Coastal Carolina Football: The Chanticleers’ path to the New Year’s Six

This season is the best in Coastal Carolina football history. Is there a path to the New Year’s Six for the Chanticleers? Yes, and here it is.

If the season ended today and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers ended up in the Gasparilla Bad Boys Mower Bowl, the R+L Carriers Bowl, or the Boca Raton Bowl, it will be the best season in the short history of Coastal Carolina football at the FBS level. The Chanticleers joined the FBS and the Sun Belt in 2017. To find themselves undefeated and ranked No. 20 in the first College Football Playoff is worth noting.

It is understandable if head coach Jamey Chadwell and the Chants want more. Coastal would like a shot at a New Year’s Six Bowl. Where they are right now, the Chanticleers would need some chaos, a bit of luck and some magic.

Good thing Chanticleers are all about magic.

What is the clearest path to the New Year’s Six for Coastal?

One New Year’s Six at large bid is reserved for the highest-ranked Group of Five school in the final rankings. There are two schools ahead of Coastal right now, Cincinnati and BYU. The rules are clear about the highest-ranked Group of Five school, but what if that that team ended up in the national semifinal?

Could Coastal sneak in if Cincinnati got into the playoff?

The Bearcats would need lots of help to get into the National Semifinal. Much to many fans’ chagrin, Cincy does not have much of a shot to get into the National Semifinal. The Committee would likely take a two-loss Power Five Champion before an undefeated Group of Five champion, but these are unusual times.

If there were three, three-loss Power Five conference champions with the Pac-12 and Big-12 champion each had two losses, Cincinnati might sneak into the final four. If anarchy ruled, the committee would have to put Coastal in since the Bearcats are in the National Semifinal. The question here is, does the New Year’s Six bid work like the conference champion.

If Ohio State goes to the National Semifinal, the next highest-rated team in the Big Ten takes the Rose Bowl, or whichever Bowl takes the Big Ten if the Rose is a national semifinal. By that logic, if the highest-rated Group of Five gets into the national semifinal, does the next highest-rated Group of Five team take the at-large spot?

As much as we love busters and chaos, there hasn’t been havoc since Kansas went to the Fiesta Bowl. The likeliest path to the New Year’s Six is Cincinnati losing to Temple or Tulsa, then lose in the conference title game. Not only that, the Bearcats likely would have to lose twice. Since the Bearcats play in the highest-rated Group of Five conference, the Chants would need Cincy to lose to Temple (because of the Owls’ record) and Tulsa in the AAC title game.

Hopefully, the Chants have a bit of magic left.