There will be no sub-.500 teams in bowl games this year, and three qualified teams will be left at home this year. Here are the final bowl projections.
As the postseason has expanded, it has put bowl games in a conundrum. The drive to create bowl games has left a scramble to find enough teams to fill out the bowl calendar. Each of the past two seasons, the NCAA has had to grant conditional waivers to grant several sub-.500 teams eligibility to fill all of the available slots.
This season, however, the inverse is true. For the first time since the 2014 season, there are not enough invitations to accommodate all of the bowl-eligible teams. The cancellation of the Poinsettia Bowl, which had graced the postseason calendar from 2005 to 2016, means that three teams will be sitting at home this postseason despite amassing enough wins to qualify for a bowl game.
The three unlucky teams this go-around will probably be Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, and Buffalo. All three are 6-6 Group of Five teams whose conference lack the number of bowl affiliations to meet all their needs. It is an unfortunate turn of events after the past few seasons, but in a sport with unbalanced schedules and the ability to play FCS teams to reach bowl eligibility there is always the risk that some teams will be on the outside looking in.
Which 78 teams will fill out the 39 games on the postseason calendar? Keep reading for the final bowl projections ahead of the final release of this year’s schedule. (Teams marked in bold italic have already accepted invitations.)