The Arkansas State Red Wolves are bowl eligible for a school-record ninth-consecutive season. However, they have not punched their ticket to the postseason just yet.
Though it seems highly likely the Red Wolves will indeed get a bowl bid at season’s end, it is within the realm of possibility that they could be left at home, even with a winning record. The move is not unprecedented in the Sun Belt, even in recent history. Just a season ago, the ULM Warhawks stayed home despite boasting a 6-6 record.
The Sun Belt has five bowl tie-ins, but the conference could potentially receive more bids under the right circumstances. One such scenario would require the Sun Belt champion to receive a New Year’s Six bid, awarded to the highest-ranked Group of 5 team. With Appalachian State falling to Georgia Southern a few weeks ago, those hopes were all but dashed.
The only other circumstance that could allow an additional Sun Belt team to go bowling is if there are not enough bowl-eligible teams at the end of the regular season to fill all the bowl slots. There are 39 bowls this year, leaving 78 available spots. As of this writing, 63 teams are bowl eligible, with another 15 just one win away from the designation.
Though it remains possible, it is fairly unlikely that the Sun Belt could sneak a sixth bowl-eligible team into the postseason. The Sun Belt Champion will go to the New Orleans Bowl (if not selected to a NY6 Bowl), with the Cure Bowl, Camellia Bowl, Lending Tree Bowl, and Arizona Bowl left to pick four non-champions.
Going into the penultimate week of the college football season, the Sun Belt has five bowl-eligible teams. The Appalachian State Mountaineers, the Georgia State Panthers, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, the Arkansas State Red Wolves, and the Georgia Southern Eagles have all notched at least six wins through 10 contests so far this year. The Troy Trojans sit just outside the group with a 5-5 record, while the ULM Warhawks and Coastal Carolina Chanticleers are quickly losing postseason hope at 4-6.
At this point, it is inconceivable that either Appalachian State or Louisiana would miss out on the postseason. The Mountaineers are 9-1 with two Power 5 wins on the season, while Louisiana sits at 8-2 on the year. That leaves three open spots, and four teams fighting to fill them.
The Troy Trojans could be the determining factor in the Sun Belt bowl mania. They face the two top teams in the conference to finish the season with a road trip to Lafayette on Saturday and a home bout with App State to close out the year. If they fall in both contests they will miss the postseason, but any other result would leave the Trojans bowl eligible.
Both Coastal Carolina and ULM are still in the race for bowl eligibility, but one will be eliminated from contention this weekend as they face off in Monroe. The winner of the contest will also have to win their respective season finale to reach the six-win mark, as ULM travels to Louisiana while Coastal Carolina hosts Texas State.
In the end, that leaves a total of seven teams fighting for five spots, making every game a must-win for every team.
Though Arkansas State has reached the six-win minimum for a bowl berth, if more than five Sun Belt teams reach the mark, it will be up to the bowl games themselves to choose which teams go bowling and which stay at home. A win against Georgia Southern would do wonders for the Red Wolves, and should all but secure their spot in the postseason. A loss, though, virtually puts the team in a must-win situation in the season finale against South Alabama.
The Red Wolves will have their hands full when Georgia Southern arrives in Jonesboro on Saturday. With both teams vying for one of the five Sun Belt bowl bids, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m. CT at Centennial Bank Stadium.
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