RE: Number of bowl eligible/ineligible teams
Keep a very close eye on the Access Bowl situation out of the G5. This wont effect Georgia Southern's shot, but it will have a major impact in terms of who the extra teams we are competing against are, and what bowls are open.
Marshall's loss at home to a mediocre WKU team today by a basketball score changes the access bowl scenario. We can assume directly that Marshall is probably out of the Access Bowl picture, and we know for a fact that Boise is in the Drivers seat now as the only ranked G5 team.
However, the team that was going to pass Boise if they slipped in 2 loss Colorado State lost to Air Force today. That loss means the Rams cannot win the MWC Title, and are out of access bowl contention. Boise has a tricky game against Utah State, who hasn't looked back since their loss to Arkansas State. If the Aggies pull offr the win in Boise, they will win their division of the MWC, and would advance to play either Fresno, Hawaii?!?!, or San Diego State in the title game.
Then things get weird.
If Fresno beats Hawaii tomorrow, they will be 6-6 and Bowl eligible...However, they will also win their division and play in the MWC Title game. Lose the title game, and Fresno finishes 6-7, and is no longer bowl eligible.
The Same story goes if Fresno drops to Hawaii, but SDSU wins. The Aggies would be 6-6, but would have to play the title game, where a loss would make them ineligible.
BUT, if Hawaii beats Fresno, SDSU loses to San Jose, and UNLV beats Nevada, then 5-8 Hawaii would be playing in the MWC Title game. If they, by some miracle, then won that game, they would be automatically eligible for a bowl at 6-8 thanks to the provision that an ineligible conference champion can apply for a Waiver of bowl eligibility, one that usually gets granted. (I can hear Georgia Southern fans from here)
Now...If Utah State wins the MWC, then we have a very fun situation where the MWC and AAC Champ both have 3 losses, and suddenly a 2 loss NIU out of the MAC Could re-enter the picture, along with a 1 loss Marshall. In the end...we could see flipping Memphis playing in an access bowl
And then aliens invade and the world explodes.
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