Driving home from work, caught the last hour of BEV and BOP was talking about the Cajuns postseason fate.
He mentioned that if Rutgers, Troy, and Arizona all win (as expected), there will be 5 bowls with openings (Papajohns.com, St. Pete, Independence, Motor City, and Hawaii). There is just one team that MUST be selected for one of those 5 bowl games, Western Michigan, which cannot go to the Motor City Bowl in Detroit because the MAC champion is going there. They have 7 wins and therefore must be selected before any of the 6-6 teams. Problem is, NONE of the 5 bowls want Western Michigan (and who could blame them).
BOP mentioned from his source with ties to the NCAA that if none of the bowls select WMU by Sunday, the 5 bowls would be literally/figuratively placed into a hat. The first one drawn gets their choice of any bowl eligible team (ND, NCSU, UL, etc.). Obviously, the first bowl chosen will pick ND. However, ND could say "No thanks," but if they do, they are saying no to the other bowls. However, one bowl MUST still pick WMU, which will likely be the last bowl left in the hat.
For instance, if Texas and I-Bowl are the first chosen, our bowl chances don't look too good because they will snap up ND and NCSU. If Hawaii and Motor City are picked first, they will take ND and NCSU, which makes our chances look better as Texas, Indy, and papajohns.com are still open.
None of this will get settled until after Saturday's Troy-ASU and Zona-Zona State games.