There are about 11 games today with teams that need to win to get to 6 and bowl eligibility. So far 4 of the 11 have lost.
We need as many of these to loose to help our cause.

GO BOBCATS

They key then is for the MAC backup plan Bowl Games not to have eligible teams...

The Armed Forces Bowl is AAC vs. Big 12.

Oregon State getting crushed by Oregon, will not be bowl eligible

Seasons over. No chance of a bowl now.

Help. Somebody make some sense out of all of this. I don't understand all these variables.

I know it would help if Temple lost to Tulane next week, but assuming that doesn't happen, do we have a chance of getting picked?

May well come down to Temple. Assuming Temps wins, there would be 79 eligible teams for 76 slots.

One can assume 6-6 South Alabama is out from the Sun Belt. That leaves 3 teams for 1 slot out of the MAC/CUSA:

Ohio (6-6)
MTSU (6-6)
UAB (6-6)

Are we more attractive than those schools? Who knows. But that's the competition.

If Temple loses, only one of those 3 is odd man out. I'd have to think we are at least more attractive than UAB. They are a program on life support. MTSU seems like a dead heat.

This site does a good job breaking things down: http://www.collegesports-fans.com/bowls/bowl-breakdown.html

Understood, but there's some, if not a lot of, overlap there....

Updated CBS projections has us in the Armed Forces bowl vs Houston:

http://mweb.qa.cbssports.com/ncaaf/bowls/predictions

As someone already stated, it comes down to us, MTSU, UAB and Temple.

So with Temple we'd be at 80 eligible teams?

Teams that became bowl eligible
American (5) Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, UCF
ACC (11) Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech
Big 12 (6) Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas, West Virginia
Big Ten (10) Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Wisconsin
Conference USA (7) Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tennessee State, Rice, UAB, UTEP, Western Kentucky
Independents (3) BYU, Navy, Notre Dame
MAC (6) Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
Mountain West (7) Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada, San Diego State, Utah State
Pac-12 (8) Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington
SEC (12) Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M
Sun Belt (4) Arkansas State, Louisiana–Lafayette, South Alabama, Texas State
Number of bowl berths available: 76
Number of teams bowl eligible: 79

Teams that might become bowl eligible
American (1) Temple
Big 12 (1) Oklahoma State
Number of teams that might become bowl eligible: 2

I'd think we'd need OSU to win to see if they can squeeze into the playoff picture and take a Big Ten team out of the other bowls.

I noticed that even though CBS has us projected in a bowl, two ESPN projections do not have us in any (they have 5 MAC teams projected). ESPN has a near monopoly on bowls, so that is not a good sign.

I think it was 6-6 CMU, and I think it was last year, and I believe they won their game. I'm going from memory, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Two regular posters on this site reported last week, before the Miami game, that they had "inside sources" in the Athletic Department who told them that we were not going to accept an invitation if offered. If that's the case, it would seem to me that's why ESPN does not have us projected for any bowls because they know the inside story, as they own many of these bowls, and the other sites are assuming we'd accept if offered. I personally hope these "insider sources" don't know what they are talking about and that we are offered and accept. However, I'm fearful they are correct.