Football on the Fringe » bowling

New Orleans Bowl Preview

lowercase — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 17:00:49 +0000

The New Orleans Bowl sees Ohio come south to play Troy, who returns to the game after a year away. The game will be played indoors at the Superdome, which sound a lot better than the weather at the two earlier games today. Kickoff is at 9 PM Eastern, on ESPN.

Troy

Troy (7-5, 6-2) will call themselves co-champions of the Sun Belt, but the fact is they tied with FIU, who beat them straight up, so the co-champions bit is absurd. Nonetheless, this was a solid year for the Trojans, who had to replace a ton of players from their (actual) championship team from last year. Troy was only 1-3 out of conference, but they beat the only MAC team they played, woeful Bowling Green.

Troy gets their work done in the air, #12 nationally in passing yardage. They’re giving up 31 points per game, although getting wrecked by South Carolina for 69 points has something to do with that average. On the flipside, even with the USC loss, they haven’t been held under 24 since October.

Ohio

Ohio started 1-3, then ran off 7 straight wins and appeared ready to waltz into the MAC championship game after taking down Temple. Then, completely inexplicably, they lost to Kent State and finished 2nd in the division behind Miami. They racked up the wins quietly, but did beat their only Sun Belt foe when Louisiana came to town.

Ohio is a fairly balanced team, but generally a run first orientation. Each win in their seven game streak saw them score over 30, but in three of their losses they were held to 6, 7, and 13, so there are ways to put the Bobcats off their game.

Prediction

I feel like this should actually be a very competitive football game, and maybe too close to call. It won’t be what you think Oregon-Auburn is going to be, but it should be a good game nonetheless. Vegas gives the nod to Troy by 2.5, and I was leaning towards Troy, but I wouldn’t bet big on it. Troy 30-27.

Humanitarian Bowl Preview

lowercase — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 16:00:51 +0000

The Humanitarian Bowl pits 10-3 Northern Illinois against 8-4 Fresno State, tonight at 5:30 Eastern, on ESPN as usual. The teams take to the blue turf in Boise, Idaho, an outdoor field where the weather calls for a near 100% chance of snow and/or rain, with a high of 36 degrees.

Northern Illinois

NIU arrives by way of the MAC Championship game, where they lost to Miami in what has to be seen as a massive upset, following an 8-0 MAC season. Along the way, they picked up a Big 10 win over Minnesota, joining the parade of teams to accomplish that feat this year.

The Huskies, except for the Miami game, have been near impossible to stop and just as hard to score on, still ranking in the top 20 nationally in both stats. They haven’t been held under 20 since week 1, and beat the second best team in their division 65-30 a few weeks ago. If they can bounce back from losing the championship game, they’ll be difficult to beat tonight.

Fresno State

The Bulldogs quietly put together another nice season in the shadows of Boise State and Nevada. They picked up two BCS conference wins, taking down Cincinnati and Illinois, and went 5-3 in the conference. They only lost consecutive games once, to the leagues top two teams over six days.

The defense may be a bit suspect, but facing Boise State & Nevada will wreck any defensive stats. Fresno is giving up 29 points per game, matched with the 30 they’re scoring each week, which has left them in as many close games as you would imagine.

Prediction

On paper, this one should belong to Northern Illinois. But the tough loss to end the year, Fresno’s familiarity with the blue turf (they were there less than a month ago), and their confidence coming in off two good wins could even the score. NIU is favored by 1.5, but I think I’m going to predict a win for Fresno State, 34-30.

New Mexico Bowl Preview

lowercase — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:00:21 +0000

After a couple week hiatus, college football and the Fringe are back for bowl season, with short and straightforward looks at the non-BCS bowl teams and how they got to where they are. Things kick off at 2 PM Eastern today with BYU facing UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl, played in Albuquerque. The game is outside, where the high temperature should be in the mid 40s, with a chance of snow early and rain late.

BYU

BYU comes in 6-6, 5-3 in the Mountain West, after a 2-4 start that included a bad loss to rival Utah State. Things turned around at midseason, and the Cougars nearly upset flailing Utah in the final week of the year. This is their first trip to a bowl other than Las Vegas in years.

Except for the 17-16 Utah loss, the BYU offense has been clicking down the stretch, putting up 55, 49, and 40 in the three games prior. Including the Utah game, they allowed just 10 points per game in November.

UTEP

UTEP arrives after some horse trading landed this bowl for them and Conference USA, since the school is about 4 hours from the bowl site, much closer than the rest of the league’s options. UTEP started the year 5-1, feasting on weaker opponents early before getting knocked around by the better teams in C-USA, where they finished 3-5, 6-6 overall.

The Miners haven’t played since November 20, when their regular season ended with a loss to Tulsa. The lone bright spot near the end was knocking off eventual division winner SMU, but otherwise UTEP has lost a handful of close games to close things out. They’re a balanced team, with middle rankings on the ground and in the air, and senior QB Trevor Vittatoe can be lights out when he’s playing well.

Predictions

BYU comes in with the momentum and probably better talent too, and should have their way with UTEP, but it may not be so simple. The Miners will have to play their best game, and at least at the beginning of the year, BYU showed that you could throw them off by scoring on them early. The line is BYU by 11.5, but I think that UTEP can keep it closer and could steal the win in this one, but they’ll have to get it done early since they haven’t shown an ability to close games. BYU 30-20.

Bowl Projections, Round II

lowercase — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:00:32 +0000

Attempt #2 at guessing the bowl bids. I’m not even trying to do this weekly, because things don’t move that fast in the standings.

The bowls are listed by their selection order within the conference listed. Several bowls are “tied” in the selection order, and work together and/or with league offices to select teams.

BCS Bowl Games

I think there are powers that pull strings that have a lot of influence over the BCS bowls, hence getting Boise State in. The BCS doesn’t need the bad PR of excluding a team that hasn’t lost since 2008. They’ll fit Boise in somewhere. Hopefully the Rose, if Auburn loses to Alabama or in the SEC Championship and gets TCU in against Oregon.

Championship Game (#1 vs. #2)
Auburn vs. Oregon

Rose Bowl (Big 10 vs. Pac-10. Non-AQ gets first nod if one school lost to CG)
TCU vs. Michigan State

Sugar Bowl (SEC vs. BCS At-Large)
Boise State vs. LSU

Orange Bowl (ACC vs. BCS At-Large)
Virginia Tech vs. Wisconsin

Fiesta Bowl (Big 12 vs. BCS At-Large)
Nebraska vs. Pittsburgh

Conference USA

The bowls have a preferred selection order, but the conference office has most of the say over who goes where, unlike most leagues.

Liberty Bowl (C-USA #1 vs. SEC 8/9)
UCF vs. Kentucky

Hawaii Bowl (C-USA #2 vs. Hawaii/WAC #3)
Tulsa vs. Hawaii

Armed Forces Fort Worth, TX (C-USA #3 vs. MWC 3/4. Army gets bid if either league short a team)
SMU vs. Army

St. Petersburg (C-USA #4 vs. Big East #6)
Southern Miss vs. USF

New Orleans (C-USA #5 vs. Sun Belt #1)
Houston vs. Troy

Eaglebank Washington, DC (C-USA #6 vs. ACC #8)
ECU vs. Clemson

New Mexico (via WAC #5, vs. MWC #5)
UTEP vs. BYU

MAC

The MAC bowls rotate selection order in conjunction with the league.

Little Caesars Detroit, MI (MAC vs. Big 10 #7)
Temple vs. Illinois

GoDaddy.com (formerly GMAC) Mobile, AL (MAC vs. Sun Belt #2)
Ohio vs. Arkansas State

Humanitarian Boise, ID (MAC vs. WAC #2)
Northern Illinois vs. Fresno State

Kraft Fight Hunger San Francisco, CA (ACC #7 [projected vacant] vs. WAC #1)
Toledo vs. Nevada

Mountain West

Las Vegas (MWC #1 vs. Pac-10 #4/5)
Utah vs. UCLA

Poinsettia San Diego, CA (MWC #2 vs. Navy)
San Diego State vs. Navy

The Bowl has indicated they will not set an Air Force-Navy rematch.

Independence Shreveport, LA (MWC #3 vs. ACC #7)
Air Force vs. North Carolina

New Mexico Albuquerque, NM (MWC #4 vs. WAC #2)
BYU vs. UTEP

Sun Belt

New Orleans (Sun Belt #1 vs. C-USA #5)
Troy vs. Houston

GoDaddy.com Mobile, AL (Sun Belt #2 vs. MAC)
Arkansas State vs. Ohio

Birmingham (SEC #9 or Sun Belt vs. Big East #5)
ULM vs. Louisville

WAC

Kraft Fight Hunger San Francisco, CA (WAC #1 vs. ACC #7 [projected vacant])
Nevada vs. Toledo

Humanitarian Boise, ID (WAC #2 vs. MAC)
Fresno State vs. Northern Illinois

Hawaii (Hawaii/WAC #3 vs. C-USA #2)
Hawaii vs. Tulsa

Bowl Projections, Round 1

lowercase — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:00:35 +0000

This’ll be my first attempt at guessing the bowl bids for 2010, one of my favorite wastes of time from last season. The arrangements are confusing as all getout, but I think I’ve got most of the alignments right. Many assumptions are involved, of course, and the first one is that Boise isn’t going to make it to the BCS Championship Game. I hope they (or TCU) do, but right now the odds seem long.

The bowls are listed by their selection order within the conference listed. Several bowls are “tied” in the selection order, and work together and/or with league offices to select teams.

BCS Bowl Games

Championship Game (#1 vs. #2)
Auburn vs. Oregon

Rose Bowl (Big 10 vs. Pac-10. Non-AQ gets first nod if one school lost to CG)
Boise State vs. Michigan State

Sugar Bowl (SEC vs. BCS At-Large)
TCU vs. Ohio State

Orange Bowl (ACC vs. BCS At-Large)
Virginia Tech vs. Pittsburgh

Fiesta Bowl (Big 12 vs. BCS At-Large)
Missouri vs. Alabama

Conference USA

The bowls have a preferred selection order, but the conference office has most of the say over who goes where, unlike most leagues.

Liberty Bowl (C-USA #1 vs. SEC 8/9)
UCF vs. Kentucky

Hawaii Bowl (C-USA #2 vs. Hawaii/WAC #3)
UTEP vs. Hawaii

Armed Forces Fort Worth, TX (C-USA #3 vs. MWC 3/4. Army gets bid if either league short a team)
SMU vs. Army

St. Petersburg (C-USA #4 vs. Big East #6)
Southern Miss vs. USF

New Orleans (C-USA #5 vs. Sun Belt #1)
Houston vs. Troy

Eaglebank Washington, DC (C-USA #6 vs. ACC #8)
ECU vs. Clemson

MAC

The MAC bowls rotate selection order in conjunction with the league.

Little Caesars Detroit, MI (MAC vs. Big 10 #7)
Northern Illinois vs. Northwestern

GoDaddy.com (formerly GMAC) Mobile, AL (MAC vs. Sun Belt #2)
Temple vs. Middle Tennessee State

Humanitarian Boise, ID (MAC vs. WAC #2)
Ohio vs. Fresno State

Kraft Fight Hunger San Francisco, CA (ACC #7 [projected vacant] vs. WAC #1)
Toledo vs. Nevada

Mountain West

Las Vegas (MWC #1 vs. Pac-10 #4/5)
Utah vs. California

Poinsettia San Diego, CA (MWC #2 vs. Navy)
San Diego State vs. Navy

The Bowl has indicated they will not set an Air Force-Navy rematch.

Independence Shreveport, LA (MWC #3 vs. ACC #7)
Air Force vs. North Carolina

New Mexico Albuquerque, NM (MWC #4 vs. WAC #2)
BYU vs. Idaho

Sun Belt

New Orleans (Sun Belt #1 vs. C-USA #5)
Troy vs. Houston

GoDaddy.com Mobile, AL (Sun Belt #2 vs. MAC)
Middle Tennessee State vs. Temple

Birmingham (SEC #9 or Sun Belt vs. Big East #5)
FIU vs. Louisville

WAC

Kraft Fight Hunger San Francisco, CA (WAC #1 vs. ACC #7 [projected vacant])
Nevada vs. Toledo

Humanitarian Boise, ID (WAC #2 vs. MAC)
Fresno State vs. Ohio

New Mexico (WAC #2 vs. MWC #4)
Idaho vs. BYU

Hawaii (Hawaii/WAC #3 vs. C-USA #2)
Hawaii vs. UTEP

Bowl Announcement Almost-Live Blog

lowercase — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:28:58 +0000

I’m just going to be updating this at the bottom as solid sources and official announcements start letting us know who’s going where, with in the realm of non-BCS teams and their bowls.

What we know so far: Navy to Texas, UCF to St. Pete, and SMU to Hawaii.

First in we get confirmation that ECU is to the Liberty to play Arkansas (the Arkansas part not officially official yet).

Rutgers coming to St. Pete to play UCF.

Unconfirmed rumors of Boise State and Iowa being picked for Fiesta Bowl.

USF going to International Bowl to play a MAC team, not announced who yet.

Had a few quiet minutes there, now reading that Navy will get Missouri in the Texas Bowl.

Now Cal is being reported to the Poinsettia (I’m still thinking BYU, could still be Utah).

New report from Pete Thamel at NYTimes is Boise vs. TCU. Entire world hoping that’s not true. Way to put them at the kids table, BCS.

Also, now seeing Oregon State vs. BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl, which I thought wasn’t going to happen.

Things seemed to have slowed down again, only about an hour to the BCS Selection show, and most of the remaining bowls seem to hinge on the finally making Boise and TCU official.

Still quiet. And twitter is down, so that’s not helping.

New: Air Force & Houston will meet in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Wyoming is off to the New Mexico Bowl. This means that the Humanitarian will go out at-large as expected. Still nothing from the WAC or MAC.

Boise must have gotten confirmation of a BCS bid, since the WAC bowls are finally breaking- Fresno State to face Wyoming in New Mexico, and Nevada to Hawaii to meet SMU.

This may have broken earlier, but it is Utah to the Poinsettia to play Cal.

Just getting word that Troy will head to the GMAC Bowl instead of the New Orleans and face MAC Champ Central Michigan there, while Middle Tennessee is off to New Orleans to play Southern Miss. Thus, looks like it is Marshall to the Eaglebank, but that one is still blurry thanks to the Army game.

Looks like things have really been cranking behind the scenes today, considering that Troy is not going to the primary Sun Belt bowl, and now this: Ohio vs. Marshall in the Little Caesar’s bowl, Northern Illinois vs. USF in Toronto, Bowling Green to Humanitarian as expected, and Temple will face UCLA or Army in the EagleBank. This completes the non-BCS bowl list, so check the page above to see the whole thing, with 30 minutes until the BCS announcements start.

Sadly, the rumors are true. It’s Boise vs. TCU in the Kids Table Bowl/Separate But Equal Bowl/We’re Tired of Losing to You Guys Bowl/Fiesta Bowl.

Other great bowl titles coming across twitter include You Had A Great Season Bowl, Separate But Equal Bowl, and more…

Bowl Bids Coming In, Another Coach Out

lowercase — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:48:07 +0000

In addition to Navy already comitted to the Texas Bowl, reports are out today that UCF is accepting a bid to the St. Petersburg Bowl and that SMU is accepting a bid to the Hawaii bowl. UCF reportedly will face USF or Rutgers, while SMU will see Hawaii or another WAC school, pending Saturday’s Hawaii-Wisconsin game. As more bids come in, I’ll update as often as possible (especially on twitter) and set up a page shortly.

Elsewhere, despite being bowl eligible and expecting a bid, Mark Snyder has resigned at Marshall. I’ll get a full coaching watch post up tomorrow.

Bowl Projections: Week 13 – The Notre Dame Problem

lowercase — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:30:07 +0000

Here’s our final projection before bowl bids start pouring in. As always, all I have to work with is public information- I have no info on backroom dealings or unofficial alternate arrangements. And as before, I’m making guesses as to the reps from the big leagues, but those are harder since I don’t know as much about the politics involved in each of the big 6.

The At-Large Situation & Notre Dame

We have a few bowls with openings, and a few leagues with extra teams:

Openings:

EagleBank Bowl (ACC 8th Spot, possibly Army’s spot). CUSA will get one of the openings, the other will be at-large.
GMAC Bowl (ACC 9th Spot)
Humanitarian (MWC 5th Spot- MWC has 5 teams, but TCU to the BCS empties a bowl spot)

Overflowing Conferences:

Southeastern- Right now, 10 eligible teams for 9 spots. 7-5 teams include Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas and Auburn. No 6-6 teams. However, if both Florida and Alabama do go to BCS games, problem solved. Projecting that they will.
Pac-10- 7 teams for 6 spots, and unlikely to get a second BCS bowl. However, UCLA is 6-6 and cannot be placed ahead of a 7-5 team, and the Pac-10 can’t pick them for a bowl over one of their own, then putting a 7-5 team on the at-large market (NCAA Division I Bylaw 30.9.2.1). So the problem does solve itself, really.
Mid-American- 5 teams for 3 spots. 7-5 teams are Bowling Green and Northern Illinois. No 6-6 teams.
WAC- 3 bowls, could have 5 eligible teams. 7-5 teams are Idaho, possibly Fresno State. If Hawaii loses and Boise State goes to the BCS, problem solved.
Sun Belt- 1 bowl, 2 nine win teams, 2 more at 6-6. Middle Tennessee is 9-3, Louisianas Monroe & Lafayette both 6-6.

So if you project Hawaii to lose and send Boise & Alabama to the BCS, what you’re left with is 9-3 Middle Tennessee, 7-5 Bowling Green and NIU, and a couple 6-6 Sun Belt teams. I think the first three are off to the bowls listed above, while the Belt pair are done for the year. UCLA is also out of luck.

Then there’s the Notre Dame factor. The Gator Bowl has the right to take Notre Dame based on some sort of contractual deal, and if they do, the Big East could have somebody fall down into the at-large pool. Right now, that team looks like it could be UConn, currently at 6-5. They play South Florida this week, putting the non-BCS world in the horribly uncomfortable position of rooting for the Bulls in order to put UConn at 6-6 and out of the way of the 7-5 non-BCS schools. If UConn wins, and the Gator picks ND, consider UConn or USF projected to the Humanitarian bowl, and give my regards to Northern Illinois.

The Sun Bowl also has an agreement with Notre Dame, but that spot is assigned to a Big 12 team, and if ND is picked there, it will drop a 6-6 Kansas State or Texas A&M team down and out of the bowl picture, not threatening our three teams.

As far as I can tell, most bowls won’t be able to pick the Domers without a contract in place, since they’re 6-6, which is why it almost has to be the Gator Bowl. However, the Gator may prefer to have a good team there instead, and they have second pick from the Big East, which means that most likely two of Pitt, Cincinnati, and West Virginia will be available.

BCS Bowls

Boise now just needs favorites to win their conference title games, and they should be in. There is, of course, a bit of a conundrum as a neutral fan of non-BCS teams- if Nebraska upsets Texas, TCU could get a title shot (although Cincinnati could jump them, playing a respectable Pitt team Thursday night), but if that happens, then Boise’s BCS chances are on the rocks.

Sugar- TCU vs. SEC runner up

Fiesta- Boise State vs. Iowa or Penn State. Boise fans

Conference USA

C-USA, as I understand it, operates a little differently from some of the other leagues- after the Liberty Bowl makes its pick, the league office actually assigns teams to the other bowls in cooperation with bowl leadership, so the order of selection from Hawaii to St. Pete is a little less clear. The bowls below there, however, get lesser picks since they’re conditional.

Liberty- Houston vs. Arkansas in an old Southwest Conference reunion. Could also be Auburn.

Hawaii- SMU vs. Idaho. But if Hawaii beats Wisconsin this weekend, the Warriors automatically take the bowl.

Armed Forces (Ft. Worth, TX)- Southern Mississippi vs. Air Force. Only two bowl-eligible teams coming out of CUSA West this year, and USM is the westernmost team in the East division.

New Orleans- East Carolina vs. Troy – word is that the N.O. Bowl would rather have a team from farther away this year, since the Southern Miss crowd just comes for the day, and they’d like to grab a team that will stick around and spend some money in the city. Eaglebank would probably like to have ECU, but they may not have the option.

St. Petersburg – UCF vs. Connecticut. There’s some buzz for a UCF vs. USF matchup, but I think USF will get picked higher in the Big East shuffle- the St. Pete bowl is 6th in line, and they also had USF there last year.

EagleBank (Washington, DC)- Marshall vs. Bowling Green. At least one of the EagleBank bids is going to have to be conditional, or just delayed, because it could go to Army if they upset Navy in a strangely scheduled December 12 game. The MAC does not have any official tie to the bowl this year, and since the ACC can’t fill it’s spot, that position will go to CUSA, so some team will get invited quickly but probably not know who the other side is going to be for another week. If Army beats Navy on December 12 (why on earth did the NCAA ok that?), Army is in the game against the CUSA team.

Texas (Houston, TX)- Texas A&M vs. Navy.

Mid-American

The MAC also seems to have some control over which team goes where, although I can’t say I completely understand their system.

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (Detroit, formerly Motor City Bowl) – Central Michigan vs Minnesota. This would be a great matchup for the bowl, with both teams within at least a long days drive of Detroit.

GMAC Bowl (Mobile, AL)- Ohio vs. Middle Tennessee State- With Ohio advancing to the title game, I think the GMAC would like to have at least a division champion to put up against a good MTSU team.

International (Toronto)- Temple vs. Rutgers- this would be a pretty good game for Toronto, with two 8+ win teams and an old Big East rivalry of sorts.

EagleBank- Bowling Green vs. Marshall- I think this game will go to a 7 win MAC school, either BGSU or NIU, but they’re going to be left hanging for a week waiting to see if Army loses against Navy as expected. If Army does upset Navy for the first time in a bunch of years, then the team that would have gone here will be out of luck, since the other bowls will probably be filled up by December 6 or 7.

Humanitarian- Projecting Northern Illinois to head west to play Fresno State. If the Big East team does have an at-large team, I think they’re here and NIU is probably at home.

Mountain West

As mentioned, I think TCU is Sugar Bowl bound.

Las Vegas- Utah vs. Arizona. No change from my last estimation, despite BYU winning, I’ve seen discussion from those in the know that suggest Vegas and BYU are ready for a break from each other.

Poinsettia (San Deigo)- BYU vs. California. Again, not changing here, I think this would be a good fit for Team, Fans, and Bowl.

Armed Forces- Air Force vs. Southern Mississippi. It will be AFA’s third consecutive Armed Forces bowl, but they’re a good fit there and the only other option is Wyoming.

New Mexico (Albuquerque)- Wyoming vs. Nevada. It’s a tough spot to have to send a mid-pack MWC team, since the top bunch in the WAC is really good, but this game might draw a pretty good crowd.

Humanitarian (Boise, ID)- This game will go to an at-large team, probably all the way from the Sun Belt or MAC. Right now, I’m thinking Ohio since Bowling Green played Boise State earlier this year.

Alternate MWC/WAC bowl possibility: The MWC has five bowls but only four teams for them after TCU heads to the BCS. The WAC has just three bowls but four teams for them, if Boise doesn’t go to the BCS. One of the MWC bowls will therefore go at large, but the last two already have WAC ties, so perhaps the Armed Forces bowl will actually go to Fresno State instead of Air Force. It would make sense to me, but maybe not for the bowl. This would send Air Force up to the Humanitarian bowl, which would be as good of an at-large matchup as Boise State is going to find at this point.

Sun Belt

New Orleans- Troy vs. East Carolina. Troy has locked up the bid.

The Sun Belt has deals with the St. Pete, Papa Johns, and Independence bowls if any of those three come up short from their first-choice conferences. Unfortunately, none of them are going to.

I am projecting Middle Tennessee State to the GMAC bowl, which will have an extra slot available from the ACC and no contractual fill-in. Nobody else in the league got to the 7 win mark, and I think they’ll all be at home for the winter.

Western Athletic

As noted, I am now fairly confident that Boise is going to get into the Fiesta.

Humanitarian- Really not sure on this one. Idaho just lost again, so in their last 5 games, they’ve lost four and beat Louisiana Tech by a single point, which isn’t a great resume for getting into the league’s top bowl. But on the other hand, the league’s #2 team was just here, and would then play back-to-back games on the blue turf- not so appealing for traveling fans. So I think those two get shuffled out, and I’m putting Fresno State into the spot, against Northern Illinois.

New Mexico- Nevada vs. Wyoming. I think it’s a good match up, despite being a not-so-prestigious bowl.

Hawaii- Assuming Hawaii doesn’t beat Wisconsin, Idaho vs. SMU. If they do, then Idaho is probably heading east for an at-large spot. Maybe the Eaglebank out in DC.

Poinsettia- won’t be available to the WAC.

As always, comments are welcome- where are you hoping your team winds up?