35-7 UNC halfway through the 3rd quarter. If this holds, I think we're gonna need both osu and FSU in the playoff, plus an at-large bid to Michigan State.

Short of a little bit of chaos, that is. I like chaos in my college football.

Illinois upsets Penn State, so either Northwestern or Illinois will be eligible after next week.

UAB gives T'erd all they can handle but will come up about 2 feet short on 4th down. A Southern Miss upset next week will leave UAB ineligible.


Wake does something osu couldn't and beats VaTech 6-3 in double overtime. VaTech has to beat Virginia next week to get eligible.

Unless there are major upsets I dont see how 6-6 gets us to a bowl this year.

Its too early to tell. Dominate Miami first and see how it plays out.

According to a similar source (which is about as good as they come), bowl is a virtual lock at 6-6. We'll see...

I don't have an inside source, but I don't see how we get a bid. There are too many 6-6 teams from P5 conferences this year, and we don't have a marquis win to separate ourselves from the 6-6 G5 teams.

As of this morning there are 71 bowl eligible teams with two more guaranteed for next week; the Illinois-N'western and UVA-VaTech games match up 5-6 teams, so the winner will be bowl eligible and the loser stays home. (Ga Southern and App St have enough wins but they need a waiver to get a bowl bid.) That makes 73 slots filled and three left. There are 14 teams that can still be bowl eligible. Here's who they are and who they play:

Temps (5-5): Cincy, @Tulane
Navy (5-5): @Sbama, vs. Army
Fresno (5-6): Hawaii
ODU (5-6): @FAU
UAB (5-6): @SMiss
Akron (5-6): @Kent
Ohio (5-6): @Fiami
Tenn (5-6): @Vandy
Pitt (5-6): @MiamiF
Cal (5-6): BYU
OreSt (5-6): Ore
UK (5-6): @Lville
OklaSt (5-6): @Okla
Mich (5-6): @O$U

Army didn't qualify, so its bowl slot in the Armed Forces Bowl will need to be filled. The AAC has one to fill. The others have at least enough to fill their slots, but some may be short depending on who the selection committee picks.

Why don't we try beating a MAC school with a winning record?

That could be a fun, worthwhile endeavor. We should do it once every couple of years or so.

Of course, we did beat EMU in 2012.

Thanks for the work Pataskala, analyzing what you have...

76 Slots available
73 Eligible Teams (71, but guaranteed to be 73)
14 Teams who could become eligible

Teams who are probably in (3):

Tenn (5-6): @Vandy.....-17
Fresno (5-6): Hawaii.....-12
Navy (5-5): @Sbama...-9 (and will be favored vs Army)

Gray area teams(3):

Temps (5-5): Cincy...+4, @Tulane...probably light favorite? (Losing 2 is feasible, threat for bid at 6-6)
UAB (5-6): @SMiss.....-4 (Could see them be preferred over Ohio)
Cal (5-6): BYU.....-4 (Definitely could use a Cal loss here)

Teams we probably don't need to worry about (7):

Akron (5-6): @Kent.....-5 (Think Ohio would be preferred, but go flashes)
ODU (5-6): @FAU.....+4 (even at 6 wins, seems unlikely)
Pitt (5-6): @MiamiF.....+10
UK (5-6): @Lville.....+14
OreSt (5-6): Ore.....+20
Mich (5-6): @O$U.....+20
OklaSt (5-6): @Okla.....Will be heavy underdog

Teams at 6-5 that we could jump (8):

Western Ky (+21 @ Marshall)
South Alabama (+9 vs Navy)
Middle Tenn (+3 @ UTEP)
UTEP (-3 vs MTSU)
Nevada (-10 @ UNLV)
App State (-15 vs Idaho)
Texas St (-13 @ Ga State)
Ark State (-21 vs New Mex St)

Even if the gray area teams get it done and are preferred to us, if all goes as planned for the "probably don't need to worry about" category, that is 7 teams added making 80 eligible teams, which results in only 4 eligible teams left out. I think we would jump WKU & S Alabama, who are likely to lose, which would leave just 2 teams to jump. And none of this is even taking into account teams that could decline an invitation, or 7 win teams that might get left out (it happened last year), etc.

I guess what I'm saying is it is very close.

I think the bowls will select the teams that will draw the best TV ratings. ESPN owns a lot of the smaller bowls. They care way more about ad dollars than butts in the seats.

11/5/2014 Quote by Casper...

"Yep. I think the string ends this year. Gonna take a miracle to get us to a bowl now. I know, stranger things have happened."

Today, I am more convinced the string ends this year because of two things. First, we may not see 6 wins and second we are from the MAC and other 6-6 teams will be seen as having a better overall body of work. Hope I am wrong but doubt it.

On a positive note, I thought this team would go 4-8 so 5-7 or 6-6 is better than I thought it would be. So, for all my negativity, here's Congrats to the players and coaches no matter how things end up.

You know I would love a bowl game, but, if the Bobcats finish the season playing good football, with scoreboard on Miami, without team issues, with NIU knowing they were damned lucky, with a team on the mend and without major role players needing surgery and returning starters two deep on the offensive line, well I can start brewing green tea for next year.

I don't know if they were darn lucky, but this game could have gone either way. It was in doubt until the last 4 minutes and the Ohio fumble.
Why be so adamant that Ohio couldn't have won that game if a "lucky" play went our way.