The NCAA now sanctions 34 post-season football Bowl Games in the Bowl (ie. Division I) Division. That's room for 68 teams. 119 teams play Division I ball. To be eligible for a bowl, however, you have to win at least 6 games, at least 5 of which must be against Division I competition. This year, there are 71 such teams.

So three eligible teams won't go to bowls this year. And there will be some pretty dull matchups. Go below the fold to explore the possibilties.

6-6 Notre Dame has already said it won't go to a bowl, so that leaves just two other eligible clubs that will not be playing anymore. My guess is that those two will be a pair of hyphonated name 6-6 clubs from the feared Sun Belt conference, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe. Give both schools credit: they were willing to take on the best this year. Lafayette lost at LSU and Nebraska by a combined 86-3. Monroe traveled to Texas and Kentucky, losing by a combined score of 95-33. Lafayette does have a 17-15 win over a mediocre Big 12 team, Kansas St., and beat Monroe head to head. Monroe's best win on the season was probably their 27-25 squeaker at 5-7 Florida Atlantic. Ouch.

So if those are the three who won't be going, who will we get to see?

How about 6-6 Wyoming out of the Mountain West, which didn't beat a team with a winning record. The one-time scourage of the MAC turned Conference USA also-ran, Marshall, should take a 6-6 record into a game, include a 52-21 loss to 4-8 UTEP. Marshall did at least beat a couple other bowl teams, though, 7-5 SMU and 7-5 Bowling Green. Speaking of Bowling Green, the MAC will send a bunch of teams to bowls. Conference Champ Central Michigan (11-2 with a road win at Michigan St.) is certainly credible, and I certainly wouldn't begrudge bids to 9-3 Temple, which has a road win at Navy on its non-conference schedule, or 9-4 Ohio U., which beat Temple handily. Bowling Green will go in at 7-5, with it's best win over Sun Belt champ and bowl-bound Troy (bonus points if you know what state Troy is in), but that's its only win over a .500 or better team, and they've got a pair of one point wins in there. But they played Missouri close, losing by a touchdown in Columbia, and all of their losses are to bowl bound teams. The weakest MAC entry will be Northern Illinois, another school which did not beat a team with a winning record all year. It's best win is a 28-21 road upset of 5-7 Purdue. They also stayed within a touchdown of Wisconsin up at Madison.

Some other 6-6 clubs you'll see in bowls: UCLA (one win over a .500 or better team, that being a 4 point blowout of 7-5 Tennessee); Minnesota, Iowa St., Texas A&M, Michigan St., and Florida St.

But those clubs are probably all better than some of the other 7-5 teams marching off to bowls, including Idaho (best win a 3 point victory at the afore-mentioned Northern Illinois early in the season, and losers of four of their last 5. The Vandals gave up 70 points to Nevada and 63 to Boise St.) Air Force is 7-5 with no embarrassing losses (TCU at home by 3; road losses to Utah, BYU, Navy and Minnesota) but no wins over teams with winning records. SMU has one victory over a team with a winning record, a 28-21 win over Conference USA Champ East Carolina. Southern Mississippi has a win over 8-4 Central Florida, and three losses to teams with losing records. There are a gaggle of 7-5 teams from the SEC moving on, all of them with some good wins and some bad losses.

Meanwhile, if Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe are shut out, who will represent the Sun Belt in the bowls? Well, even the lowly Sun Belt can expect two bids, to conference champion Troy, which finished 9-3, but with just one victory over a winning team, a 31-7 home thrashing of conference rival Middle Tennessee St. Troy lost to Florida by 50 points, to Arkansas by 36, and even to Bowling Green by 17. The conference's other bowl bound member should be that Middle Tennessee St. squad, which also finished 9-3, losing to Clemson and Mississippi St. in addition to Troy. The Blue Raiders best wins? Well, they beat 2-10 Maryland by one point at Maryland; and they beat, of course, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe.