Bowling Green winning hurts, but Cyclones still in a good spot for bowl game at 5-7

[Cycl1]

LOL. That's literally what 90% of the bowls are

Yes they are. I was against bowl expansion back when it meant over half the teams went to bowl games. It stopped being about rewarding a good seasons and became about money. There is nothing prestigious about 2 mediocre teams going at it in a game with a name like the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl. If a team wins its bowl game and is still under .500 then it shouldn't be there. A bowl game should be a reward for success. If we make it to a bowl at 5-7 its just because the bowl committee thinks they can suck money out of a fan base who celebrates mediocrity.

 

[GrayerClone]

You get a bunch more practices, that is what is wanted.

Yeah those extra practices last year really have helped out. Maybe Campbell and crew could stay home and take notes watching other football teams play.

Bowl games have changed a lot in 5 years. If your not in the playoff or an old BCS bowl I would say it really doesn’t matter anymore.

 

[AppleCornCy]

I’m not seeing a 5-7 team making a bowl. In fact, I kind of think there will be 6 win teams that get left out. That’s what I saw going conference by conference the other day, and I had Bowling Green not making it.

Just looking at what you have, the App State-Georgia Southern winner is guaranteed six wins, so that that takes away one spot. There’s a decent chance both get in as App State is favored at home this week over Old Dominion and Georgia Southern is only a slight dog to Marshall and will get App State at home.

UNLV has four wins but they’ll be a big favorite in their remaining two games. Hawaii and Nevada are awful and UNLV is actually somewhat decent.

UAB will be a big favorite over Louisiana Tech. The Blazers are a good team that I believe has dealt with some injuries, and Louisiana Tech is bottom 10 level.

Michigan State should beat Indiana at home.

Miami will be favored at home over Pitt.

Florida Atlantic is a 6 point favorite at MTSU this week. I think both of those teams get to a bowl.

I bet at least one of Louisiana, Georgia State, and Southern Miss get to six wins.

I just don’t see a likely path for a 5-7 team.

Another team I forgot to mention that wasn’t mentioned in the article is Arizona. They’re currently 4-6 and just completed one of the toughest five games stretches in the country (Oregon, at Washington, USC, at Utah, at UCLA) with a road win against the Bruins.

Arizona has two games left, both at home: Washington State and Arizona State. They’ll be favored against ASU, and while they’re 4 point underdogs against WSU, I could see them pulling off the minor upset. Pacific Northwest teams seem to struggle when they go to the state of Arizona, and Washington State is the former team of Arizona’s QB Jayden de Laura.

 

[exCYtable]

What bowl would we be an option for?

 

[gocy444]

What bowl would we be an option for?

Saw one prediction had us at 5-7 playing Oregon St in a low level bowl in Texas. I for one will never be mad at being able to watch my Cyclones play in a bowl game.

 

[VoiceOfReason]

I would obviously love if Iowa State played in a bowl game, even at 5-7. I love college football and the Cyclones. I want to see the seniors get to play in a bowl game and end their careers in a positive light. Why would I not want the chance to watch the Cyclones play another game this season?

Now that that's out of the way, I guess I can also sympathize with the crowd that is seemingly not interested in ISU playing in a bowl game if they don't hit six wins. This has been an incredibly disappointing season and I think we all hoped that the floor of a Matt Campbell-coached ISU team would be at least 6-6, even in a year that feels like a transition year. The disappointment is also compounded by the fact that we went 3-0 in the non-conference, finally got the Iowa monkey off our backs, and how wonderfully the defense has played this season.

The practice would obviously be great, but as much as it sucks to say, I'm not sure that I trust the coaching staff to make it effective. I think part of the reason that Campbell has been so resistant to change on the offensive end is we are largely using the gameplan/playbook/play calling that he wants to be running. I don't think the extra practice time would result in significant changes or even extra wrinkles on the offensive side of the ball and it's disheartening to watch Campbell and ISU repeat the exact same mistakes that Ferentz has made at Iowa over the past few years.

 

[isucy86]

Don't deserve a bowl game at 5 wins, its like getting handed a participation trophy. The extra practices are not gonna help a dang thing from looking how the season has gone with no improvement week to week.

That's a silly statement. If extra practices in December won't help young guys develop, we might as well cancel spring ball as well.

The fact that we could be a 5 or 6 win team going into a bowl game gives the staff every reason to experiment with lineups and give young guys snaps in practice and bowl game.

 

[Kaner04]

Did Vanderbilt winning just end our chances of being one of the 5-7 teams? They gotta have a better academic ranking right?

 

[cyIclSoneU]

Indiana beating Michigan State is good; MSU falls to 5-6 and will play at Penn State for bowl eligibility next week. And Indiana already had 7 losses.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

What bowl would we be an option for?

Brett McMurphy’s last projections had the New Mexico Bowl vs Wyoming and the First Responder Bowl (at TCU’s stadium) vs Oregon State as the two bowls that would need 5-7 teams. He projected Rice and Iowa State in those games respectively. And he said that Vegas right now would have that ISU-OSU game as a pick ‘em.

 

[simply1]

Brett McMurphy’s last projections had the New Mexico Bowl vs Wyoming and the First Responder Bowl (at TCU’s stadium) vs Oregon State as the two bowls that would need 5-7 teams. He projected Rice and Iowa State in those games respectively. And he said that Vegas right now would have that ISU-OSU game as a pick ‘em.

Oregon state would be sneaky tough game

 

[werdnamanhill]

The last thing this team deserves is a bowl game

Loyal forever true, am I right guys???

 

[werdnamanhill]

We are going to win out anyway

 

[cyclonepower]

BC problem will be out of the way shortly they are getting destroyed

 

[AlaCyclone]

Oregon state would be sneaky tough game

The Beavers are very good. Their RB (Damien Martinez from Lewisville, TX) would be a stud starter at Iowa State. He is a freshman! Kansas was the only Big Xii school to offer him. Georgia Tech offered him too. Not sure how the other 9 Big Xii schools whiffed on him, especially the TX schools.