Originally Posted by cys_av8r 
Just what we need, more bowl games. What a freakin joke. If this happens we will eventually see a team under .500 in a bowl. It will happen.
It can only happen if a team plays 13 games (which they can, if they are willing to go to Hawaii to play). 5 win teams are not eligible for bowl games.
Originally Posted by Clonehomer What happens when there aren't any .500 teams available? They came very close to not having enough 6-5 teams a couple of years ago. Are there usually that many 6-6 teams to guarentee these bowls will be filled every year?
The bowls can't be played, then. It's a risk those bowls have to take. This really is a non-issue, IMO, because the "marketplace" will determine the fate of any new bowl games. A new bowl is going to be sucking up the dregs of teams that are left. If they can make money on those games, and risk not having teams to fill them, then they'll make it. Otherwise (and likely) they won't. That's why the higher profile bowls have conference tie-ins with conferences that are likely to supply eligible teams - less risk of not having teams to play in your bowl game, and a better chance of having a high profile team.
Originally Posted by nomadiclone It already happened in 2001. North Texas was 5-6 but won their conference title. They started out 0-5 went 5-1 in conference and ended up 5-7 after losing to Colorado State in the New Orleans Bowl 45-20.
Winning a conference championship does not guarantee you a bowl game, but it makes a strong argument. The NCAA granted an exemption to North Texas that year to participate in a bowl game only because it won it's conference. That's a very limited and pretty unique situation. It was the first year of the Sun Belt conference, and it's kind of a slap in the face to say your conference champion can't go to a bowl game.
The point is, that's not going to happen wholesale with 5 win teams. I honestly don't see the problem in all 6 win teams making it to bowl games. That's what the NCAA says makes you eligible. It's not like they mean anything anyway, other than a reward for having an alright season. The better you do, the better bowl you go to. Do you think anyone in the Big 10 really WANTS to go to the Motor City Bowl?
