The Lower.com Bahamas Bowl…?

Bowl Eligible (42):Air Force, Alabama, Florida St, Fresno St, GA Southern, Georgia, Georgia St, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas St, Liberty, Louisville, LSU, Memphis, Miami, Miami (OH), Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, N Carolina, N Mex State, Notre Dame, Ohio, Ohio St, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Oregon, Oregon St, Penn St, Rutgers, S Methodist, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Toledo, Troy, Tulane, UCLA, UNLV, USC, Utah, Washington

Ineligible (14): Akron, Arizona St, Connecticut, E Carolina, James Mad, Jksnville St, Kent St, Michigan St, S Mississippi, Sam Hous St, Stanford, U Mass, UL Monroe, Vanderbilt

That includes James Madison, Jacksonville St. and Sam Houston State. JMU and JSU will probably play in a bowl anyway because it looks like there will be a shortage of eligible teams.

Others:
Duke 99.70%
Louisiana 99.70%
Wisconsin 99.60%
Wyoming 99.40%
UTSA 98.60%
Coastal Car 98.40%
W Kentucky 97.00%
W Virginia 96.50%
Arizona 96.10%
S Alabama 95.00%
N Illinois 93.50%
Auburn 89.30%
Minnesota 88.30%
Nebraska 88.30%
NC State 88.10%
Texas St 87.50%
Bowling Grn 85.80%
Clemson 84.00%
Maryland 82.20%
Syracuse 79.70%
Boise St 78.90%
Iowa St 78.90%
Kentucky 78.30%
Wash State 77.00%
Boston Col 76.60%
BYU 73.90%
Florida 71.90%
Fla Atlantic 70.20%
VA Tech 68.70%
San Jose St 67.20%
Miss State 65.70%
Marshall 61.20%
S Florida 59.10%
Utah St 56.40%
Navy 55.60%
Rice 55.10%
TX Christian 54.70%
App State 51.10%
Colorado St 45.90%
UCF 40.70%
GA Tech 39.00%
Central Mich 30.80%
E Michigan 30.70%
Northwestern 30.70%
Illinois 29.90%
Colorado 28.60%
Old Dominion 28.60%
Wake Forest 24.90%
Houston 20.50%
Texas Tech 20.50%
Arkansas St 17.50%
Middle Tenn 15.00%
Arkansas 13.30%
North Texas 13.30%
S Carolina 13.20%
California 12.20%
Tulsa 10.60%
W Michigan 10.40%
Buffalo 9.50%
San Diego St 9.00%
UAB 7.40%
Baylor 5.10%
Florida Intl 4.70%
LA Tech 3.70%
Indiana 1.70%
New Mexico 1.70%
Cincinnati 1.60%
Army 1.50%
Charlotte 1.20%
Nevada 1.00%
Ball St 0.90%
TX El Paso 0.80%
Virginia 0.40%
Pittsburgh 0.30%
Purdue 0.20%
Hawaii 0.10%
Temple 0.10%

Sum is 77.7

Three weeks to go and here's how it's shaping up for the MAC (six bowl affiliations this season):

In: Toledo, MOFO, Ohio

Need a win:
BG (plays at Kent, home vs Toledo, and at WMU)
CMU (plays at WMU, at Ohio, and home vs Toledo)

Need 2 wins:
NIU (plays at home vs BSU, home vs WMU, and at Kent)
EMU (plays at Toledo, home vs Akron, and at Buffalo)

Need to win out:
WMU (plays at home vs CMU, at NIU, and home vs BG)
Buffalo (plays at home vs Ohio, at MOFO, and home vs EMU)

out: Akron, BSU, Kent

TeamRankings sum is 76.7 which is the lowest it has been. James Madison, Jacksonville State and then some 7 loss teams will probably go bowling.

Bowl Eligible (52):Air Force, Alabama, Arizona, Boston Col, Coastal Car, Duke, Florida St, Fresno St, GA Southern, Georgia, Georgia St, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas St, Kentucky, Liberty, Louisville, LSU, Memphis, Miami, Miami (OH), Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, N Carolina, N Mex State, NC State, Notre Dame, Ohio, Ohio St, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Oregon, Oregon St, Penn St, Rutgers, S Methodist, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas St, Toledo, Troy, Tulane, UCLA, UNLV, USC, Utah, UTSA, W Virginia, Washington

Ineligible (22):Akron, Arizona St, Ball St, Cincinnati, Connecticut, E Carolina, James Mad, Jksnville St, Kent St, LA Tech, Michigan St, Middle Tenn, Nevada, Pittsburgh, Purdue, S Mississippi, Sam Hous St, TX El Paso, U Mass, UL Monroe, Vanderbilt, Virginia

W Kentucky 99.30%
Louisiana 97.90%
Wisconsin 97.70%
Clemson 97.50%
Auburn 96.60%
Bowling Grn 93.90%
S Alabama 89.70%
N Illinois 84.70%
App State 79.40%
Utah St 79.30%
Maryland 75.90%
Nebraska 74.00%
Boise St 73.30%
Minnesota 71.30%
GA Tech 69.10%
Iowa St 64.60%
San Jose St 62.20%
Central Mich 59.30%
BYU 57.40%
Illinois 57.00%
VA Tech 56.20%
Arkansas St 55.50%
S Florida 54.00%
Rice 53.70%
UCF 50.30%
Syracuse 49.00%
Fla Atlantic 45.30%
Florida 45.10%
Marshall 39.80%
Texas Tech 36.00%
Houston 34.70%
Colorado St 33.30%
Wash State 32.60%
E Michigan 31.40%
TX Christian 25.80%
Arkansas 25.10%
Miss State 24.90%
Northwestern 24.10%
Wake Forest 21.80%
Old Dominion 21.30%
Army 19.60%
Colorado 19.00%
UAB 18.40%
Navy 13.70%
S Carolina 12.90%
W Michigan 10.60%
California 9.00%
Indiana 9.00%
Buffalo 4.70%
Florida Intl 4.50%
Charlotte 2.20%
North Texas 1.70%
San Diego St 1.70%
Tulsa 0.90%
Temple 0.60%
Hawaii 0.40%
Baylor 0.30%
New Mexico 0.10%
Stanford 0.10%

It'll be interesting to see who replaces Air Force in the CFP ranking tonight. They were unbeaten but ranked below one-loss Tulane last week, then lost to Army so they''re probably going to drop out. Liberty and JMU are unbeaten but Toledo is 8-1 and could be in the mix.

I was there for the Pizza Bowl loss to T'erd in 2009. We bused up from Columbus at sunup, got there abut a half-hour before game time and bused back afterwards with a dinner stop in Findlay. A fun trip. At the time downtown Detroit was undergoing a lot of renovation but still looked better than when I was there in the '70s to take an FCC exam. Of course, that only five or six year after the '68 riots. In 2009 there were neat shops and the Fox Theater. It doesn't really matter where your original seats are located because they usually move everyone to the lower bowl to make the crowd look bigger for TV.

Historically they take a team that did NOT play in the MACC in Detroit for that bowl, right? I would say there is a very high chance we are in that one.

For Quick Lane they usually want one of the three MAC Michigans, Toledo, or BG because it's easier to get butts in the seats with them. Ohio does pretty well bringing fans in, but not nearly as well as those five schools do.

Who goes where is usually a matter of whether a team has been to a given bowl and how long it's been. We hadn't been to the Arizona/Barstool Bowl prior to last year, so the MAC sent us there.

I'd guess that NIU and EMU have the best shots. Let's hope that it's not CMU, unless they get that other victory against UT!

How it's shaping up for the MAC into the final week of the regular season (six bowl affiliations this season):

In: Toledo, MOFO, Ohio, BG

Must win:
CMU (plays at home vs Toledo)
NIU (plays at Kent)
EMU (plays at Buffalo)


Out: Kent, Akron, BSU. Buffalo, WMU

Trivia point: Illinois is the only B10-18 team we have an all-time winning record against -- 3-2. Peden was 2-2 against his alma mater. Frank was 1-0 against the Illini.

Another aspect of placing teams in bowl games is the number of bowl affiliations and bowl eligible teams in each conference. The MAC has six primary(Bahamas, Camellia, 68 Ventures,, Spud, Barstool and Quick Lane) and five secondary (Cure, Myrtle Beach, Frisco, New Mexico and Boca Raton) affiliations. There's no particular order of selection for the bowls. Secondary affiliations are filled only if slots aren't filled by other conferences as primary selections. Four MAC teams are already in and three others could be.

The number of bowl eligible teams in the other conferences could have an affect on where MAC teams go. Here's where the other conferences stand:

American (4 primary, 8 secondary) -- four teams are in, three others (Navy, USF, Rice could be.
ACC/Notre Dame (9 primary, 3 secondary) -- eight teams are in, three others (GaTecch, VaTech, Syracuse) could be.
B10 (8 primary, 0 secondary) -- eight teams are in, three others (Illinois, Neb, Minn) could be.
B12 (7 primary, 2 secondary) -- eight teams are in, three others (BYU, UCF, TCU) could be.
CUSA (4 primary, 6 secondary) -- four teams are in, no others could be.
MWC (5 primary, 4 secondary) -- five teams are in, two others (CSU, Utah St) could be.
Pac 12 (6 primary, 3 secondary) --seven teams are in, two others (WashSt, Cal) could be.
SEC (8 primary, 2 secondary) -- nine teams are in, three others (Fla, MissSt, SoCar) could be.
Sun Belt (2 primary, 7 secondary) -- nine teams are in, three others (Louisiana, T'erd, ODU) could be.
Other than Notre Dame, no independents are or could become bowl eligible this season.

No two teams that could become bowl eligible play one another this week.

The Athletic (which is essentially the New York Times) has us in the Myrtle Beach Bowl against James Madison