WKU Football: Final Bowl Projection Round-Up
WKU Football finished off a great regular season by holding on against arch-rival Middle Tennessee clinching their eighth win of the…
WKU Football finished off a great regular season by holding on against arch-rival Middle Tennessee clinching their eighth win of the season. We now anxiously have to wait until Sunday’s bowl announcement, when we find out where the Hilltoppers will be traveling for bowl season. Here are your Conference USA standings through the end of the regular season:
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. Charlotte has already claimed the Bahamas Bowl bid so that destination is off the table. By getting to eight wins WKU has positioned itself to compete for an appealing postseason destination. With that in mind, here are the latest bowl projections across the internet post-Week 14.
ESPN.com
First Responder Bowl (Dallas) vs. SMU (December 30th 11:30 AM)
or
Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth) vs. Air Force (January 4th 10:30 AM)
CBS Sports
Independence Bowl (Shreveport) vs. Miami (FL) (December 26th 3 PM)
The Athletic ($)
Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa)vs. Tulane (December 23rd 12:30 PM)
Banner Society
Gator Bowl (Jacksonville) vs. Florida State (January 2nd 6 PM)
College Football News
Independence Bowl vs. Florida State December 26th 3 PM)
Sporting News
New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque) vs. Utah State (December 21st 12 PM)
247 Sports
Music City Bowl (Nashville) vs. North Carolina (December 30th 3 PM)
USA Today
New Mexico Bowl vs. San Diego State (December 21st 12 PM)
Stadium/Brett McMurphy
New Mexico Bowl vs. Wyoming (December 21st 12 PM)
Athlon Sports
New Mexico Bowl vs. San Diego State (December 21st 12 PM)
Last Word on College Football
Independence Bowl vs. Florida State December 26th 3 PM)
Orlando Sentinel
Frisco Bowl vs. SMU (December 20th 6:30 PM)
Bleacher Report
Gasparilla Bowl vs. SMU (December 23rd 12:30 PM)
After last week’s win it appears that WKU’s bowl projections are all over the board. Reminder that the winner of the CUSA Championship (UAB vs. FAU) has first priority on its bowl destination. After that its left up to the individual bowls to select the team that matches what they’re looking for (geography, fan following, etc). I could see both FAU & UAB being interested in Tampa or New Orleans so that puts both of those bowl options on teneous grounds for WKU.
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.
The Independence Bowl is a distant third on the bowl preference order. It will give them a probable chance to beat a P5 team (probably a 6–6 ACC team) but is also on a bad day for fans to attend (the day after Christmas) in a pretty undesirable location (Shreveport). After that it looks like the Texas bowl games are next, they give a more desirable opponent (solid AAC or MWC opponent) and travel date but are still a long ways from WKU’s fan base (12+ hours). Bringing up the rear would be the New Mexico bowl which I think Todd Stewart will avoid at all costs. WKU would probably have minimal fan support in Albuquerque as it is a 20 hour drive and flights aren’t cheap. Someone will have to fill it and WKU may be the odd man out with USM, UAB & La Tech’s close proximity to the Louisiana and Texas bowls.
There are some wildcard possibilities as well with the SEC not having enough teams to fill their bowl slots. This would potentially open up places like Charlotte, Jacksonville, Nashville & Birmingham though I still think they’re less than 5 percent possibilities for any of those games due to fan base size and the bowl’s histories. Todd Stewart is sure to do some lobbying and has a track record of coming through (see 2012 & 2017) with unexpected destinations.
Stay tuned for Sunday as we’ll be all over the bowl coverage. Regardless of where the Hilltoppers go it’s exciting to get back to the postseason and build towards a probable Conference USA Title contender in 2020.
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.