If you've already seen this....

BullDice · October 29, 2005

^if we win out, would we still get the nod over WVU or Pitt?

October 30, 2005

^if we win out, would we still get the nod over WVU or Pitt?

The Gator Bowl this year gets to choose the first non-BCS team from the Big East or Notre Dame AND the ACC #3 team (the ACC championship is in Jacksonville, so the #2 team would not want to play two games in a row at Alltel Stadium). The ACC#3 team will be either Virginia Tech, Miami, or Florida State.

Realistically, it looks like VT will win next week and get to face Florida State in the championship, which gives Miami the Gator Bowl slot. Since USF played Miami, and conferences/networks prefer to avoid rematches, USF would realistically be out of consideration for the Gator Bowl, regardless of how the rest of the season plays out.

If Notre Dame wins out, they will probably go to the BCS (they have to finish with 9 wins and in the top 12 to qualify). If they lose one more game, they can't get 9 wins and probably won't finish in the top 12 -- which means they would probably go to the Gator Bowl (Miami vs Notre Dame is a great matchup for them).

Also consider that the Big East already has two bowl-eligible teams (West Virginia and Rutgers) and one more on the verge (Louisville). Pitt needs to win two out of three, which means they will need to beat U Conn and win in either Louisville or Morgantown... U Conn also needs two wins and the Huskies still have USF, Pitt, WVU, and Louisville on their schedule. Cincinnati, believe it or not, could get in with two wins - but they have USF, WVU, and Rutgers on their remaining schedule.

USF actually seems to have the "easiest" schedule of the potential teams: Rutgers, Syracuse, Cincy, U Conn, and WVU. USF needs to win three of these games to reach 6 wins and eligible for a bowl.

I also did a quick analysis of all the bowl slots on this thread:

http://www.thebullspen.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=news;action=display;num=1130646508