in Florida bowls the last three years — has long been rumored to the Holiday Bowl.

The newbies

The Big Ten has long-term agreements with the TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville, Music City Bowl in Nashville, as well as the Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif., and the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. The TaxSlayer, Music City and Foster Farms games have six-year deals with the conference, while the Pinstripe Bowl has an eight-year pact.

Here’s a catch, though: The TaxSlayer and Music City Bowls pretty much split the contract. Each bowl will get a Big Ten team three times in the next six years. Also, the bowls are guaranteed not to have the same Big Ten program appear in the game twice over that span.

Ditto, pretty much, with the Foster Farms and Pinstripe Bowls. Foster Farms is guaranteed five different teams in six years. For the Pinstripe, the minimum is six teams in eight years.

Iowa and Maryland seem like locks to appear in two of the three bowls. The Nittany Lions and Illinois seem like the best bets for the other slot. While this is the first year of the agreement with the bowls, Rutgers played in the Pinstripe Bowl last year, when it was a member of the ACC. So that does not look like a possible destination for the Scarlet Knights.

What’s left

The Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit on the day after Christmas is hosting a Big Ten school for the first time, and the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl gets a Big Ten squad this season.

The Nittany Lions, Rutgers and Illinois are in line for these two games, with whoever loses out on the Pinstripe Bowl likely falling here.

Contact the writer:

dcollins@timesshamrock.com

@psubst on Twitter