The embers of the snubbed 2014 bowl bid were finally extinguished Saturday as Texas State will play in the program’s first-ever bowl game during the 2023-2024 Bowl Season.
Despite it being his first year and overhauling the roster, Head Coach G.J. Kinne said he was confident the Bobcats would break the cursed bowl-less streak that has plagued the program since making the jump to the FBS in 2012.
“Once we got done with spring ball, recruiting got done and fall camp going after the first two days, I felt really good about where we were at,” Kinne said. “It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster season, but it was really good to go out the way we did and get that win. This one was very big for this program and moving forward.”
Texas State finished with a record of 7-5, their best since 2014, as the Bobcats now await the Sunday announcement as to which bowl game they will participate in.
This bowl bid has been a long time coming for the Bobcats, who have had many highs and lows since the transition to FBS.
During the 2013 season, which was the first year Texas State was eligible to qualify for a bowl game due to the two-year transition from FCS to FBS, the Bobcats finished with a record of 6-6, making the ‘Cats bowl-eligible for the first time in program history.
However, the Bobcats were not selected for a bowl game then, becoming one of nine teams that finished 6-6 or better but not playing in the postseason.
Texas State bounced back in 2014 with a 7-5 record, as the Bobcats were once again on the cusp of qualifying for the program’s first bowl despite it being the team’s third year in FBS.
Even with the increase in bowls from 35 to 39, Texas State was again snubbed, once more becoming the only team in the 2014- 2015 bowl season to not be selected despite having a 7-5 record.
Since 2015, six more bowl games have been added to the schedule to increase the participation in the postseason, as Texas State looks to embark on a journey to right what the team felt was a past wrong.
As for which bowl game Texas State could be in, the Sun Belt Conference has two guarantee bids with the New Orleans Bowl and the 68 Ventures Bowl, formerly known as the Mobile Alabama Bowl.
The Sun Belt also has bids with eight bowl games as well: Boca Raton Bowl, Camellia Bowl, Cure Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, First Responder Bowl, Frisco Bowl, Myrtle Beach Bowl and New Mexico Bowl.
In the final week of bowl projections, Texas State is predicted to make the Frisco Bowl by Fox Sports, CBS Sports, Athlon Sports, 247 Sports, USA Today and ESPN’s Mark Schlabach.
Brett McMurphy’s Action Network and ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura are the only ones to stray from that bowl-beaten path, predicting instead that the Bobcats will receive a bid to the New Mexico Bowl.
Though Texas State will not know who they will be facing, the most common opponent mentioned by the projections is fellow instate rival, the Rice Owls of the American Athletic Conference.
Texas State has also been slated to play against Navy, San Jose State and Old Dominion while the New Mexico Bowl projections feature match-ups between Fresno State and New Mexico State.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
