What a bowl bid might look like for UConn
The UConn football team suffered a 34-17 defeat on the road against Army in the regularseason finale last weekend, falling to 6-6 in a season which has seen a transformation of the program under Jim Mora.
With its sixth win a week prior over Liberty, UConn became bowl eligible for the first time since 2015 and had hoped to improve its résumé with a win to end the season.
It did not happen.
And as an independent team, UConn’s easiest path into a bowl game is with one of the at-large bid offers, since the majority of the 82 slots in the 41 bowl games have contracts with conferences. Will UConn be selected? That remains to be seen. This week players went home for Thanksgiving, likely with the bowl question looming over their heads. It will remain a question as they return to practice next week.
While we wait, here is a breakdown of the potential UConn landing spots based on predictions from national reporters and sites.
PREDICTIONS
⏩ On Tuesday, Collegefootballnews.com predicted UConn will play Appalachian State in the Duluth Trading Cure Bowl at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on Friday, Dec.16.
This would put freshman quarterback Zion Turner in his home state. Appalachian State is 6-5 and will finish its regular season at Georgia Southern on Saturday.
⏩ The Athletic agrees, also placing UConn in the Cure Bowl. But they have the Huskies facing UNLV.
⏩ Brett McMurphy at Actionnetwork.com predicts UConn will play Syracuse (again) in the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa on Friday, Dec. 23. Syracuse beat UConn 48-14 in September at Rentschler Field.
The Orange began the season 6-0 and were ranked in the AP Top 25, but they’ve lost five in a row and end the regular season Saturday at Boston College.
McMurphy also writes that there are 73 bowl eligible teams heading into the
final weekend with 17 teams needing one win to qualify. Four of those teams are playing each other, so that brings the list of bowleligible teams to 75 with 13 teams bidding for a sixth win — but only four are favorites this week.
So there may not be enough six-win teams, which bodes well for UConn.
⏩ Before UConn’s loss to Army, Sports Illustrated predicted the Huskies would play ECU in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday, Dec. 22. After the loss, SI put UConn in the Dec. 19 Myrtle
Beach Bowl against Toledo.
⏩ Jerry Palm of CBS has UConn against Georgia Southern in the LendingTree Bowl on Dec. 17 in Mobile, Alabama.
⏩ The website 247Sports slots UConn in the Quick Lane Bowl against Bowling Green on Dec. 26 in Detroit.
⏩ Finally, ESPN has a prediction from two reporters. Mark Schlabach has the Huskies in the Dec. 17 New Mexico Bowl against San Diego State while Kyle Bonagura is with Palm and has UConn in the LendingTree Bowl but against Southern Miss.
Who will be right? Mora and his players will be anxiously awaiting official news in the coming weeks.
“I think if we were able to get a bowl game, it will kind of complete the journey of this season. Every season is a new journey but I think it will complete the journey,” Mora said. “I think it will make everyone feel like they accomplished something special. I think it will give everyone a sense of pride that they were able to send our seniors out with a bowl.”