Birmingham Bowl among Tigers favorites
Now that memphis football is eligible bowlfans can take a closer look at where the Tigers will play in December.
Memphis (6-5, 3-4 AAC) will play its ninth straight bowling game, the longest active streak among non-Power Five schools. But he’s heading to his season finale at SMU on Saturday (2:30 p.m., ESPN2 or ESPNU) with a chance to improve in the AAC pecking order.
The Tigers are tied for seventh in the conference with East Carolina. If Memphis beats SMU and ECU beats Temple on Saturday, the Tigers will be tied at four for fifth place with SMU, ECU and Navy. Memphis then holds a tiebreaker over SMU and Navy but not ECU due to the Tigers losing to the Pirates in four overtimes.
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If Memphis loses and ECU wins, the Tigers won’t finish better than eighth in the conference. If Memphis and ECU lose, both schools will remain seventh.
As a reminder, the AAC usually places its top teams in bowl matches against Power Five opponents. If an AAC team finishes as the top non-Power Five team in the Final College Football Playoff standings, it will proceed to the Cotton Bowl.
The AAC’s bowl tie-ins this year are with the Fenway Bowl (Dec. 17 vs. ACC), Armed Forces Bowl (Dec. 22 vs. C-USA), Independence Bowl (Dec. 23 vs. Army), and Military Bowl (Dec. 28 vs. against ACC).
The conference also has four selections from the Birmingham Bowl, Gasparilla Bowl, First Responder Bowl, Boca Raton Bowl, Frisco Bowl, Cure Bowl, Myrtle Beach Bowl and New Mexico Bowl.
The First Responder Bowl (Dec. 27 vs. ACC, Big 12 or Pac-12), Birmingham (Dec. 27 vs. SEC) and Gasparilla Bowl (Dec. 23 vs. ACC, Pac-12 or SEC) are usually against Power Five opponents. But if those conferences run out of eligible teams, a Group of Five team could be selected as a replacement.
Here are projections of Memphis collected from various sites.
ESPN: Gasparilla Bowl vs. Coastal Carolina; Birmingham Bowl vs. South Alabama
CBS Sports: Fenway Bowl vs. Syracuse
247 Sports: Birmingham Bowl vs. BYU
Sports Illustrated: Armed Forces Bowl vs. UAB
Sports news: Birmingham Bowl vs. Utah State
Yahoo Sports: Birmingham v UAB
Action Network: Birmingham Bowl vs. Southern Miss
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