UConn is finally bowl eligible, but somehow could find itself on the outside looking in

The UConn Huskies are eligible to go bowling this winter. Riding a three-game winning streak and thanks to a 36-33 win over Liberty this past weekend, head coach Jim Mora has the Huskies eligible to play in a bowl game for the first time since 2015.

Note, the Huskies are eligible to be in a bowl, but college football insider Brett McMurphy is reporting that there is a slight hitch. 

The Huskies may be eligible, but because UConn is no longer part of the American Athletic Conference and is considered one of the "independents," a bowl game bid is not actually guaranteed.

There's only one way for the Huskies to get in, and that's if there are not enough bowl-eligible programs to fill up the allotted 82 bowl-game slots. 

McMurphy is projecting good news for UConn, though.

"The good news, however, is it appears there will not be more than 81 teams that are bowl eligible, so there will be room for the Huskies. No teams with less than six wins may be selected until all bowl-eligible teams are taken, meaning the Huskies should end the nation’s seventh-longest bowl drought," McMurphy recently wrote. 

He went on to say that even if the bowl games get filled by 82 other bowl-eligible teams, there is one more way the Huskies can get in.

Even if more than 82 teams reach six wins, sources told Action Network that ESPN would create an additional bowl, allowing all bowl-eligible teams to play in the postseason. ESPN did the same thing last year, creating the Frisco Football Classic.

So there you have it. The Huskies are going bowling.

And as far as where they'll end up? They still have one more game to play — at Army, this weekend — but after that McMurphy is projecting that UConn will end up playing Central Michigan in Detroit Michigan's Quick Lane Bowl. 

It's no Rose Bowl, but for a program that is desperate to play during bowl season, it's much better than nothing.