The most comprehensive analysis of the college football bowl bubble is back! For the sixth-straight year, I will be publishing weekly November columns analyzing which teams will get bowl bids and which will not. Below, I have written a report for every team that has yet to be declared either bowl eligible or ineligible. Each week this list will be updated and new odds will be provided for each team. 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 for 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. The teams are ordered in descending order of likelihood that they will become bowl eligible. As of now, there are 32 teams on the list with 18 predicted to attain bowl eligibility and 14 predicted to fall short. As of now, I’m projecting there to be 78 bowl eligible teams for 2014 (see full stats at the bottom of this entry). Keep in mind that there are a total of 76 bowl slots to be filled.
Good Side of the Bowl Bubble: Teams closing in on bowl bids (18):
Houston– Record: 5-4; Remaining Schedule: vs. Tulsa, at SMU, at Cincinnati; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 98% (previous odds: 98%)
Florida– Record: 5-4; Remaining Schedule: vs. EKU, at Florida State; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 97% (previous odds: 99%)
South Carolina– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. South Alabama, at Clemson; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 90% (previous odds: 49%)
Virginia Tech– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: at Wake, vs. Virginia; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 82% (previous odds: 61%)
Tennessee– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. Missouri, at Vandy; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 81% (previous odds: 65%)
Navy– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: at South Alabama, vs. Army; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 80% (previous odds: 56%)
UAB– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. Marshall, at Southern Miss; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 79% (previous odds: 79%)
Ohio- Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. NIU, at Miami-OH; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 74% (previous odds: 74%)
Washington– Record: 6-5 (needs 7 wins); Remaining Schedule: vs. Oregon State, at Wazzou; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 71% (previous odds: 77%)
Western Kentucky- Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. UTSA, at Marshall; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 68% (previous odds: 54%)
Texas State– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. Arkansas State, at Georgia State; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 66% (previous odds: 73%)
San Diego State– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. Air Force, vs. San Jose State; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 64% (previous odds: 67%)
North Carolina– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: at Duke, vs. NC State; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 63% (previous odds: 42%)
Middle Tennessee– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. FAU, at UTEP; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 62% (previous odds: 78%)
Michigan- Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. Maryland, at Ohio State; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 60% (previous odds: 60%)
Arkansas– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. Ole Miss, at Missouri; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 55% (previous odds: 41%)
Stanford– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: at Cal, at UCLA; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 54% (previous odds: 75%)
California- Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. Stanford, vs. BYU; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 53% (previous odds: 53%)
Bad Side of the Bowl Bubble: Teams who will likely be home for the holidays (14):
Akron– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: vs. Umass, at Kent State; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 48% (previous odds: 48%)
Buffalo– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: vs. Kent State, at Umass; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 47% (previous odds: 47%)
Northwestern– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: at Purdue, vs. Illinois; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 42% (previous odds: 7%)
Temple– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: vs. Cincy, at Tulane; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 40% (previous odds: 45%)
Kentucky– Record: 5-6; Remaining Schedule: at Louisville; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 33% (previous odds: 43%)
Pittsburgh– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: vs. Syracuse, at Miami-FL; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 32% (previous odds: 46%)
Fresno State– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: at Nevada, vs. Hawaii; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 29% (previous odds: 29%)
Wyoming– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: vs. Boise, at New Mexico; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 25% (previous odds: 25%)
Oregon State– Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: at Washington, vs. Oregon; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 24% (previous odds: 15%)
Illinois– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: vs. Penn State, at NW; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 23% (previous odds: 30%)
Old Dominion– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: vs. LA Tech, at FAU; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 22% (previous odds: 22%)
Oklahoma State- Record: 5-5; Remaining Schedule: at Baylor, at Oklahoma; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 21% (previous odds: 52%)
Virginia– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: vs. Miami-FL, at VT; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 20% (previous odds: 20%)
South Florida– Record: 4-6; Remaining Schedule: at Memphis, vs. UCF; Odds of Bowl Eligibility: 7% (previous odds: 5%)
Already Bowl Eligible (60): Memphis, East Carolina, Florida State, Clemson, Louisville, Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami-FL, Baylor, TCU, Kansas State, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Michigan State, Maryland, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Marshall, Louisiana Tech, Rice, Notre Dame, Bowling Green, Toledo, Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, Central Michigan, Nevada, Colorado State, Boise State, Utah State, Air Force, Oregon, Arizona State, UCLA, Southern California, Arizona, Utah, Missouri, Georgia, Mississippi State, Alabama, Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas A & M, LSU, UL-Lafayette, Arkansas State, Cincinnati (previous odds: 95%), UCF (previous odds: 99%), Penn State (previous odds: 71%), NC State (previous odds: 80%), Rutgers (previous odds: 66%), Brigham Young (previous odds: 99%), South Alabama (previous odds: 64%), Texas (previous odds: 51%), UTEP (previous odds: 84%)
Already Ineligible for a Bowl Game (36): Georgia Southern*, Appalachian State* Tulsa, SMU, UConn, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Iowa State, Purdue, FIU, FAU, UTSA, Southern Miss, Kent State, UMass, Miami-OH, Eastern Michigan, Hawaii, UNLV, Colorado, Washington State, Vandy, Troy, Idaho, New Mexico State, Georgia State, Ball State (previous odds: 18%), Army (previous odds: 16%), Kansas (previous odds: 1%), Tulane (previous odds: 4%), New Mexico (previous odds: 6%), Texas Tech (previous odds: 3%), Indiana (previous odds: 2%), San Jose State (previous odds: 6%), UL-Monroe (previous odds: 9%), North Texas (previous odds: 14%)
Current Stats:
Already Bowl Eligible: 60
Predicted to be Bowl Eligible: 18 (78)
Already Ineligible for a Bowl Game: 36
Predicted not to become Bowl Eligible: 14 (50)