Just about every game carries some measure of importance over the next two weeks. There are obvious instances, like teams vying for bowl eligibility, conference championship game implications or the College Football Playoff, but even games between bad teams have some meaning. Seniors are playing their final games or underclassmen are getting a chance to impress. Just because a team doesn’t seem to have any reason to be there isn’t good enough to bet against them in most cases.
There are two weeks left of regular season games, followed by conference championships, Army/Navy and then the bowl season. Here are the teams with five wins looking to get bowl-eligible this week: Memphis, Miami (FL), Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Florida Atlantic, Rice, Middle Tennessee, BYU, Buffalo, Bowling Green, Ball State, Utah State, Arkansas, Georgia Southern, App State, Southern Miss and Louisiana.
While there are projected to be several five-win teams in bowl games this season, here are the teams with four wins that are trying to win out in order to secure the magic number of six: Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Iowa State, Rutgers, FIU, UTEP, New Mexico State, Kent State, Central Michigan, UNLV, Arizona, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Georgia State and UL Monroe.
Sometimes you’ll pay a little bit of a premium on a team looking for its sixth win. You’ll see a lot more of that next week, but it should be a factor in your handicap. Keep in mind, though, teams that are 5-5 or 4-6 right now are fighting for bowl eligibility largely because they aren’t that good, so don’t overreact too much to that motivation angle.