UPDATE: Louisiana-Lafayette reached bowl eligibility with a 42-28 win against Middle Tennessee State, pushing the number of bowl eligible teams to 72. Louisville's loss to Rutgers and Arizona State's loss to Arizona eliminated them from bowl consideration.
Teams need to guarantee that they will finish with at least six wins (five of which are over I-A teams) and at least a .500 overall record to become bowl eligible. Not every team that becomes bowl eligible will be invited to a bowl game, but, with 68 spots in 34 bowl games, most will. As of Nov. 29, there are four more bowl-eligible teams than there are bowl invitation slots.
If one conference does not have enough bowl-eligible teams fill all of its bowl affiliations, the bowl can invite at-large teams from other conferences that are eligible. All 7-or-more-win at-large teams must be invited before 6-win teams can be invited. Officially, bowl invitations are made after the completion of all regular-season and conference championship games on Dec. 6. However, you can expect to see several teams accepting "unofficial" bowl invitations during the next week.
To see a list of this season's bowl games and official bowl invitations, see this link:
http://kyle-schurman.suite101.com/college-football-bowl-schedule-a81557
Listed here are the teams that are bowl eligible from each conference, along with the probable bowls affiliated with those conferences. In addition to the bowl affiliations listed here, it appears three more bowl bids among the BCS bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar, and BCS Championship Game) will go to BCS conference teams. The final BCS bowl bid almost certainly will go to a non-BCS team, Utah.
ACC
- Bowl eligible (10): Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
- Bowl affiliations (9): Orange, Gator, Chick-fil-A, Music City, Humanitarian, Emerald, Champs Sports, Meineke Car Care, EagleBank
- Still alive: None
Big 12
- Bowl eligible (7): Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech
- Bowl affiliations (8): Fiesta, Cotton, Holiday, Alamo, Gator or Sun, Insight, Texas, Independence
- Still alive: None
Big East
- Bowl eligible (6): Cincinnati, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Florida, West Virginia
- Bowl affiliations (5): BCS, Papajohns.com, Meineke Car Care, International, St. Petersburg
- Still alive: None
Big Ten
- Bowl eligible (7): Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
- Bowl affiliations (7): Rose, Outback, Capital One, Alamo, Champs Sports, Insight, Motor City
- Still alive: None
Pac-10
- Bowl eligible (5): Arizona, California, Oregon, Oregon State, USC
- Bowl affiliations (7): Rose, Holiday, Sun, Emerald, Hawaii, Poinsettia, Las Vegas
- Still alive: None
SEC
- Bowl eligible (8): Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
- Bowl affiliations (9): Sugar, Outback, Capital One, Cotton, Chick-fil-A, Music City, Liberty, Papajohns.com, Independence
- Still alive: None
Conference USA
- Bowl eligible (6): East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulsa
- Bowl affiliations (6): Liberty, GMAC, Armed Forces, Texas, St. Petersburg, New Orleans
- Still alive: None
Mid-American
- Bowl eligible (6): Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan
- Bowl affiliations (3): Motor City, GMAC, International
- Still alive: None
Mountain West
- Bowl eligible (5): Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, TCU, Utah
- Bowl affiliations (4): Poinsettia, Armed Forces, Las Vegas, New Mexico
- Still alive: None
Sun Belt
- Bowl eligible (4): Arkansas State, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana-Lafayette, Troy
- Bowl affiliations (1): New Orleans
- Still alive: None
Western Athletic
- Bowl eligible (6): Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, San Jose State
- Bowl affiliations (3): Humanitarian, Hawaii, New Mexico
- Still alive: None
Independents
- Bowl eligible (2): Notre Dame, Navy
- Bowl affiliations (2): Sun or Gator or other, EagleBank
- Still alive: None
Kyle Schurman - null
