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Independents

• Notre Dame (11-0).  The path is pretty clear for the Irish.  If they defeat USC this weekend, then they will head to the Bowl Championship Series national title game.  If they lose, they will go to one of the other BCS bowls, most likely the Sugar Bowl.  Either way, their status as the only bowl-eligible major undefeated team will leave them in good shape.
• Brigham Young (6-5).  The Cougars are just barely bowl-eligible, but their final game against 1-9 New Mexico State ought to help make their record a bit more attractive.  BYU appears to be locked into the Poinsettia Bowl against one of its former foes from the Mountain West conference.  (The Cougars went independent in football this year.)
• Navy (7-4).  The Midshipmen are bowl-eligible even without a victory in the oh-so-traditional Army-Navy showdown on Dec. 8.  The Middies appear to be locked in to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco, in which they will face a Pac-12 opponent.

Conference-USA

1. Liberty Bowl
2. Hawai'i Bowl
3. Armed Forces Bowl
4. Beef O'Brady's Bowl
5. Military Bowl
6. New Orleans Bowl

• Tulsa (9-2) is set for one spot in the C-USA title game, with Central Florida (8-3) having the inside track for the other.  The winner will be in line for the Liberty Bowl berth.
• The losing team, or East Carolina (7-4), would appear to get the trip to Hawai'i, with the Armed Forces bowl getting the remaining one of those three.
• Three other teams have a shot at grabbing one of the other three slots.  Marshall (5-6) needs a win over East Carolina.  Southern Methodist (5-6) needs to defeat Tulsa.  Rice (5-6) needs a victory over Texas-El Paso.  Rice seems to have the most likely win.  If those teams don't become bowl-eligible, then those slots will be absorbed by at-large berths to teams from other conferences.

Mid-American Conference

1. Little Caesars Bowl
2. GoDaddy.com Bowl
3. Famous Idaho Potatoes Bowl

• And one conference that is set to absorb a bunch of those at-large bids is the MAC.
• Kent State (10-1) and Northern Illinois (10-1) are set for the MAC title game, and the Golden Flashes of Kent even have a signature win (over top-20 Rutgers).  The league champion is supposed to be rewarded with a game against the Big Ten in the Little Caesars Bowl, but the Big Ten won't have enough eligible teams this year, so the MAC will have to settle for whatever can be found.
• The runner-up seems to be headed to the GoDaddy.com Bowl to face a team from the Sun Belt, although Northern Illinois played there last year and they made decide to mix it up.
• So the Huskies or Ball State (8-3) will get the trip to Boise to play on the blue field and eat famous Idaho potatoes.
• Ohio (8-3), Toledo (8-3) and Bowling Green (7-4) have eligibility, will travel.  They'll soak up berths that other conferences leave unfilled ... such as the Beef O'Brady's, Military and BBVA Compass bowls.
• And Central Michigan (5-6) could snag one of those unclaimed spots as well, assuming there are any left, with a win over 1-10 Massachusetts.

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Big East Bowl Tie-ins

1. Bowl Championship Series
2. Russell Athletic Bowl
3. Belk Bowl
4. Cotton Bowl
5. Pinstripe Bowl
6. BBVA Compass Bowl
7. Liberty Bowl
8. Beef O'Brady's Bowl

Upper Crust

Rutgers (9-1)

Louisville (9-1)

• The Scarlet Knights and Cardinals play on Nov. 29, with the winner almost certain to take the BCS spot reserved for the Big East.  Although the conference has been beaten up pretty badly, and raided for almost all of its attractive members (including Rutgers [Big Ten] and, perhaps, Louisville [rumored to be under consideration by the ACC]), it appears, that for 2012 at least, the conference will be well-represented in the BCS by a top-20 team (with the loser presumably headed to the Russell Athletic Bowl).  Once the new BCS structure starts in 2014, though, the Big East will lose "automatic" status.  That decision already has Boise State reconsidering its decision to sign up with the remaining eastern schools.

Middle Class

Cincinnati (7-3)

• The third Big East spot will head to Charlotte for the Belk Bowl.  The Bearcats look to get that nod.

Just Scraping By

Syracuse (6-5)

UConn (4-6)

Pittsburgh (4-6)

• The Orange are the only team that does NOT need more wins to become bowl-eligible.  That would seem to make them a lock for the Pinstripe Bowl at above-pictured Yankee Stadium. The Huskies need to win out against Louisville and Cincinnati, which seems like a longshot.  Pitt needs a pair of wins over Rutgers and South Florida.  That's not so improbable, particularly given that the Panthers took No. 1 Notre Dame into overtime.  Either way, there's likely to be more than one Big East slot that goes unfilled and becomes an at-large berth.

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