From Athlon:
"If you’re scratching your head as to why a team with fewer than six wins is in a bowl game, you’re not alone. The 5-7 Minnesota Golden Gophers are taking on the 7-5 Bowling Green Falcons in the Quick Lane Bowl, even though teams need to have six wins to be bowl-eligible.
Out of the 82 opportunities to play in a bowl game, only 79 bowl-eligible teams were able to fill them, leaving three openings. Two of them were filled by James Madison and Jacksonville State, who originally would not have been allowed to play in a bowl game having recently moved up from the FCS level.
That left one spot available for a five-win team and the tiebreaker has nothing to do with football. The spot went to the team with the best Academic Progress Rate. Of the five-win teams remaining, the Golden Gophers had the best APR."
Does this mean that there are 41 bowl games? Does anybody get to create their own bowl to promote their product?
I was rooting for them to make history by losing.
They would have been the first bowl team to finish a season 5-8.
too many bowls. given the complete apathy regarding them by the players, these need to go away, and will. I'm doing my part by not watching them at all.