MOBILE, Ala. — The NCAA Board of Directors on Thursday approved a new bowl selection process for years in which there are not enough bowl-eligible teams, a change that could make South Alabama a postseason candidate during its final season of transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Under the new bowl selection process, if there are not enough eligible teams, or if a bowl cannot fill its spots through its conference tie-ins, the open spots would be filled through a six-tier order. The plan includes the possibility of a 5-7 team playing in a bowl game.
The Six Tiers
Teams would be considered in this order:
- 6-6 teams with a win over a Football Championship Subdivision team, regardless of that FCS team’s scholarship numbers.
- 6-6 teams with wins over two FCS schools.
- 6-7 teams whose seventh loss came in a conference championship game.
- 6-7 teams that played a 13-game schedule under the Hawaii exception, which allows Hawaii and its home opponents an extra game.
- Transitional teams moving from the FCS to the FBS that finish 6-6.
- 5-7 teams with a top-five Academic Progress Rate.
Why Slots Could Go Unfilled
There are 124 FBS programs in 2012. Four of them, South Alabama, UTSA, Texas State and Massachusetts, are completing the second year of a two-year transition from the FCS. Four others, Ohio State, Penn State, North Carolina and, most recently, UCF, are under bowl bans for the 2012 season.
Oregon and Miami (Fla.) have NCAA cases pending, which could reduce the number of potentially eligible schools to as few as 114. There are 35 bowl games, creating 70 slots.
In 2011, there were concerns that there would not be enough eligible teams. The season ended with 72 eligible teams for 70 slots, and 7-5 Western Kentucky was not offered a bowl berth.
What It Means for the Jaguars
South Alabama had been told that, as a transitioning program, it would not be eligible for a conference championship or a bowl game in 2012. Depending on how the new rule is applied, the Jaguars could be eligible to fill an open bowl slot if they finish with a qualifying record.
South Alabama will play 13 games this season, including a trip to Hawaii, in its first year of Sun Belt Conference football.
“It’s exciting to even hear that news,” head coach Joey Jones said. “We had put that completely out of our mind and that next year would be the first year that we would have an opportunity. For our players and our staff, that’s something to work toward.”
