It occurs to me that WKU could have knocked itself out of a bowl but beating Marshall. It probably isn't true because:
1. Marshall may not have made the access bowl with a win.
2. Marshall may still get the access bowl with the loss
3. WKU might have been 7th in CUSA's pecking order without the win instead of sixth.
4. They may end up 5th now instead of 6th.
5. They may make it into an open slot now that they have 7 wins instead of 6.
But if they were sixth in the pecking order either way end did end up knocking Marshall out and CUSA can't secure another contract then they did knock themselves out of a bowl by beating a ranked opponent.
WKU should be in the top five among CUSA teams and get one of its primary bowls. The top three should be T'erd, LaTech and Rice. UTEP and MTSU are both 6-5 and play each other today, so the winner is 7-5 and the loser is 6-6. It'd be cleaner if UTEP loses and goes to 4-4 in the CUSA, same as WKU. But beating T'erd yesterday will give them a leg up. Plus they put points on the board; they scored 30+ in every game but one and scored 40+ six times. Makes for good TV.