This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah's bowl hopes, however slim they were, are over. According to Wright Waters, the executive director of the Football Bowl Association, there were 62 teams that were bowl eligible going into the weekend's play. Of those on the bubble, Virginia Tech, Central Michigan, West Virginia, Baylor, Michigan State, SMU, Purdue, Rice, Ole Miss have all won. Pitt will be bowl eligible if it wins at South Florida next Saturday. The Utes were hoping enough teams would fail to be eligible, forcing the NCAA to use the Academic Progress Rate to create a pool of 5-7 teams that bowls would use to fill their vacancies. However, there were a lot of upsets that made such a scenario unnecessary. Ole Miss upset Mississippi State 41-24, SMU upset Tulsa 35-27, Baylor upset Texas Tech 52-45 and Pitt upset Rutgers 27-6. Pitt will be bowl eligible if it wins at South Florida next week."It looks like with the way things happened, we're going to be Ok," he said Saturday. Time to focus on basketball, Utah fans. - Lya Wodraska