Bowl play-in games with 8 of 78 spots open

By Michael Marot

There are 70 teams already bowl eligible, having won at least six games, and eight more spots to fill in 39 bowl games.

The past two seasons teams with 5-7 records have received bowl bids because there were not enough teams eligible with the minimum six victories. Those teams are selected using the most recent Academic Progress Ratings. The fivewin teams with the highest APR scores are first to be invited to fill open slots. The way things stand, there is a good chance there will be enough bowl-eligible teams and no five-win teams will be needed.

Four games this weekend are bowl play-in games, with each team sitting at 5-6: — California at UCLA — Colorado at Utah — Indiana at Purdue — Middle Tennessee at Old Dominion.

Ten other five-win teams play this weekend: — Buffalo vs. Ohio — Duke at Wake Forest — Georgia Tech vs. Georgia

— Louisiana vs. Georgia Southern

— Louisiana UTSA

— Minnesota vs. Wisconsin — Temple at Tulsa — Texas Tech at Texas — Tulane at SMU — UNLV at Nevada Eastern Michigan and Miami, Ohio, have each finished their seasons at 5-7.

Florida State, New Mexico State and LouisianaMonroe are 4-6 with two games left. Florida State and Louisiana-Monroe play each other next week.

Teams with one more game to reach five victories

— Air Force vs. Utah State Tech vs. — Arkansas vs. Missouri — Florida vs. Florida State

— Maryland Penn State — Nebraska vs. Iowa — Pittsburgh vs. No. 2 Miami

— Rutgers vs. Michigan State

— South Alabama at New Mexico, Dec. 2

— Syracuse College

— Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt — UMass at FIU, Dec. 2 — Vanderbilt at Tennessee

Idaho is games left. 3-7 vs. No. 12 No. 21 vs. Boston with two