WKU Hilltoppers left off CBSSports’ bowl projections

The bowl projection season started off with such promise, when the Hilltoppers were projected to go to the St. Petersburg Bowl by the Sporting News in late June, but since then it hasn’t gone well in favor of WKU. But, last week, the Hilltoppers were nowhere to be found in Phil Steele’s bowl projections, and today, CBSSports did the same, picking five Conference USA teams, as well as a pair of non-conference opponents, but no Tops.

Projected from Conference USA to go bowling are Middle Tennessee (Boca Raton Bowl), Texas-San Antonio (Bahamas Bowl), North Texas (Hawaii Bowl), Marshall (Heart of Dallas Bowl) and Louisiana Tech (Birmingham Bowl). The two non-conference opponents for WKU projected to go bowling are Navy (Poinsettia Bowl) and season opening opponent Bowling Green (GoDaddy.com Bowl).

As we noted this morning, one record projection service has the Tops going 6-6, but so are North Texas and Middle, and  Louisiana Tech is projected to win like, what, four games? I don’t see any way that the Tops A.) finish with a worse record than every one of the schools listed above plus Marshall and B.) that Louisiana Tech is a more attractive bowl team than the Tops. (Sorry to pick on you here a little bit, LA Tech.) But for real – the Tops play everyone that is mentioned above except UNT. There’s no way they escape with a winning record against MTSU, UTSA, LT and Marshall (at best, 3-1) and not get a bid.

I don’t know why, but it feels like the Tops aren’t being taken seriously as a football program yet. Maybe once they actually make some bowl games, things will be different.

Okay, I’ll hop off my soapbox now, and ask you what you think. Is CBS right in not projecting a WKU bowl birth? Where do you think the Tops could/will go if they get one? Let us know below or on twitter.