There are currently only 54 bowl eligible teams available for the 28 bowls, and I'm rooting for:

Boston College (Syracuse)...

Hawaii (Northwestern)...

Michigan State (Hawaii)...

Memphis/Pittsburgh (South Florida)...

UAB/Cal (Southern Mississippi)...

Tulane (TCU)...

Louisville (Tulane)...

LSU (Arkansas)...

>>UAB/Cal (Southern Mississippi)...
<<

UAB? what's that about?

I will be rooting for UAB (and Cal) in their upcoming games against Southern Mississippi...I want to see a dearth of bowl-eligible teams and/or bowl games resorting to teams from the MAC and the Sun Belt...I also forgot to mention that if Nebraska loses to Colorado it becomes bowl-ineligible...I would also like to see the winner of the Big XII North (i.e. Iowa State) finish 6-6 and be bowl-ineligible...however, the Big XII North should produce two bowl-eligible teams regardless (Iowa State clinches the North with a Colorado loss to Nebraska, who would subsequently become bowl-eligible)...regardless, if there weren't enough teams eligible for bowl competition under the current guidelines, surely the NCAA would reinvoke the ".500 waiver," and certain teams (e.g. Hawaii, Michigan State, Northwestern) would meet said criteria and provide for an adequate number of bowl-eligible teams for the existing slots...

I just saw your post. I posted something similar on the SC/Clemson thread. Now it is 52 teams available. It could be as few as 53. The only guarantee is that either IA St. or Nebraska qualifies. Iowa St. only misses out if they back into the Big 12 north with a loss and then loses to OU in the championship game. And the only way they can do that is if Nebraska beats CU, otherwise CU is the champ.

Update:

53 teams qualified (excluding SC and Clemson). With Nebraska's loss, Iowa St. is guaranteed a winning record. Arkansas also lost. 57 teams will not go to bowls. So there are 7 left trying to qualify.

I was counting on UAB and BC, but they both suffered minor upsets. However, I wasn't counting on Tulane to win on the road. And Memphis and LSU did their job.

We have to pull for Hawaii (for one week), however, that is probably a long shot.

There are now 55 teams qualified and willing. Hawaii or Northwestern will be eliminated tonight. Tulane will likely be eliminated next week vs. Louisville. It will probably be exactly 56 teams. That is still good news for 6-5 Akron.

BTW, there will be a maximum of 4 6-6 teams. NW is currently 6-5, Michigan St. 5-6 and Hawaii 5-5. La Tech is 5-6 with a game remaining at Rice. I'm assuming Nevada doesn't score 45 points in the last 5 minutes against Boise).

Miscounted the eligible ACC teams. There ARE 56 eligible and willing, so every bowl has a team. NW, HI and Tulane are all still trying. Akron's hope is on all 3 failing.

Will the NCAA change the rules to give a bowl a chance to pick a 6-6 NW or 6-6 HI over 6-5 Akron? If HI comes through tonight, there's a good chance we'll find out.

They are 5-6, and play Hawaii next weekend.

I saw bowl projections on some of the sports websites projecting Akron for some very far distant bowls, like the Silicon Valley Classic, the Humanitarian, or even the Hawaii Bowl, if Hawaii doesn't become bowl elgible.

Its hard to imagine Akron in a bowl. They should create their own bowl called the Rubber Bowl, as that's where they play.

There average attendance this year is ~16,000. How can they get anyone to travel to Boise, ID, San Jose, CA or Honolulu, HI?

The other 5 MAC teams make sense, as all of them, except Northern Illinois, have been to a bowl recently.