Way Too Early Independence Bowl 2020 Projections
So it's September, and it would normally be too early to project an Independence Bowl battle. But this year, it's even worse to try and pull this off. Thanks COVID.
We do have a college football season right now, which means we're planning to have a bowl season too. Which means that we're looking at an Independence Bowl in Shreveport too.
This was already set to be a weird year for the Indy Bowl, a new sponsor, Radiance Technologies, and new conference tie-ins. One is actually not a conference, but Army. While the other is the Pac-12, who haven't even started their season.
Which plays into this big scenario we're all trying to break down. How can we predict what's going to happen in Shreveport, when only one of the teams involved are playing? We're going to try.
First, Army. They're 2-1 right now, meaning they're on a path to 6 wins, and will be bowl eligible. Meaning they're likely to fill one side of the game.
Second, the Pac-12. This is where things get really screwy.
The Pac-12 wasn't going to play football this year, at all, but they changed their mind and will play some games. Their schedule will start in November, and will be a 7-game schedule. The start time isn't really the issue, it's the length of the schedule.
Unless they changed the rules for 2020, and I didn't see it, teams need 6 wins to be bowl eligible. So teams having a 7 game schedule in the Pac-12 means 6 wins will be hard for a lot of teams to get, especially since they're playing each other over and over.
Basically, lets not consider any Pac-12 team this year.
This will bounce us to the backup Conference agreements. Which usually bounces between Conference USA and the American Athletic Conference. Last year, Louisiana Tech represented Conference USA, so it would likely be an American Athletic team this year.
There are three ranked teams in the American Athletic Conference right now, so some of them might be out of Indy Bowl consideration. But there's a team that's not ranked, who already has 2 wins, which would be awesome for Shreveport. That team is Tulane.
If the Indy Bowl was able to pull off an Army vs Tulane game in 2020, that would be AMAZING. So let's hope for that. For now, that's our way too early prediction.