With the spots filling up quickly, there are now 50 teams with six wins, however, Ole Miss is on a bowl ban for this season, and Hawai'i, after starting 6-1, are in danger because they actually play 13 games and are not eligible yet because one win is over an FCS team. Once you also remove Liberty from the equation (1st year in FBS/not eligible), there are 105 teams vying for 78 spots, although 11 of them are in danger of being knocked out next week.
Here's a look at who's trying to make it to a bowl game:
1.)
This one took longer than they'd like as the Wolfpack began the season 5-0, but suffered back-to-back losses to Clemson and Syracuse. They beat up on Florida State this weekend to make their bowl dreams come true.
Best Win: Boston College
Bowl Projection: Military Bowl
2.)
The Blue Devils are likely headed to their second straight bowl appearance after a rain soaked win against Miami. Duke has impressive non conference wins over Army (7-2), Northwestern (5-4), and Baylor (5-4), but are just 2-3 in conference play.
Best Win: Army
Bowl Projection: Belk Bowl
3.)
When they're not trying to clothesline in state rivals, the Spartans can put together some big wins, as they did against Purdue and Penn State, and now a very good survival win against Utah State (8-1). Still losing to Michigan can't feel good for Sparty.
Best Win: Penn State
Bowl Projection: Quick Lane Bowl
4.)
Jonathan Taylor has run for over 1,300 yards despite having no help in the passing game. These issues clearly came up against Michigan, Northwestern, and BYU, but the Badgers do have a nice win over Iowa.
Best Win: Iowa
Bowl Projection: Music City Bowl
5.)
The father-son duo of Rick and Brent Stockstill has been a recipe for success in Murfreesboro. The Blue Raiders are looking to go to their fourth straight bowl appearance and should get win number seven against UTEP (1-8) before running into Kentucky (8-2) and UAB (8-1).
Best Win: Marshall
Bowl Projection: First Responder Bowl
6.)
The Ohio Bobcats got to six wins in a statement fashion with a 59-14 blasting of Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. Ohio nearly lost to Cam Newton's brother and Howard in week one and have generally been pushed around by superior opponents like Virginia and Cincinnati.
Best Win: Western Michigan
Bowl Projection: Boca Raton Bowl
7.)
The Huskies 1-3 start was a product of challenging themselves in their non-conference, with losses at Iowa, Utah, and Florida State. This has made them, especially their defense so difficult to face in MAC play. Not to mention they won a 7-6 game at BYU.
Best Win: BYU
Bowl Projection: Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
8.)
Everyone has their eyes on Justin Herbert at Oregon, who has shown great moments in games like Washington, but has also struggled to rally his team against Stanford and Washington State, while being embarrassed in Arizona. Still the Ducks knocked out UCLA and should cruise to an easy win in this year's Civil War.
Best Win: Washington
Bowl Projection: Redbox Bowl
9.)
The Bulldogs have had big moments against Texas A&M and Auburn, but haven't been able to get up to their potential. After a breeze win over Louisiana Tech to get to six wins, the get the honor of taking on Alabama.
Best Win: Auburn
Bowl Projection: Outback Bowl
10.)
In and out of the rankings, the Tigers have the big win over Washington, the near win against LSU, but also the stunning loss to Tennessee. The Iron Bowl will probably look similar to the way LSU/Alabama went.
Best Win: Washington
Bowl Projection: Liberty Bowl
So long farewell:
1.)
Life is so bad post Lamar Jackson that the Cardinals won't make a bowl for the first time since 2009. They also suffered the second largest loss in ACC play when they dropped nail biter to Clemson 77-16. Oh and rival Kentucky is one of the best teams in the country.
Worst Loss: Georgia Tech, but I mean they just lost 77-16 to Clemson.
2.)
Larry Fedora bemoaned the downfall of the physical play of football during the preseason ACC Conference. He should've worried about having his team ready to not get run over by ECU (2-6). The Tar Heels will now miss a bowl in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2006-07.
Worst Loss: East Carolina who had just lost to FCS NCA&T.
3.)
A sight rarely seen is a Ken Niumatalolo team in a bowl game. Since taking over at Navy in 2007, his program had only missed once before in 2011. Worse for them is that Army is guaranteed to retain the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy after the Black Knights beat the Falcons who had already defeated the Midshipmen. They're also at risk of losing three straight to Army which hasn't happened since the Black Knights won five straight from 1992-96.
Worst Loss: 42-0 to Cincinnati only to have to face the longest winning streak in college football, UCF.
4.)
The Cornhuskers came to life in their last three games, but it wasn't enough to stave off an already historically bad season in Scott Frost's first season. At one point they had the worst losing streak in school history and have now missed a bowl game in back-to-back seasons since their drought from 1955-61.
Worst Loss: Troy
5.)
They looked good against Notre Dame or made the Irish look bad briefly anyway, but since then it's been not so good. They've lost four of their last five and are the only team that can say they lost to Western Kentucky, who lost to FCS Maine, who is the only win for Central Michigan, who lost by one to Ball State. They haven't been to a bowl since 2013.
Worst Loss: Western Kentucky
6.)
In a gauntlet of bad opponents, the Rebels were able to avoid embarrassment to UTEP (1-8), but couldn't do the same in a blowout loss to San Jose State (1-8). It's been since 2014 that the Rebels have played a meaningful game in December.
Worst Loss: San Jose State
7.)
Chip Kelly's return to college football has not gone the way he planned. After losing five straight, they put together back-to-back wins, but then the Bruins crashed back to reality against Utah and Oregon. The Bruins have missed a bowl in two of the past three seasons.
Worst Loss: Colorado
8.)
The Beavers stunned Colorado two weeks ago, but didn't have to gusto to keep their season alive against USC. They did score 31 on Ohio State, but also gave up 77. It's been since 2013 that the Beavers graced a bowl game.
Worst Loss: Nevada
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