There Were Too Many Bowl-Eligible Teams, So the NCAA Simply Created a New Bowl Game on Three Weeks' Notice

Action Network — The NCAA has added another bowl game in Texas to allow all current bowl-eligible teams a chance to play in the postseason, sources told The Action Network.

The game will be played between a pair of Group of Five teams, sources said. The Football Oversight Committee approved the additional bowl game Thursday afternoon.

There are currently 84 bowl-eligible teams. Initially, multiple media outlets, including The Action Network, did not consider Hawaii (6-7) as a bowl-eligible team. However, according to the NCAA, teams that reach six wins are bowl eligible.

Without the additional bowl, two bowl-eligible teams would not be playing in the postseason.

With the bowl game added, it guarantees a bowl for all 84 teams that won at least six games. Without the additional game, two of the following six-win teams would not have played in a bowl game: Ball State, Hawaii, Miami (Ohio), North Texas, ODU or Wyoming.

As of Thursday, there were 84 bowl-eligible teams for 82 spots. Two of the teams on the list above were going to be left out in the cold this Christmas with no bowl game to show for their 2021 season.

But luckily for whichever two teams that would have been, this is college football, where there are no rules and we make everything up as we go along. So now, there will be a new bowl game somewhere in Texas at sometime. That's the extent of what the NCAA has decided at this time, with the first bowl set to kick off in just two weeks.

Brett McMurphy currently has the "New Unnamed Texas Bowl" being played between Tulsa and North Texas.

I try really hard to not be a "too many bowl games" guy. I'm all for as many college football teams getting a nice trip and one more game at the end of the season as we can have. When we're just creating them as we go along, though, you start to lose me just a little bit. The answer to, "Where do you draw the line?" is always, "Somewhere." I think a new game created two or three weeks before it's going to be played at an indeterminate location in Texas is somewhere.

But hey, every team in the country that earned six wins this season will get to participate in a bowl game and there will be one more college football game you can bet on using the Barstool Sportsbook. Merry Christmas, everyone.