Marshall does NOT deserve the access bowl slot, no matter what
There is simply no excuse for a Conference USA team to play 3 MAC schools and a winless FCS school in their non-conference schedule.
Here is Marshall's non-conference schedule, along with the non-conference schedules of all of the AAC and Mountain West G5 access bowl contenders. I also threw in all of the C-USA schools and a couple of the top MAC schools since Marshall used to play there... just to prove there is no excuse.
P5 opponents + Notre Dame and BYU in bold:
Marshall (8-0) - Ohio, Akron, Miami (OH), Rhode Island
East Carolina (6-2) - South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, North Carolina Central
Central Florida (5-3) - Missouri, Penn State, BYU, Bethune-Cookman
Memphis (5-3) - Ole Miss, UCLA, Middle Tennessee, Austin Peay
Cincinnati (5-3) - Ohio State, Miami (FL), Toledo, Miami (OH)
Temple (5-3) - Penn State, Vanderbilt, Navy, Delaware State
Houston (5-3) - BYU, UNLV, UTSA, Grambling State
Nevada (6-3) - Arizona, Washington State, BYU, Southern Utah
Colorado State (8-1) - Colorado, Boston College, Tulsa, UC Davis
Boise State (6-2) - Ole Miss, BYU, Connecticut, LA-Lafayette
Northern Illinois (6-2) - Arkansas, Northwestern, UNLV, Presbyterian
Bowling Green (5-3) - Wisconsin, Indiana, Western Kentucky, VMI
Toledo (5-3) - Missouri, Iowa State, Cincinnati, New Hampshire
Western Michigan (6-3) - Virginia Tech, Purdue, Idaho, Murray State
Middle Tennessee - Minnesota, BYU, Memphis, Savannah State
UAB - Mississippi State, Arkansas, Troy, Alabama A&M
Florida Atlantic - Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, Tulsa
Florida International - Louisville, Pittsburgh, Bethune-Cookman, Wagner
Western Kentucky - Illinois, Navy, Army, Bowling Green
Old Dominion - NC State, Vanderbilt, Eastern Michigan, Hampton
Louisiana Tech - Auburn, Oklahoma, LA-Lafayette, Northwestern State
Rice - Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Hawaii, Army
UTEP - Kansas State, Texas Tech, New Mexico, New Mexico State
UTSA - Arizona, Oklahoma State, Houston, New Mexico
Southern Miss - Mississippi State, Alabama, Appalachian State, Alcorn State
North Texas - Texas, Indiana, SMU, Nicholls State
The CFP committee has said repeatedly teams will be rewarded for difficult scheduling. Not only is Marshall the only school on this very long list of comparable programs to not schedule any P5-quality programs... they didn't even bother to schedule ANYONE in a conference ahead of C-USA in the pecking order. 7 conferences to choose from, and they failed to schedule a single opponent. Marshall should, and I think ultimately will be denied.
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