If there are bowl game vacancies to fill at the end of the season, it is still unknown if the NCAA will allow for 5-7 teams to be eligible to fill them. A decision on what to do to address possible bowl spots left unfilled is expected to be made next week by the NCAA Football Oversight Committee, according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com.
Here is the situation for the bowl season. With two weeks left in the regular season, including conference championship games, there are 80 spots available to fill 40 postseason games, not including the College Football Playoff national championship game, which will obviously see two of the four teams selected for the playoff participate. With the season drawing to a close, there are 71 teams currently meeting the standard bowl-eligibility requirement of having won six regular season games.
As noted by McMurphy, who has been tracking this story for a few weeks now, there are 17 teams that can still meet the minimum number of wins. If there are not enough teams that break even in the win column, then the possibility of 5-7 teams being made available becomes a realistic possibility. This would likely be decided first by top APR scores, with school with the highest APR scores getting first crack at available bowl spots.
This could be good news for the Big Ten, as the top three schools facing this scenario all reside in the Big Ten (Nebraska, Rutgers and Indiana). Nebraska can avoid having to rely on this potential exemption by scoring an upset of undefeated Iowa this Friday.