Just a thought......There are 70 bowl spots....123 FBS schools....which means that 53 teams must finish below .500 in order to open up some at-large spots. Currently there are 30 schools which are bowl in-eligible, leaving 23 to go down. Going into this weekend 10 schools are at 6 loses; 14 schools with 5 loses and 14 schools with 4 loses - with 3 games left to play. That's 38 schools not counting any in the Sunbelt. Of the 10 schools on the edge, 4 of them play each other by season's end and 3 more must play a 5 lose team by season's end. 7 of these schools play there toughest stretch of 3 games to finish. That could be as many as 14 teams dropped from the role.
Conferences I project won't fill their bowl tie-ins: ACC (5 of 8); Big 10 (6 of 8); Big East (3 of 6); CUSA (4 of 5) and Big 12 (7 of 8). Unfortunately, i see the MAC and WAC placing more bowl eligible teams than their spots (10 to 4).
Now, in order for the Sunbelt to score a good crop this bowl season, here's how I see it:
Louisiana - Win out......at least the last 3. (8-4; 6-2)
Monroe - Win out.................................. (8-4; 6-2)
WKU - Win two of three......................... (8-4; 5-3)
Middle Tenn. - Win to of three................ (8-4; 6-2)
Ark. State - Choke on the last 2.............. (7-5; 5-3)
Troy - Destroy everyone........................ (6-6; 5-3)
*UNT - Could get eligible, but would need to win out, dropping ULM and WKU to 7-5 each. This would jeopardize all 3 teams for bowl consideration.
Just suggesting how this COULD end........The above scenario would also cloud the conference championship picture, but that's college football. Any agreements? Disputes???