4 bowl play-in games this weekend with 8 of 78 spots open
There are 70 teams already bowl eligible, having won at least six games, and eight more spots to fill in 39 bowl games.
The past two seasons teams with 5-7 records have received bowl bids because there were not enough teams eligible with the minimum six victories. Those teams are selected using the most recent Academic Progress Ratings. The five-win teams with the highest APR scores are first to be invited to fill open slots. The way things stand, there is a good chance there will be enough bowl-eligible teams and no five-win teams will be needed.
Four games this weekend are bowl play-in games, with each team sitting at 5-6:
- California at UCLA
- Colorado at Utah
- Indiana at Purdue
- Middle Tennessee at Old Dominion.
Ten other five-win teams play this weekend:
- Buffalo vs. Ohio
- Duke at Wake Forest
- Georgia Tech vs. Georgia
- Louisiana vs. Georgia Southern
- Louisiana Tech vs. UTSA
- Minnesota vs. Wisconsin
- Temple at Tulsa
- Texas Tech at Texas
- Tulane at SMU
- UNLV at Nevada
Eastern Michigan and Miami, Ohio, have each finished their seasons at 5-7.
Florida State, New Mexico State and Louisiana-Monroe are 4-6 with two games left. Florida State and Louisiana-Monroe play each other next week.
Teams with one more game to reach five victories
- Air Force vs. Utah State
- Arkansas vs. Missouri
- Florida vs. Florida State
- Maryland vs. No. 12 Penn State
- Nebraska vs. Iowa
- Pittsburgh vs. No. 2 Miami
- Rutgers vs. No. 21 Michigan State
- South Alabama at New Mexico, Dec. 2
- Syracuse vs. Boston College
- Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt
- UMass at FIU, Dec. 2
- Vanderbilt at Tennessee
Idaho is 3-7 with two games left.
APR scores for all possible five-win teams
1. Air Force, 995
2. Duke, 992
Minnesota, 992
Vanderbilt, 992
5. Maryland, 984
6. Georgia Tech, 983
Middle Tennessee, 983
Utah, 983
9. Indiana, 982
10. Florida, 980
11. Cal, 978
12. Nebraska, 977
Buffalo, 977
14. Miami, Ohio, 976
15. Pittsburgh, 975
16. Rutgers, 973
17. Tennessee, 972
Temple, 972
19. Purdue, 971
UCLA, 971
21. Colorado, 968
Syracuse, 968
23. Tulane, 967
24. Arkansas, 966
25. Louisiana-Monroe, 963
26. Old Dominion, 955
27. Louisiana, 954
28. South Alabama, 952
29. New Mexico State, 950
30. Eastern Michigan, 947
Texas Tech, 947
32. UNLV, 943
33. Florida State, 939
34. Louisiana Tech, 937
35. UMass, 932
36. Idaho, 927
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College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo contributed.
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