[NU Sports] Bowl hopes

[Jonathan Hodges]

You are correct about the exception: "The NCAA Leadership Council may
approve a waiver of the six-victory requirement
as noted in the provisions of Bylaw 18.7.2.2.2, in order to enable a
conference champion
to participate in a bowl game when the conference champion is scheduled
contractually to
participate in the game."  But that won't come into play this year as every
conference has at least one team that will reach an overall winning
record.  You are correct that Arkansas St. went to the New Orleans Bowl as
the Sun Belt champion in 2005 with a 5-6 record (but ended up beating
Southern Miss in the bowl to finish 6-6; 2005 was the last year with an 11
game regular season as well).

In terms of not having enough bowl eligible teams - I think last year had
the most concern (I think there were 2 eligible teams left out with 70
slots/35 bowls, not counting USC which was on a postseason ban) and I think
Arizona State filed for a waiver as they were 6-6 but with 2 wins over FCS
schools (only 1 FCS win can count towards bowl eligibility in a given year)
but were denied.  Nobody really knew what to expect if the situation
occurred with not enough teams but they avoided it.  This year, as others
have mentioned, it won't be a big problem as it looks like somewhere
between 75-80 teams will be eligible.

I took a look at the bowl picture today and whatever Big Ten teams are
potentially left out of conference-affiliated bowls will be in good shape
to pick up what looks like at least one "at-large" spot vacated by a
conference without enough teams.

We'll get a much better idea of how things will fall after this Saturday,
particularly since the 'Cats have yet to reach the all important 6 win
mark.  After that, let's go hog wild in projections.


Jonathan

PS: Although the explosion in number of bowls and blatant commercialization
is disheartening, especially from the perspective of a college football
traditionalist, I'm all for supporting the 'Cats and the fact is that any
bowl game is good for the program.  While we can all agree this season
wasn't as good as it could have been, reaching a bowl will be a positive,
especially considering that 5 game losing streak, and hopefully something
to build on heading into 2012.



--
Jonathan Hodges
Contributor, HailToPurple
Web: http://www.hailtopurple.com/jhodges/
Twitter: @hailtopurple
Email: j-hodges at alumni.northwestern.edu



On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 6:23 PM, Mike Nolan <nolan at tssi.com> wrote:

> There is, I believe, still one exception to the '6 wins' rule
> for bowl eligiblity.  A team can go to a bowl game if it is the
> conference champion and there is a tie-in to a specific bowl,
> even if the team has a losing record.
>
> I think it has happened exactly once, I think it was the Sun Belt
> conference champion a few years ago.
>
> One does have to wonder what the fallback plan is if, for some reason,
> there aren't enough 6 win teams to fill all the bowl slots.
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
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