Six wins and you’re in.

That’s how it’s always been in college football. Win half your games, and you’re bowl eligible, especially if you play in a Bowl Championship Series conference.

Maybe not this year, because if the Syracuse football team, sitting at 5-4, doesn’t win at least two of its remaining three games, it might not make a bowl game for the second year in a row.

It’s easy to get lost in speculation and guessing games when it comes to college football. But in SU’s case, it’s simple. If it wins two more games, it will go to a bowl game, either the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., or the San Francisco Bowl.

A problem arises if Syracuse wins one game. Lose all three games, that’s easy, Syracuse doesn’t go to a bowl. But win one, then SU’s fate is contingent on a couple different outcomes.

(BULLET) Boston College – At 6-5, the Eagles are already bowl eligible. The problem is, they’re 2-4 in the Big East and have lost to Syracuse. But if BC wins its last game against Virginia Tech, then it’s almost guaranteed a spot in the Tire Bowl or the San Francisco Bowl. If they lose, the Eagles will be 6-6 and will contend against Syracuse if the Orangemen win only one of their next three games.

(BULLET) Notre Dame – The cog in the bowl system is the Irish, who play as an Independent. If Notre Dame doesn’t finish the season in the top six in the BCS, which it won’t, it’s looked upon as a Big East conference member since it is part of the conference in all sports but football, said Gary Cavalli, executive director of the San Francisco Bowl.

The Big East has five slots to send its teams to bowls. The winner of the conference is selected to play in the BCS. The second-place Big East team gets a bid to the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

The third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishers will all be in the running for three bowls, the San Francisco Bowl, the Continental Tire Bowl and the Insight.com Bowl, Cavalli said. The bowl selection committees, the athletics directors and Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese will determine which team gets invited to what bowl. The four teams ahead of Syracuse in the Big East – Miami, West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh – will all make bowls. One of those schools would most likely be awarded a bid to the Insight Bowl, which is the most prestigious of the final three bowls.

That leaves the Tire Bowl or the San Francisco Bowl to be divided among possibly three schools – Syracuse, Boston College and Notre Dame. In Notre Dame’s situation, it cannot take a Big East team’s spot in a bowl if its record is one game behind the Big East team. That is, if Syracuse finishes 7-5 and Notre Dame winds up 6-6, Notre Dame could not jump ahead of SU for a bowl spot. But if Syracuse, Boston College and Notre Dame all finished 6-6, only one of the schools would make the bowl.

Syracuse plays Notre Dame on Dec. 6 in the Carrier Dome in a game that could decide which team stays home for the holidays.

‘There’s at least a 50-50 chance that on Dec. 6, that game will decide the final bowl bid,’ Cavalli said.

Before, Notre Dame’s trip to the Carrier Dome could be seen as a coup on SU’s part, a chance to put some fans in the seats. Now, the move could cost Syracuse a bowl bid.

SU’s game Saturday against West Virginia will go a long way in determining its fate, too. With a game against seventh place Rutgers coming up, the Orangemen can all but secure a bowl spot if they were to win against the Mountaineers.

‘There’s a lot riding on this game,’ defensive tackle Louis Gachelin said. ‘This is a defining point in our season. If there was ever a time, the time is now.

‘The only way to guarantee it for ourselves is to win. Everybody knows the urgency.’

Last year, SU missed out on a bowl game for only the second time in seven years. Its 4-8 record was its worst since 1978. That’s why securing a spot in a bowl in the next couple weeks would make the achievement even sweeter.

‘Nobody likes sitting home on Christmas watching other teams in a bowl game, knowing that could have been us,’ Gachelin said. ‘We want to play more football.’

Published on November 17, 2003 at 12:00 pm