NCAAF

The bowl eligibility picture is almost complete

Erick Smith
USA TODAY Sports

The mystery of who will be the 80 bowl-eligible teams in the postseason is almost solved.

Mississippi State  players celebrate with the Egg Bowl trophy after beating Mississippi.

With one weekend left, 76 spots are confirmed for teams with six wins. Two of those, Army and Hawaii, will get placed after the others due to the Black Knights having two wins against FCS schools and the Rainbow Warriors finishing 6-7.

There are just two teams playing this Saturday that have an opportunity to finish 6-6: South Alabama (home vs. New Mexico State) and Louisiana-Lafayette (at Louisiana-Monroe). The Jaguars, like Army, would finish with two FCS wins.

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With only two spots up for grabs, it means at least two of the needed 80 spots won't be filled by six-win teams.

That opens the door for 5-7 finishers. Those teams are selected by multi-year APR rankings. North Texas and Mississippi State have the two highest scores in that group and are guaranteed an opportunity to play in a bowl. The Bulldogs have the same APR (971) as Texas, however they have priority based on the most recent single-year APR.

College football's Week 13 winners and losers

The Longhorns will be the next team up if either South Alabama or Louisiana-Lafayette lose. Northern Illinois would be in the mix if both were defeated.

Entering last weekend, it appeared there would be several more 5-7 teams given invitations. Then came the upsets. North Carolina State, Southern Mississippi, Vanderbilt and Boston College all won to secure their postseason future.

Texas and Northern Illinois rose in the pecking order when Duke, Notre Dame, Syracuse and UCLA - all teams ahead of them in the APR ranking - lost out on opportunities to finish 5-7.

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