Here's what it's looking like. Counting all the bowl eligible teams, plus 5 win Minnesota and Rice, and the winner of 5-6 Syracuse and 4-7 Wake(winner gets in over us regardless) there are 73 of the 82 bowl slots taken. I'm counting JMU and Jax State in the 73, because they will get picked first over any 5-7 teams. Also, Navy is 5-5 with SMU and Army left. Army is 5-6, but two wins are against FCS teams. So, pretty much the winner of the Army-Navy game is in and loser out. This is part of the 73.
Now, this means there are only 8 bowl slots we can afford to be taken for us to be team 82. There are 19 teams in play for those 8 slots. Therefore, we need these teams to go no better than 8-11. According to ESPN FPI, 9 of these teams are favored to win. Again, we need no more than 8 to win.. Now, we know College Football, especially rivalry week, never goes chalk. Here's a look at the teams and games:
Favored to win:
Va Tech at Virginia
Illinois vs Northwestern
UCF vs Houston
USF vs Charlotte
Marshall vs Ark State
ULL vs ULM
Old Dominion vs Georgia St
Northern Illinois vs Kent St
Utah St at New Mexico
Favored to lose:
Nebraska vs Iowa
Florida vs FSU
South Carolina vs Clemson
TCU at Oklahoma
BYU at Okie State
Wazzu at Washington
Cal at UCLA
Eastern Mich at Buffalo
Central Mich vs Toledo
Colorado St at Hawaii
Of course, if we just beat the RebelBearSharks Thanksgiving night none of this matters. BTW, do they still have that stupid Shark mascot? Anyway, enjoy rivalry week. Maybe, we won't have to keep up with any of these games.
Now, this means there are only 8 bowl slots we can afford to be taken for us to be team 82. There are 19 teams in play for those 8 slots. Therefore, we need these teams to go no better than 8-11. According to ESPN FPI, 9 of these teams are favored to win. Again, we need no more than 8 to win.. Now, we know College Football, especially rivalry week, never goes chalk. Here's a look at the teams and games:
Favored to win:
Va Tech at Virginia
Illinois vs Northwestern
UCF vs Houston
USF vs Charlotte
Marshall vs Ark State
ULL vs ULM
Old Dominion vs Georgia St
Northern Illinois vs Kent St
Utah St at New Mexico
Favored to lose:
Nebraska vs Iowa
Florida vs FSU
South Carolina vs Clemson
TCU at Oklahoma
BYU at Okie State
Wazzu at Washington
Cal at UCLA
Eastern Mich at Buffalo
Central Mich vs Toledo
Colorado St at Hawaii
Of course, if we just beat the RebelBearSharks Thanksgiving night none of this matters. BTW, do they still have that stupid Shark mascot? Anyway, enjoy rivalry week. Maybe, we won't have to keep up with any of these games.
