These will change week to week, but here is where the two individual projections currently stand from ESPN.

ESPN #1
BCS- WVU
Gator- Notre Dame
Car Care- Pitt
Birmingham- USF
Toronto- UConn
St Pete- UofL
San Diego- Cincy

ESPN #2
BCS- WVU
Gator- Notre Dame
Car Care- USF
Birmingham- Pitt
Toronto- UofL
St Pete- Cincy
San Diego- UConn

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowlprojec...008&week=9

It appears that Big East fans should be rooting for Oregon St against Arizona St this weekend. We will likely have a 6th Big East eligible team looking for an at-large spot. San Diego takes PAC-10 #7. The PAC-10 has 5 schools that are sure bowl teams at this point. ASU and Stanford are questionable for 6th and 7th teams. Since the league has agreements, the PAC-10 teams only need to reach 6-6 to take the bowls.

Stanford is 4-4, but after a sure win over WSU, they finish with @ Oregon, USC, and @ Cal. I see the Tree finishing 5-7 or 6-6.

ASU is 2-5, riding a 5 game losing streak. After a trip up to visit the Beavers this week though, they have 3 very winnable games against UCLA and the Washington schools. I think the Sun Devils will have to beat Arizona to finish at 6-6.

Odds are San Diego will have an opening. We also seem to be heading for having 6 teams above .500. I'd expect the 6th Big East team to be taken by San Diego over anyone from a non-BCS league, no matter their record. Also, the ironic thing is that whoever we send to San Diego might just have the toughest bowl opponent of any Big East team, BCS rep included. BYU is projected to San Diego and if our BCS rep is matched with the ACC rep, I'd call BYU the toughest opponent.

If our 6th or 7th team is 6-6 they can only take a slot until every 7-5 team from the midmajors have a bowl game.

Don't count Rutgers out--they have a good shot at 6-6 this year.

Cincy/BYU would be pretty cool.

College Football News site also projects the Pac-10 won't have enough teams to fill the San Diego bowl--BUT--they say if a Pac-10 doesn't qualify, then a WAC team will be chosen--apparently they (SD bowl) have a "fall-back" deal with the WAC?

Maybe this isn't so, after all one would think "The Family of Networks" would know the correct bowl assignments since they televise most of the "early" bowls.

TexanMark Wrote:If our 6th or 7th team is 6-6 they can only take a slot until every 7-5 team from the midmajors have a bowl game.

Don't count Rutgers out--they have a good shot at 6-6 this year.

Yes, that's correct. I am predicting we'll have 6 teams at 7-5 or better. All 6 currently have 5 wins or more. RU could make .500, but they won't be bowling due to the rule you mentioned.

Yosemite Panther Wrote:College Football News site also projects the Pac-10 won't have enough teams to fill the San Diego bowl--BUT--they say if a Pac-10 doesn't qualify, then a WAC team will be chosen--apparently they (SD bowl) have a "fall-back" deal with the WAC?

Maybe this isn't so, after all one would think "The Family of Networks" would know the correct bowl assignments since they televise most of the "early" bowls.

If that is the case, then I don't see a Big East team in San Diego unless Boise makes a BCS bowl. The WAC has three tie in and Boise, SJSU, and Fresno will be eligible. Hawaii is 4-4 and has 4 straight scrub opponents left before their finale against Cincy. They'll likely be the WAC's 4th eligible team.

Devils goin' down to the 'Cats in the Duel in the Desert here in the Old Pueblo...

Poinseitta signed deal with WAC about a week ago. Trying to setup Frenso/Boise vs BYU/Utah/TCU

So far, the BCS bowl prediction has been WVU, WVU, USF, USF, Pitt, Pitt, WVU... What's it going to be next week... UConn?

I ignore this crap until it really matters...

Just a question so don't throw me outta hear, but since the Big East is the affected conference I have to ask ( and I know the season is far from over). But, If either Ball State, Tulsa, Utah and or Boise State finish at least 16th in the BCS and your highest ranked team, we'll take S. Florida as it sits now is only 24th, does the Big East still get a BCS bowl game or will it go to one of the non-BCS teams mentioned above?

mpurdy22 Wrote:Just a question so don't throw me outta hear, but since the Big East is the affected conference I have to ask ( and I know the season is far from over). But, If either Ball State, Tulsa, Utah and or Boise State finish at least 16th in the BCS and your highest ranked team, we'll take S. Florida as it sits now is only 24th, does the Big East still get a BCS bowl game or will it go to one of the non-BCS teams mentioned above?

BE champ get a BCS bid regardless, however a low BCS rank would hurt the 4 year average requirement of 12 for the next round of negotiations. I hope USF wins out.

San Diego would kick azz! I don't care WHO we play.

templefootballfan Wrote:Poinseitta signed deal with WAC about a week ago. Trying to setup Frenso/Boise vs BYU/Utah/TCU

I believe that at least in 2007, matt stated on here that bowls were no longer allowed to sign back up agreement after the season has started. If they really just signed the agreement, I'm assuming that rule has changed.

I don't think CUSA is going to fill its sixth bowl, New Orleans Bowl. Granted that is not what Big East is interested in at this time, it sure beats sitting at home. And CUSA just might not have a fifth bowl elgible team either in a highly disappointing year for the conference as a whole.

The Poisettia Bowl is San Diego is not availble to Big East; the WAC just signed an agreement with Poisettia Bowl to provide an opponent if PAC cannot. A Fresno State or Boise State against MWC #2 would probably make for a great fan attendance....somethig the Poisettia Bowl has struggled with. This agreement was posted on MWC, WAC, and CUSA boards.

Also, the Sun Belt has signed agreements with Birmingham, Independence, and a third bowl (I can't recall which one) to provide an opponent if that bowl lacks a bowl elgible team

The Texas Bowl has signed back up agreements with Navy and Army.

dbacard Wrote:I hope USF wins out.

Ain't gonna happen...

CollegeCard Wrote:

templefootballfan Wrote:Poinseitta signed deal with WAC about a week ago. Trying to setup Frenso/Boise vs BYU/Utah/TCU

I believe that at least in 2007, matt stated on here that bowls were no longer allowed to sign back up agreement after the season has started. If they really just signed the agreement, I'm assuming that rule has changed.

It looks like the rule has changed. There was an announcement right on the WAC website touting it as a replacement to the PAC-10 each of the next two years, which is how long the PAC-10 is contracted to provide the bowl a representative.

http://www.wacsports.com/ViewArticle.dbm...ID=1607506

There's always a chance that the Pointsettia may not get a WAC team. The WAC has three bowl tie-ins (Boise, Hawai'i, New Mexico). Particularly if Boise St. wins out and ends up as the highest ranking non-AQ conference champion. Right now the WAC one bowl eligible team (Boise St.), two teams with five wins who should get eligible (Fresno St. and San Jose St.) and two teams who will not go bowling (Idaho and Utah St.). The other four teams are either at 4-4 or 3-4.

usf is pretty much locked into the st pete bowl at this point

weve totally blown a great opportunity this season... all i want us to do is finish the season ranked, this cincy game will be important for that, we lose to them and almost all of our votes are gone and no matter what we do from here on we wont be ranked again, beat them and we move up a few spots... take care of business at home vs rutgers and uconn and we should have enough of a padding to lose to wvu and stay ranked

With all these "back-up" agreements in place now, it seems it is going to be much harder for a 7-5 team to find a place in a bowl slot where another conference doesn't have enough qualifying teams?

We already know a 6-6 team can only go bowling if their confgerence has enough slots AND if all other teams with winning records (7-5) have been placed in a bowl somewhere.

Yosemite Panther Wrote:With all these "back-up" agreements in place now, it seems it is going to be much harder for a 7-5 team to find a place in a bowl slot where another conference doesn't have enough qualifying teams?

We already know a 6-6 team can only go bowling if their confgerence has enough slots AND if all other teams with winning records (7-5) have been placed in a bowl somewhere.

To me is shows that Trained Geese has been riding his lame duck horse into the sunset. I would love for 6-6 teams to be bowl ineligible, and also to see a handful of bowls dropped.

However, if we are going to have the system set up to reward all, then we should be grabbing our piece. It's quite weak to see that a 6-6 non-BCS team will be guaranteed a spot over a potential 7-5 Big East team. Poor football forethought once again from the league.

I would love to see all 6-6 teams ineligible. I see no point in sending a mediocre team to a bowl game when it could end up with a losing record...

bitcruncher Wrote:I would love to see all 6-6 teams ineligible. I see no point in sending a mediocre team to a bowl game when it could end up with a losing record...

exactly. I don't think 7-5 teams should be rewarded with a bowl game as well. This rewarding teams for being mediocre is getting lamer by the season. The bowl season is outdated and its really time for a playoffs in college football.