After eight days of tense waiting and scoreboard watching, Ball State finally learned it will not play in a bowl game this year. It and Western Kentucky are the only two teams that are eligible to play in a bowl, but will instead watch from the couch.
With five other teams from the Mid-American Conference bowl eligible and just three guaranteed bowls for the conference, the Cardinals' hopes lay in the MAC's secondary agreements or an at-large spot in another bowl.
"There are 72 teams for 70 spots and unfortunately, we weren't one of them," athletic director Tom Collins said. "Another win probably would have solidified [a bowl berth] for us."
Collins said the NCAA's decision to grant UCLA a waiver to go to a bowl game despite its 6-7 record hampered Ball State's bowl hopes. The NCAA bylaws allowed for the exemption because the PAC-12 would not have been able to fill all its bowls without UCLA and because the Bruins' seventh loss was in the PAC-12 Championship Game, which is unscheduled.
But it is difficult for a 6-6 team from the MAC to go to a bowl game. Coach Pete Lembo had alluded to the difficulty earlier, saying Ball State knew where it was in the pecking order. The last 6-6 MAC team to reach a bowl game was Northern Illinois in 2008.
Selling the Cardinals as an at-large team was not an easy task for the MAC. With a 6-6 record and an extra bowl-eligible team from both the Big Ten and Big 12, there were better options for bowls to pick from than Ball State.
"When there are two BCS [automatic-qualifying] conferences with teams on the street, it's a hard thing to do," Bob Gennarelli, the MAC's senior associate commissioner, said.
The MAC's secondary agreements make it easier to compete with more well-regarded conferences for bids. The MAC has contracts with four bowls to provide teams should another conference be unable to fill its spot. But three of the bowls — the New Mexico, BBVA Compass and Beef ‘O' Brady's bowls — are lumped together and the contract requires only one MAC team play in one of the bowls, no matter how many other conferences aren't able to fulfill their agreements with the three bowls, Gennarelli said.
This year, all three bowls needed an at-large team, but once the New Mexico Bowl selected Temple, the Beef ‘O' Brady's Bowl and BBVA Compass Bowl were free to look outside the MAC for their team. The Beef ‘O' Brady's Bowl selected Florida International, which went 8-4 overall in the Sun Belt, while the BBVA Compass Bowl chose Southern Methodist, which was 7-5 overall in Conference USA.
Five MAC teams will go to bowl games, tying a record for the conference. The group is headlined by Northern Illinois, which won the MAC Championship Game on Friday, beating Ohio 23-20. Northern Illinois will play Arkansas State, the Sun Belt Conference champion, in the GoDaddy.com Bowl on Jan. 8. Ohio will play Utah State in the Idaho Potato Bowl, Western Michigan will play Purdue in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, Temple will play in the New Mexico Bowl and Toledo will play Air Force in the Military Bowl.
The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl also has a secondary bowl contract with the MAC, but was able to work out an agreement with the conference to allow it to select Illinois instead.
Despite the disappointment of being left out of a bowl, Collins said he is still pleased with the results of Lembo's first season at Ball State.
"It doesn't diminish the great year for Pete and our student-athletes," Collins said. "We'll build from here and move on."
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