[NU Sports] Not enough bowl-eligible teams?

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

>ABC mentioned at one point today that at the moment there aren't enough
>bowl-eligible teams to fill all the bowl games.
>
I'm surprised ... well, check that:) ... amused that the NCAA hasn't
thought ahead to this with adding so many bowl games lately. Either they
need to have the surplus of bowls only in 12-game seasons, or change the
rules.

Syracuse's win today helped (so would that be 1 slot left or 3 ... were
SC/Clemson counted in bowl eligible teams?) their cause, but still, a lot
of these bowls are not gonna be happy about being stuck with MAC schools.
The MAC plays good football, but they don't put people in seats or bring
viewers. Translation: A lot of half-empty stadiums for bowl season this
year ... that could include the Fiesta Bowl with Pitt now, unless the
entire state of Utah comes.:)

>A.  Tell some bowl games they can't play?  (Yeah, right!)
>B.  Declare all 6-6 teams bowl-eligible?  (That might not be enough.)
>C.  Allow some teams with a losing record to be bowl-eligible?
>D.  Ask Clemson and S. Carolina to reconsider their decision to skip bowls?

They most likely would solve it by (B), allowing certain waivers ... if
that didn't fill the spots, I'd imagine that -- fair or not -- the
losing-record teams would have to come from conferences where there's a
tie-in for one of the open bowls.

Obviously, Northwestern just needs to win tonight to avoid any of this
mess. If we come up short, I'm not sure I like our chances unless MSU also
loses. Then we'd be 6-6 and possibly get a waiver for the seventh Big Ten
bowl slot that needs to be filled, but if both NU and MSU are 6-6, the
Spartans would easily get the waiver to head to Detroit.

More headaches for these NCAA bowl folks ... hah!:)

Right now, ND is sticking it to USC, which could either solve the BCS mess
at the top if SC loses ... or make it much worse if SC scrapes by a 6-5
team at home, casting doubt on whether they should be left out of Miami and
we should let Oklahoma and Auburn play for it. Plus, they already have a
whiny Mack Brown forcefully campaigning not to be left out again with 10
wins (boo hoo - try beating OU or playing a tough schedule!:) ) while
trying to save his own job and a disaster in the Big Least where there will
likely be no top 25 teams after this week and someone still gets an
automatic BCS bid.

GO CATS!!! BEAT HAWAII!!!
-SjT


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