WKU Football: Bowl Projection Round-Up Week 14
WKU Football grounded the high powered Southern Miss offense and came home with a convincing with to clinch their seventh win of the…
WKU Football grounded the high powered Southern Miss offense and came home with a convincing with to clinch their seventh win of the season. By crossing the seven-win threshold, WKU fans can officially start plans for a bowl trip in December. Here are your Conference USA standings through 13 weeks:
Reminder, Conference USA has five primary bowl tie-ins and three secondary tie-ins. Conference USA has eight bowl eligible teams (FAU, Marshall, WKU, Charlotte, FIU, UAB, La Tech & Southern Miss) with every other team eliminated from postseason contention. By getting to seven wins WKU should be safe from sitting the holidays at home. With that in mind, here are the latest bowl projections across the internet post-Week 13.
ESPN.com
Bahamas Bowl vs. Miami (Ohio) (December 20th 1 PM)
or
New Orleans Bowl vs. Appalachian State (December 21st 9 PM)
CBS Sports
Bahamas Bowl vs. Western Michigan (December 20th 1 PM)
The Athletic ($)
New Mexico Bowl vs. Nevada (December 21st 1 PM)
Banner Society
New Mexico Bowl vs. San Diego State (December 21st 1 PM)
College Football News
Gasparilla Bowl Vs. UCF (December 23rd 1:30 PM)
Sporting News
New Mexico Bowl vs. Utah State (December 21st 1 PM)
247 Sports
Gasparilla Bowl Vs. UCF (December 23rd 1:30 PM)
USA Today
New Mexico Bowl vs. San Diego State (December 21st 1 PM)
Stadium/Brett McMurphy
New Mexico Bowl vs. Nevada (December 21st 1 PM)
Athlon Sports
New Mexico Bowl vs. San Diego State (December 21st 1 PM)
Last Word on College Football
Bahamas Bowl vs. Miami (Ohio) (December 20th 1 PM)
Like I stated above, getting to that seventh win was huge for WKU. That should guarentee them a bowl spot giving them the tiebreaker over 6–6 G5 teams. There is potential of 5–7 teams going bowling by there not being enough bowl eligible teams for spots but WKU eliminated being on the immediate cut line by winning last Saturday. WKU now gets to jockey for position and gaining an eight win over hated rival MTSU would position them for a more desirable bowl destination.
WKU currently is tied for the fourth best record in the conference (Behind FAU, Louisiana Tech & UAB and tied with alot of 7–4 teams). Winning on Saturday and getting to 8–4 will make them more attractive to the more desirable destinations (Gasparilla, New Orleans, Boca Raton) as the bowls (and ESPN) prefer the best matchups possible.
After last week’s win it appears that WKU is positioned to go to these four bowls more than others: Gasparilla Bowl, New Orleans Bowl, Bahamas Bowl or New Mexico Bowl. If WKU losses on Saturday look for the latter two bowls to be in play. One thing that would help WKU avoid the Bahamas Bowl (and the logistics nightmare that comes with going there) would be the fact that they already played there in 2014. Teams such as Charlotte, Marshall & FAU haven’t had their turn playing there yet. If WKU does end up in the Bahamas Bowl we’ll know on Sunday as it is announced a week earlier than most. Should they lose and not go to the Bahamas keep an eye on New Mexico.
I selfishly would want the New Orleans Bowl because WKU hasn’t played in it yet and Bourbon Street would be awesome. It would also give WKU the best time (8 Central) and matchup (Appalachian State or ULL) of any of the bowls listed. I could see WKU pushing hard for Florida (Gasparilla or Boca) if given the choice due to recruiting but the game being on a Monday afternoon at 1:30 PM hopefully pushes them to the New Orleans Bowl. Only time will tell.
We’ll continue to update you weekly on the projections and as more outlets (Sports Illustrated, Yahoo, etc.) release their projections following Week 13.
What do you think about WKU’s projected destinations? Is the media completely off base with their predictions? Where do you want to see the Tops go? Let us know in a comment below, via Twitter at @TheTowelRackWKU or on our Facebook page.