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http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/champ_ha ... otball.pdf

Stallion has alluded to this when he discusses Army's result after every week. But here it is in black and white. A conference has to fill its contractual obligations. And above .500 teams must be selected before .500 teams. Conference USA has six bowl tie-ins, but if Army is bowl eligible, it only has five. So there is no mistake, the bowls get their pick of teams with winning records before filling out the contractual obligations with .500 teams.

It is very possibly that, as in 2006, Conference USA will have six teams with .500 records or better. If there are six bowls for Conference USA because Army can't beat Temple or NTSU, there are no issues with a 6th place .500 Conference USA team going to a bowl. However, if Army is bowl eligible, there are only five bowl invitations. So, for example, if a team finishes 6-6 and there are five Conference USA teams at 7-5 or better, then those five teams must be selected to a bowl before the .500 team.

So, hypothetically speaking, if SMU goes 6-6, and there are five other Conference USA teams at 7-5 or better, then Hawaii can't invite SMU even if it wants to really bad.

SMU needs to be 7-5. In the alternative, root against Army.

In the case of a conference contractual affiliation, all conference teams with winning
records must be placed in one of the contracted bowl games before any institution with a
record of six wins and six losses may be placed in a contracted bowl game. There shall be
no contingency agreements with other sponsoring bowl organizations intended to enable an
institution with a record of six wins and six losses to become eligible for those contests.

I've said all along that its likely going to take 7 wins. That's why I hope and pray that Washington State loss doesn't come back to haunt us. There are four more wins out there to be had w/ Marshall, Tulane, Rice, and UTEP. Winning all our could be difficult but those are all games that we could even should win. That is the task ahead of us. If we beat Navy, and that is a big if, we are probably going bowling.

If there is only one thing I have learned in the last 20 something years of watching SMU football - there will be NO chickens counted around here until they are hatched. I will speak nothing about our bowl chances to anyone until we have enough wins to actually go to a bowl. We could get to 5 and easily lose out....and we could get to 5 and win out (not easily) .....or we may already have all our wins....or we may win out......anything can happen since neither we nor our opponants are good enough to make a reliable prediction on any given Saturday.

navy, houston and tulsa are pretty good. we could easily be looking at 3-5 with 4 to go. marshall will be tough in wv. utep is the key game. we can beat rice and tulane. we can go -6-6. i'm not so sure about 7-5.

one last point that needs to be added. A 6th bowl could open up to CUSA even if Army goes bowling. For example, a conference may not fill its alottment and there are independent non-affiliated bowl slots. In that case, CUSA could accomodate all teams with winning records and still send SMU to the Hawaii bowl by agreement.

I think I'm just going to take this one game at a time.

And of course, if we are 6-6 and in an at-large spot, our attendance factors in heavily. I mean the openning would probably occur in like the Emerald Bowl (Nutty bowl), or a bowl with an ACC tie in.

EastStang wrote:And of course, if we are 6-6 and in an at-large spot, our attendance factors in heavily. I mean the openning would probably occur in like the Emerald Bowl (Nutty bowl), or a bowl with an ACC tie in.

Yes and what Stallion is suggesting is that Hawaii Bowl makes a deal to take SMU and give a 7-5 or 8-4 CUSA team they would otherwise be stuck with (say Marshall for instance) to the bowl looking to fill an at-large spot.

I am not sure that any conference failed to fill its spots last season. I don't expect this one to be any different.

It is going to take a while to shake out, for sure. BTW, this Saturday is one of the key games for Army on the road against Temple. Temple is a 9 point favorite.

Dooby wrote:I am not sure that any conference failed to fill its spots last season. I don't expect this one to be any different.

It is going to take a while to shake out, for sure. BTW, this Saturday is one of the key games for Army on the road against Temple. Temple is a 9 point favorite.

Texas Bowl wasn't filled last year which is why Rice ended up playing Western Michigan. Not sure about any others

This is going to sound ridiculous because it is. The Hawaii bowl would be a bit of a bummer. I, and I'm sure everyone on here would love to go to a bowl game and The Hawaii bowl will be hard if not impossible for most to attend.

Agreed, but attendance would be decent overall with the JJ connection, and it would be a nice Christmas present for all Ponyfans.

this team just needs to find a way to win 7 games; that WSU game was in the bag and they let it get away. Did they "steal" one from ECU, or is this bunch just that much improved where they should be able to win 7, if not 8 games before the season is done?

As far as a conference filling its bowl obligations first goes... Dont they mean the teams with the best in conference records? So if we go 1-3 OOC it doesnt matter as long as we go 5-3 in conference which should put us in the top 5 teams in our conference??

SMU21TCU10 wrote:As far as a conference filling its bowl obligations first goes... Dont they mean the teams with the best in conference records? So if we go 1-3 OOC it doesnt matter as long as we go 5-3 in conference which should put us in the top 5 teams in our conference??

No.