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This is an awkward situation. I think San Diego State is sent to this one regardless of if they win the Mountain West or not. Boise State appeared in the 2023 edition. Not sure if fans would make a repeat trip so quickly. Meanwhile, San Diego State is nearby and has never appeared.
The Battle for the Ol’ School Bell has been played 63 times, but not since 2001. Jacksonville State has a 32-29-2 series advantage.
Missouri State gets an appearance here due to a shortage of bowl-eligible teams. Historically, this received the last bowl slot in 2022 when 5-7 Rice appeared and the Sun Belt vacated this bowl in 2021, giving the spot to independent Liberty.
Like Missouri State, Delaware gets in due to a shortage of eligible teams. The Myrtle Beach Bowl seems ideal since it’s one of the northernmost ESPN-owned bowls.
These two met in the 2007 FCS Championship Game with App State winning 49-21.
An ESPN Events-owned bowl has the second choice of bowl-eligible Mountain West teams. With the LA Bowl selecting nearby San Diego State for the first time, ESPN will want to select Boise State for one of its bowls. Why not a return to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl?
Boise State has not appeared in the bowl since 2005. A matchup with James Madison makes this game compelling.
These two met in the inaugural edition of this bowl in 2008, when it was the EagleBank Bowl. These two have met 12 times, 11 meetings coming since 1991. Wake Forest leads the series 7-5.
TCU has not played in its hometown bowl since 2007 when they played Houston.
The 1982 Independence Bowl was Kansas State's lone bowl game before Bill Snyder in 87 seasons of play. 43 years later I have them returning to Shreveport.
This one seems surprising. However, I project the Big Ten and Citrus Bowl doing everything they can to get an Oklahoma-Nebraska matchup. This is contingent on the Huskers finishing 8-4 and Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota all finishing with 9-3 records. The Big Ten allows schools to jump other schools in the bowl selection process as long as there is no more than a one game difference in records. Since Michigan appeared in the ReliaQuest Bowl last year, they slide to the next pick, the Music City Bowl.
Former Conference USA, Big East, and American Conference rivals would meet here through the SEC not being able to fulfill this tie-in.
Baylor gets the nod as a first-time participant in the long history of the Liberty Bowl. North Texas plays its first Power Conference bowl opponent.
