For the first time in college football history, three teams with a 5-7 record were selected for bowl games simply because there were not enough 6-6 teams to make bowl games this year. However, that rule may change this year as the DI council has just announced that teams with .500 records will have to be selected over 5-7 teams starting with the 2016 season.
Last year, the three 5-7 teams selected (San Jose State, Nebraska and Minnesota) were picked after they had the highest multiyear Academic Progress Rate in the FBS. The Spartans were given a spot in the Cure Bowl after the Missouri Tigers turned down their bowl invitation.
“It’s impossible to project how many eligible bowl teams we will have,” said Bob Bowlsby, chair of the football oversight committee and commissioner of the Big 12 Conference. “We think we have a selection process in the postseason that makes sense and is fair to the schools and the bowls.”
80 teams are picked for the 40 bowl games every year and last year, only 77 teams were eligible to make a game, which led to them adding in the three teams with losing records. However, there has been talk in the past of selecting a 5-7 team from a Power Five conference over a 6-6 team in a Group of Five conference.
This new rule, that goes into affect for the 2016-17 season, will eliminate that possibility. The council will also not have to worry about any new bowl games being added until the 2020-21 season.
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