For the first time in nine season Purdue will play in a New Year's Day Bowl game. The annual Heart of Dallas Bowl (formerly the TicketCity Bowl) is a relatively new bowl game that added itself to the traditional New Year's Day Lineup two years ago and affiliated itself with the Big Ten at the same time. It is the last open spot available in this year's lineup, but they have offered the Boilermakers:

#Purdue has accepted an invitation to play in the Heart of Dallas Bowl at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013.

— Tom Dienhart (@BTNTomDienhart) December 2, 2012

Our opponent will not be announced until after tonight's BCS selections show, but it will be a Big 12 opponent. If Boise State or Northern Illinois reaches No. 16 or higher in the final BCS standings the higher of those two will receive an automatic invite to a BCS bowl. Should that happen Oklahoma is the most likely team that will be snubbed, thus the Big 12 bowls must wait for their selection.

The bowl will get the No. 8 Big 12 selection, which would be the ninth if the Big 12 gets a second team from its conference into a BCS bowl. The conference has nine of its teams eligible.

If Oklahoma goes to the BCS it will most likely be Iowa State, who was 6-6 while everyone else in the league was 7-5 or better. If Oklahoma does not go to the BCS Purdue's opponent is likely Texas Tech, Baylor, West Virginia, or TCU who all finished 7-5 overall and 4-5 in Big 12 play.

Date: January 1, 2013

Location: Cotton Bowl Stadium, Dallas, Texas

Time: Noon ET

Tickets: Right Here

TV: ESPNU