CHAMPAIGN - Their two football bowl hopes - slim and none - will be tested this week when the Illini wrap up the regular season with a Big Ten game at Northwestern.

For Illinois to have any chance to play a 13th game, it must end a two-game losing skid and beat Northwestern to finish the 12-game season with a 6-6 mark.

And even though Illinois' bowl hopes need help beyond just what it can control, some web sites that project bowl matchups were including

Illinois in their big picture Sunday, guessing that the Illini will indeed win at Northwestern and then matching them against a Mid-American

Conference team in the Motor City Bowl Dec. 26 in Detroit.

For Illini coach Ron Zook, there's only one worry on his mind this week and it isn't the specifics of a potential bowl date. It's to focus every ounce of energy on playing better in order to win in Evanston.

"It doesn't make any difference to worry about (bowl scenarios)," Zook said. "Unless you win, it makes no difference. The only thing we can do is win and even then there is no guarantee."

The Big Ten has seven bowl tie-ins including one with the BCS. If Illinois becomes bowl eligible with a sixth victory Saturday, that would be the league's eighth team with at least six wins.

For all of those teams to find a bowl home, it would require two Big Ten teams to squeeze into the tight BCS club. Those two teams would need to be Penn State and Ohio State.

Potentially important to Illinois' chances is what happens in the Pac-10. Oregon State controls its own destiny and can win the Pac-10's automatic BCS birth and land in the Rose Bowl. To make that happen, Oregon State must win its final two games, at Arizona this week and at home against Oregon on Nov. 29.

Southern Cal has just one conference game remaining. After hosting Notre Dame in a non-conference game this weekend, it takes on UCLA.

Oregon State finds itself in this enviable position because it upset Southern Cal 27-21 on Sept. 25.

If Oregon State wins the Pac-10's automatic BCS berth, a one-loss Southern Cal team would certainly claim an at-large spot in the BCS. And if the Pac-10 eats up two BCS berths, it makes it more difficult for another league to claim two spots.

A point of emphasis this week will be to cut down on turnovers, which have been costing the Illini in close games.

"We can't turn the ball over," Zook said. "We have to coach better so we don't turn the ball over."

Zook said they have studied interceptions thrown by starting quarterback Juice Williams but can't trace them all to one particular problem.

"It doesn't make any difference who's at fault. That's the thing that gets frustrating somes times. It would be easy if we could just pinpoint it and say it's all the quarterback's fault or all the wide receiver's fault, but that's not the case.

"When things don't go right you have to fight through it and stay positive and get it turned around."

Brent's injury not serious

Defensive tackle Josh Brent of Bloomington left Saturday's game against Ohio State with a sprained knee.

On Sunday, the report was encouraging.

"Josh was very good today," Zook said. "I'm sure we won't bang him around much Monday or Tuesday but he was better than they anticipated."

mtupper@herald-review.com|421-7983