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The bar for playing in a bowl game has never been lower. Three 5-7 teams are in. Every 6-6 FCS team is playing.
Kudos to 5-7 Missouri for refusing to reward its players for a miserable season made worse by an embarrassing strike threat. Nebraska, another 5-7 candidate, finished strong with a victory over Michigan State and a close loss to Big Ten West champion Iowa.
There’s no bias here in the exclusion of SEC teams. Missouri and Kentucky would have made the list had they gone bowling with 5-7 records. A bad season at Auburn wasn’t nearly bad enough.
Here are the bottom five teams that will be playing in a bowl game:
5. Kansas State (6-6) — It’s hard to find a Power 5 conference team with less impressive victories. The Wildcats played a typical Bill Snyder non-conference schedule, racking up triumphs over South Dakota, Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana Tech. They disposed of Iowa State and winless Kansas before their big victory, a 24-23 squeaker over West Virginia. Give the Wildcats credit for beating the Mountaineers to finish .500.
4. Indiana (6-6) — After squashing four cupcakes to begin the season, the Hoosiers played their most impressive game in Week 5, nearly pulling an upset of Ohio State. Then the roof caved in and Indiana lost six straight, including a blowout defeat to Penn State and a humbling setback against Rutgers. On the positive side, the Hoosiers hung tough against three of the Big Ten’s four best teams.
3. Penn State (7-5) — The Nittany Lions beat Buffalo, Rutgers, South Dakota State, Army, Indiana, Maryland and Illinois. They were routed by Ohio State and Michigan State and lost to in-state rival Temple. Whatever happened to Christian Hackenberg, the next great NFL quarterback?
2. West Virginia (7-5) — No roadkill or dentistry jokes here. The assignment to the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl is funny enough. For the most part, the Mountaineers beat the weakest teams and lost to the strongest teams on their schedule. They did whip Georgia Southern 44-0, a much more convincing victory than Georgia managed late in the season.
1. North Carolina State (7-5) — Give the Wolfpack credit for scheduling. N.C. State beat Troy, Eastern Kentucky, Old Dominion and South Alabama and had a good chance to go 7-0 before stumbling against mediocre Louisville and Virginia Tech. It didn’t get too much easier than that — not until later ACC games against Wake Forest, Boston College and Syracuse, anyway. Still, former Florida QB Jacoby Brissett had a solid performance that would have been appreciated in Gainesville.
