San Diego State v. Cincinnati
Aloha Stadium -- Honolulu, HI
December 24, 2015 -- 8:00 pm Eastern (ESPN)
Why You Should Watch
Christmas Eve from Hawaii has been an annual tradition of the postseason calendar of the 21st century, providing the fulcrum between the first week of bowl games and the...
Mid-major football teams no longer have to sit and hope that they can overcome the vagaries of the BCS calculations to see whether or not they will merit consideration for a big-time bowl bid. A guaranteed slot now exists for the top Group of Five champion to play in one of the New Year's Six bowl games. But perhaps there will be reason...
Just when you think the picture is beginning to settle, everything goes haywire yet again. Before we even hit the weekend proper, both the Sun Belt and Mountain West pictures had been inverted. Georgia Southern fell decisively to Appalachian State, and MWC West leader San Diego State dispelled the myth that theirs is the weaker...
Let's assess where things stand in each conference before we dive into looking at each team. Assume, for a moment, that total chaos has to emerge at this point for a three-loss team to have a truly viable shot of stealing away the New Year's Six slot, so conference champions in the running for the Access Bowl slot will probably have to...
Natural attrition is starting to winnow down the field as teams fall away like so much deciduous foliage falling in the autumnal breeze. Only four undefeated teams remain after Navy fell from the ranks in South Bend (see more below), and only a half-dozen other teams reside alongside the Midshipmen in the one-loss bank of hopefuls....
The top six mid-major teams in the country all held serve this week, winning against overmatched competition to stay in place in the Week 5 Access Bowl Power Rankings. But the field winnowed itself down nevertheless -- we are down to just 11 remaining teams that have one or fewer defeats, and less than 40 percent of the teams in the...
Only five undefeated teams remain among the ranks of the Group of Five conferences. Beyond the teams with unblemished records, just eight more teams are plugging along with only one loss. As September gives way to October, the Access Bowl contenders are starting to distance themselves from the pretenders merely dreaming for a berth in a...
One quarter of the way through the season, the race for the guaranteed New Year's Six bowl invitation is heating up among the Group of Five schools. Only six squads remain undefeated at this point, though after last year there is no guarantee that an unblemished will guarantee that berth. (Remember, Marshall was 12-1 to Boise State's...
In the lead-up to the upcoming college football season, Sports Unbiassed is taking a look at the top 20 teams with a chance to win the Access Bowl bid in 2015. You can find the full list of the Top 20, links to other team previews, and read more about the methodology behind the rankings here.
Cincinnati...
Last year provided the first glimpse of what a new future of increased access for mid-major programs might look like. No longer was an undefeated season and praying for a high ranking a prerequisite for selection to a major bowl game for the schools of the Mountain West, AAC, Sun Belt, Conference USA, and MAC.
The hierarchy still...
