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NCAA easing rules for bowl eligibility for one season
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There are dozens and dozens… well, and dozens of bowl games nowadays.
Some hate it, while others enjoy the fact that plenty of teams are able to end their season with an extra game while getting extra practice time going into the following season. No matter where you stand on the matter, the fact is that for many college football teams this fall, they may not have the chance at hitting that six-win mark.
For the B1G, the conference may only be playing nine games this season if it goes with an unmodified version of its schedules. Yes, the non-conference games are canceled for this year. But if the schedule stays the same outside of that, each team will only play nine games.
On Wednesday, the NCAA’s Division I Council announced that teams can count two games against qualifying FCS teams as opposed to only one game.
Well, sure, that helps schools that play two FCS schools this season. But what if you’re the B1G and you won’t be playing any (due to a conference-only schedule)?
Fear not, the executive director of the Football Bowl Association — Nick Carparelli — said that the bowl eligibility requirement of going .500 won’t change. This, in a sense, makes things easier.
After all, instead of the usual six games needing to be won, teams in the B1G would only need five (to finish at or above .500 if there are indeed only nine games played).
However, if only nine games are being played, it’s harder to win five of those against B1G only opponents as opposed to six against what could be viewed as three “cupcake” opponents.
Again, we’ll have to wait and see as to what the schedules actually look like for teams in the B1G this upcoming season. Then, we can revisit if it will actually be easier or more difficult to make a bowl game this postseason.
More information on the easing of bowl eligibility can be found here.
Kevin covers Big Ten football for Saturday Tradition.