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Bulls making bid for bowl

Start nurturing that savings account, South Florida fans: The Bulls are positioning themselves for a bowl bid.

Nothing is official yet, and USF (6-2) first must take care of business on the field, with wins Saturday against Memphis and Nov. 23 at Houston and a respectable loss or a win Nov. 16 against currently unbeaten and 20th-ranked Bowling Green. If those things occur, all indicators, mathematical models and "expert" projections point to the Bulls playing in a bowl.

Here's how USF, an independent, has a good chance at its first bowl bid despite all 56 slots for 28 bowls having a conference tie-in:

Several conferences are in danger of not having enough eligible teams to fulfill their tie-ins. A minimum of six I-A wins and a non-losing record are required. Most likely to come up short are the Big Ten (seven tie-ins), Mountain West (four) and Conference USA (five).

Two SEC schools with winning records -- Alabama and Kentucky -- are on probation and ineligible for a bowl, which will make it tougher for the conference to fill its seven slots.

NCAA rules say that when a conference can't fulfill its tie-in, that bowl cannot select an at-large team with a worse overall record (say, a major-conference team with a 6-6 record that didn't get one of its league's automatic bids) over an available, bowl-eligible one with a better record.

Add it up and USF, if it wins two of its final three to finish 8-3, would be an attractive option for a bowl with an open slot. (Note: USF has four I-A wins and two I-AA wins; a team is allowed to count one I-AA win toward its I-A win total once every four years to reach the minimum six.)

If the Bulls finish 9-2, they would be all but a shoo-in.

Likeliest destinations: Stewart Mandel of cnnsi.com projects USF will go to the Motor City Bowl on Dec. 26 in Detroit, taking the Big Ten's seventh slot to play the Mid-American Conference champion, a possible rematch with Bowling Green or Northern Illinois. Jerry Palm of collegebcs.com projects USF to the Dec. 17 New Orleans Bowl, taking C-USA's final spot and facing the Sun Belt Conference champion.

Less likely: Replacing the Mountain West's No. 4 team in the Dec. 30 Seattle Bowl, the SEC's No. 7 team in the Dec. 27 Independence Bowl, or the Mountain West's No. 3 team in the Dec. 31 San Francisco Bowl.

Remote: Taking the Big Ten's or SEC's No. 6 spot in the Dec. 30 Music City Bowl in Nashville or the ACC's No. 6 spot in either the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., or the Seattle Bowl.

Then there is the juiciest scenario: The Dec. 25 Hawaii Bowl to claim C-USA's fifth bid, if the Hawaii Bowl allows the New Orleans Bowl to take local favorite Tulane. Houston and UAB are 4-4 and trying to become eligible for the fifth C-USA berth. If they fail, some politicking with C-USA, which USF joins next season, likely would be necessary to secure the bid. The league probably would ask USF to share a percentage of the $750,000-plus payout, as is required of the league's bowl teams. The Bulls then would play Hawaii, which already has accepted a bid to its home bowl.

USF controls its destiny. If it finishes strong, the school's first bowl bid should follow.

DOMINATING: USF (9-0) is the lone unbeaten in C-USA volleyball, and the Bulls are No. 1 in the NCAA Midwest Region rankings.

RISING STAR: Men's basketball center Will McDonald is generating national attention. In the Nov. 11 edition of ESPN The Magazine, Andy Katz wrote, "The top secret among NBA scouts: South Florida center Will McDonald is big time." McDonald had 27 points and 11 rebounds in USF's 97-59 exhibition win against the Connecticut Stars on Thursday night.

-- Pete Young covers USF sports. He can be reached at (813) 226-3346, or via e-mail at young@sptimes.com

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