JOURNAL SPORTS

While the College Football Playoff 12-team field will get Sunday’s headlines, the remainder of the college bowl matchups will be set in the aftermath and there’s a wide range of scenarios for Shreveport’s Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl.

The CFP bracket leaves 35 other bowl games to be arranged and announced late Sunday afternoon. The Independence Bowl has a prime-time Saturday night kickoff, 8:30 on Dec. 28.

One side of the matchup will provide a team from the American Athletic Conference, which includes 11-1 Army, originally slated to be in this year’s game. But earlier this year the Bowl Season coalition and Army expanded the I-Bowl tie-in to all bowl eligible AAC members.

Army walloped Tulane 35-14 Friday night in the AAC championship game. That will likely propel Army elsewhere and leaves Tulane (9-4) among eight bowl-eligible AAC teams, also including nearby members UTSA and North Texas, both 6-6. ESPN controls six of the eight bowls – not the Independence Bowl – with AAC affiliations, and will get its preferences first.

The initial I-Bowl matchup was slated to be Army against a Pac 12 team, but that league collapsed earlier this year. However, a subsequent adjustment left some Pac 12 bowl eligible teams in the I-Bowl’s prospects pool. There are six Pac 12-branded bowl-eligible teams but all could be snapped up in other games, which would result in the Independence Bowl drawing its other team from the Sun Belt Conference’s group of eight bowl-eligibles.

The Sun Belt champion — UL Lafayette hosts Marshall today in that game – goes to the New Orleans Bowl and the I-Bowl would get another SBC team. That group includes nearby members Arkansas State and Texas State.