Toledo awaits bowl fate after disappointing season
There are 79 bowl eligible teams for 78 bowl spots.
By Brian Buckey / The Blade
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 18:28:43 GMT
With the regular season of college football coming to an end, the University of Toledo football team will sit and await its bowl fate.
The Rockets are bowl eligible at 6-6 overall, but with 78 bowl positions available and 79 bowl-eligible teams across the college football landscape, one team will be left out.
With eight bowl-eligible teams from the Mid-American Conference and four that ended the season at 6-6 overall, there is a chance that a MAC team is the one team left out of a bowl game.
The eight eligible teams from the MAC are Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Miami, Buffalo, Ohio, Kent State, and Toledo.
With five primary bowl tie-ins for the MAC — the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl, the Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl, the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, and the Mobile Alabama Bowl — there will be three MAC teams on the outside looking in.
The MAC is also secondary bowl partners with the Frisco Bowl and the Quick Lane Bowl.
The Frisco Bowl will potentially feature teams from the AAC, Conference USA, the Mountain West, or the MAC. The Quick Lane Bowl will feature a Big Ten team vs. an ACC team with the MAC as a potential backup.
The four MAC teams with 6-6 overall records are Ohio, Kent State, Eastern Michigan, and Toledo. Eastern Michigan and Toledo have the worst conference records (3-5) out of the 6-6 teams. Toledo did beat Eastern Michigan 37-34 in overtime on Oct. 26 at the Glass Bowl.
Looking at the most recent national projections, Mark Schlabach of ESPN has Toledo in the Frisco Bowl against Cincinnati. Fellow ESPN colleague Kyle Bonagura has Toledo in the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl against Southern Miss. Bill Bender of Sporting News has Toledo against Louisiana in the Camellia Bowl.
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has Toledo as the one bowl eligible team to miss out on a bowl game, while Joe Tansey of Bleacher Report also left Toledo out of his bowl projections.
With the way the season finished for Toledo with three straight losses, there are questions whether the Rockets should even accept a bowl invitation.
A bowl game would be a reward for the seniors on the team and give them an opportunity to spend more time with their teammates before potentially playing the last football game of their career.
Another benefit is the extra practices leading up to the bowl game. With a young team like the one Toledo has this season, extra work on the field could be a big positive moving forward.
The Rockets have lost their past three bowl matchups — twice to Appalachian State and last year to Florida International. Would another potential bowl loss carry negative momentum into the offseason?
It has been a rough year for Toledo, and there is no guarantee this season will continue for the Rockets. A lot will have to play out before Toledo learns its bowl fate.
Toledo running back Bryant Koback rushes against the University at Buffaloduring the second half of a college football game at UB Stadium on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019.