I'd say it's looking more like 71. Essentially, only 3 teams matter now:

1. Georgia Tech (must win next week's ACC title game vs. Florida State to be eligible)
2. UCONN (hosts 8-3 Cincinnati next week)
3. Pitt (@ 3-8 South Florida next week)

Georgia Tech winning is highly, highly unlikely. Both of the Big East games are complete toss-ups. Flip a coin, and my bet is on 71 eligible teams. Worst case, 72.

If it's 71, I think Central Michigan (6-6) is first out. 72, and the teams on the bubble would likely be:

1. Ohio (8-4)
2. Bowling Green (8-4)
3. Louisiana-Monroe (8-4)
4. Western Kentucky (7-5)
5. Loser of next weekend's Arkansas State(8-3)/Middle Tennessee State(8-3) game

I'd like to think that Western Kentucky loses that battle, but we may very well be next on the chopping block. Go Bearcats, Go Bulls and Go Seminoles!!

•  I'm confused who is the 71st eligible team? utsa?

That's what I thought. Actually utsa has 8 wins and 5 are against fcs opponents. So clearly they can't be eligible.

and you are right. Fa tech likely will lose next week and that will put them at 6-7, but they still could go to a bowl if the NCAA gives the, a pass because the ACC doesn't have enough members in bowl games. Actually I feel for them because limping in at 6-6 puts the in a bowl but now they'll get creased in a league title game and lose out on a bowl. Weird.

Makes sense. Thanks for posting. So even if the huskies and panthers win next week, it appears five MAC teams will go bowling. great for the conference.

They don't have to pick in order of wins. Temple, 8-4 in 2009, was passed over by a slew of 6-6 and 7-5 teams.

I don't see any way a bowl picks 6-6 Central Michigan over us. But it's certainly possible that Western Kentucky could go before us at 7-5. Likely? Probably not. But possible...

Bottom line: I don't think we'll know our fate until late Saturday night.

It would be funny if we played Pitt in a bowl...2012 the year we swept the keystone state. 

And a b-ball win over Bobby Morris would make a nice trifecta.

Maybe, maybe not.  I think a lot of it has to do with the location of the bowl game and who the bowl thinks will travel better.  For example, Ohio's rumored to be in the BBVA Compass Bowl.  A bowl located in mid-Alabama might think that a Sun Belt team will bring more of its fans to the game than a team from Ohio, especially one that ended the year losing 4 out of 5 games.  At this point it's all about the benjamins for the bowl games and who they think travels best.

As I said earlier I am not 100% sure the rule on that is still in place but it was in place when Temple missed with 8 wins.  It depends on the situation.  You had, and for all I know you still do, to take a 7 win team over a 6 win one using your right to pick schools under a conference contract and then then had to do the same when it came to the bowls left with at-large spots.  There were enough 7+ win schools that year left for the bowls that were picking up at large plus one and Temple wound up the plus one.

I posted what I believe would have to be the order of teams available to bowls earlier.  A 6-6 team can go before us if there conference bowl contracts allow them to get in of if one of the bowls with a spot a conference could not cover happens to have a secondary contract with the 6-6 schools conference.  Every AQ, MWC, CUSA 6 win team will probably get in this way.

If that pecking order is right though we could in no circumstance miss a bowl while 6-6 CMU in our own conference who would have access to the same bowls in the same order, 6-7 Georgia Tech if the lose the ACC title, or UTSA in transition with multiple 1AA wins do go to bowls unless the NCAA grants a waiver of some sort.

And why wouldn't the Bowl take team that is going to sell the most tickets. We cannot be a very attractive get for a Jan 5th Bowl Game in Alabama. We may not sell 500 tickets for that game.

They very well might.  If it comes down to 8-4 Ohio and, say, 7-5 WKU, they might figure that neither one  will draw much of a crowd, so why not go for the one with the better national name recognition to get ratings.  With all the press we had earlier this season, we would be the likely choice.

For what it's worth, the C-USA office released its bowl assignments pending the C-USA Championship between Tulsa-UCF.

http://www.conferenceusa.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/112...

One thing that may come into play is TV ratings. With no Ohio State or Penn State that is a lot of fans sitting at home in front of the TV.  Ohio may be what ESPN needs to keep those midwest fans watching football.