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Ramblings from the Ultimate Sports Sentimentalist

"Outside the Box" commentary about the sporting world

Week 10 College Football Bowl Eligibility Analysis

Posted by deaconcat08 on November 8, 2009

Thought I’d create a column for the next few weeks analyzing the bowl bubble and determining each team’s chances of playing postseason college football.  Please note that these odds only represent the chances that a particular team will get enough wins to be eligible to receive a bowl bid.  They do not represent the odds a team has in actually receiving a bid.  This discrepancy likely won’t affect the bowl chances of most major conference teams, but sometimes a 6-6 record won’t be enough to a get bid from a non-BCS conference.  It all depends on how many other teams are bowl eligible from a conference and how many total bids are available to that conference.  The exception to this is for the Sun Belt conference teams, which I went ahead and assumed they need 7 wins to make it to a bowl.  Also, next week’s games that could make or break a team’s bowl eligibility are italicized. 

Good Side of the Bowl Bubble: Teams closing in on bowl bids-

  • Arkansas- Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligibility: 75% (last week: 58%); Remaining Schedule: Troy, Miss. State, at LSU
  • Texas A & M- Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligibility: 66% (last week: 75%); Remaining Schedule: at Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas
  • Marshall- Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligibility: 64% (last week: 68%); Remaining Schedule: Southern Miss, SMU, at UTEP
  • SMU- Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligibility: 64% (last week: 63%); Remaining Schedule: UTEP, at Marshall, Tulane
  • Central Florida- Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligibility: 64% (last week: 55%);Remaining Schedule: Houston, Tulane, at UAB
  • Western Michigan- Record: 4-6; Odds of bowl eligibility: 63% (last week: 66%); Remaining Schedule: at Eastern Michigan, Ball State
  • Missouri- Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligibility 61% (last week: 70%); Remaining Schedule: at Kansas State, Iowa State, Kansas (note: Horrible loss to Baylor puts them squarely on the bowl bubble) 
  • Ole Miss- Record: 6-3 (need 7 wins); Odds of bowl eligibility: 60% (last week: 65%); Remaining Schedule: Tennessee, LSU, at Miss. State
  • UL-Monroe- Record: 5-4 (prob. needs 7 wins for a bid); Odds of bowl eligibility: 59% (last week: 59%); Remaining Schedule: WKU, at UL-Lafayette, MTSU (note: going for first bowl big in school history.)
  • Texas A & M- Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligibility: 58% (last week: 59%); Remaining Schedule: at Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas
  • Michigan State- Record: 5-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 57% (last week: 66%); Remaining Schedule: at Purdue, Penn State (note: odds drop because Purdue game looks tougher than expected)
  • Kentucky-Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligibility: 56% (last week: 60%); Remaining Schedule: at Vandy, at Georgia, Tennessee
  • Kent State- Record: 5-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 55% (last week: 57%); Remaining Schedule: at Temple, Buffalo
  • Bowling Green- Record: 4-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 55% (last week: 45%); Remaining Schedule: at Miami-OH, Akron, Toledo
  • UCLA- Record: 4-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 54% (last week: 48%); Remaining Schedule: at Wazzou, Arizona State, at USC
  • North Carolina- Record: 6-3 (needs 7 wins); Odds of bowl eligibility: 53% (last week: 53%); Remaining Schedule: at Miami-FL , at BC, at NC State
  • Florida State- Record: 4-5;  Odds of bowl eligibility: 52% (last week: 56%); Remaining Schedule: at Wake, Maryland, at Florida (note: there may end up being only 2 bowl eligible teams from the ACC Atlantic- BC and Clemson)
  • Iowa State- Record: 5-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 51% (last week: 54%); Remaining Schedule: Colorado, at Missouri(note: the fact that the Big 12 North may very well get 5 bowl bids is a crime against humanity, especially against human football fans who like to watch good bowl games)
  • Kansas State- Record: 6-4 (needs 7 wins); Odds of bowl eligibility: 51% (last week 45%); Remaining Schedule: Mizzou, at Nebraska (note: The Wildcats have a decent shot of winning the division, yet they also have a decent shot of not making a bowl.  That pretty much sums up the Big 12 North in 2009)
  • Kansas- Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligiblity: 51% (last week: 68%); Remaining Schedule: Nebraska, at Texas, Missouri (note: If this team ends up falling short of a bowl bid, it would rank as possibly the biggest last-season collapse of all-time.  Rivalry game with Mizzou come end up being a bowl play-in game)
  • Bad Side of the Bowl Bubble: Teams who will likley be home for the holidays

  • Southern Miss- Record: 5-4; Odds of bowl eligibility: 49% (last week: 52%); Remaining Schedule: at Marshall, Tulsa, at ECU
  • Tulsa- Record: 4-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 47% (last week 47%); Remaining Schedule: ECU, at Southern Miss, Memphis
  • UConn- Record: 4-5; Odds of bowl eligbility: 46% (last week: 35%); Remaining Schedule: at ND, Syracuse, South Florida
  • UAB- Record: 4-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 45% (last week: 44%); Remaining Schedule: at Memphis, at ECU, Central Florida
  • Toledo- Record: 4-6; Odds of bowl eligibility: 44% (last week: 51%); Remaining Schedule: Eastern Michigan, at Bowling Green
  • Michigan- Record: 5-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 43% (last week: 67%); Remaining Schedule: at Wisconsin, Ohio State
  • Purdue: Record: 4-6; Odds of bowl eligbility: 42% (last week 30%); Remaining Schedule: Michigan State, at Indiana
  • San Diego State- Record: 4-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 41% (last week: 45%); Remaining Schedule: Wyoming, at Utah, at UNLV
  • Wyoming- Record: 4-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 41% (last week: 38%); Remaining Schedule: at San Diego State, TCU, at Colorado State; (Note: odds improve after being blown out only because of how bad Colorado State has proven that it is.)
  • Wake Forest- Record: 4-6; Odds of bowl eligibility: 37% (last week: 40%); Remaining Schedule: FSU, at Duke (Note: Even though the Deacons have proven they can play with anyone, their odds drop because this team just can’t seem to find a way to win close games this year)
  • Arizona State- Record: 4-5; Odds of bowl eligibility: 33%; (last week: 35%) Remaining Schedule: at Oregon, at UCLA, Arizona
  • Army- Record: 3-6; Odds of bowl eligbility 28%; (last week 28%); Remaining Schedule: VMI, at North Texas, Navy
  • UTEP- Record: 3-6; Odds of bowl eligibility: 25% (last week: 34%); Remaining Schedule: at SMU, at Rice, Marshall (Note: Probably the end of the Mike Price reign in El Paso)
  • Indiana- Record: 4-6; Odds of bowl eligibility: 23% (last week: 33%); Remaining Schedule: at Penn State, Purdue
  • Duke- Record: 5-4 (needs 7 wins); Odds of bowl eligibility: 22% (last week: 37%); Remaining Schedule:  GT, at Miami-FL, Wake Forest (Note: All the Duke bowl talk was premature and overblown.  Last week’s loss really sealed their bowless fate.)
  • Bubble watch teams from last week who have now clinched bowl eligbility: Stanford, Northwestern, Kansas State

    Bubble watch teams from last week who are now out of bowl contention: