Tracking the EagleBank Bowl tie-ins

Patrick Stevens The Washington Times - September 13, 2009, 11:02AM

The business of bowl projections is really sort of silly after two weeks of a season. After all, only 15 percent or so of the season is in the books.

Other than, say, asserting Virginia won’t be going to a postseason game, there are very few sure things.

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But since the EagleBank Bowl will yet again be played at RFK Stadium (on Dec. 29) and the game’s tie-ins are clear, it’s probably worth tracking the possibilities as the season wears on.

The game has two primary deals and a secondary affiliation in case one of the first two falls through. All three will be followed here every Sunday going forward.

ACC No. 8

ACC teams with 1+ victories: 11
ACC teams at .500 or better: 11
Current projected team on the board for EagleBank Bowl: Boston College, Duke, Maryland and Wake Forest

ARMY

The Black Knights went 3-9 a season ago, and have not been bowl eligible since 1996.

Nonetheless, they’ll be treated as Navy was last year —- with a weekly comparison to the previous season’s equivalent opponents. It takes a little massaging to make this work, but it’s still a solid way to keep track of a team that shows signs of getting better.

The greatest weakness here is that ‘09 North Texas really isn’t as good as ‘08 Louisiana Tech. But last year’s Bulldogs did lose to a less-than-stellar Army team, so for the purposes of this chart it will have to do as a shaky fit.

2009 Opponent	Result	2008 Equivalent	Result
at Eastern Michigan	W, 27-14	Eastern Michigan	W, 17-13
Duke	L, 35-19	at Rice	L, 38-31
Ball State		Akron	L, 22-3
at Iowa State		at Texas A&M	L, 21-17
Tulane		at Tulane	W, 44-13
Vanderbilt		at Buffalo	L, 27-24
at Temple		Temple	L, 35-7
Rutgers		at Rutgers	L, 30-3
at Air Force		Air Force	L, 16-7
VMI		New Hampshire	L, 28-10
at North Texas		Louisiana Tech	W, 14-3
vs. Navy		vs. Navy	L, 34-0