Way Too Early Predictions: Big 12 And C-USA Teams For 2025 Independence Bowl?
Shreveport's college bowl game, the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl, has the stage set for a bigtime matchup this year, but it might take some navigating to get there. The game is slotted for December 30th at 12pm, and will be a big day at Independence Stadium in Shreveport.
What Are The Conference Tie-Ins For The 2025 Independence Bowl?
The two conferences that are set to faceoff in Shreveport are the Big 12 and Conference USA, which sets up for some intriguing matchups for the bowl. But with "conference realignment" and bowl eligibility, there's a third conference to consider. That third option is the Sun Belt Conference.
Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of confusion over the Independence Bowl conference tie-ins for this year, which is understandable. We even got confused as we made our first 'way too early' predictions. Over the last few years, the Independence Bowl tie-ins have been thrown into the "conference realignment" blender. With mixes of BYU and Army agreements, the Big 12 musical chairs, and conferences like the Pac-12 imploding on themselves...it's been tough.
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But we have directly confirmed with Independence Bowl staff that the primary conference agreements this year at Big 12 and Conference USA, with the Sun Belt as the back up. If all three fail to provide enough teams...it becomes 'at large', which means complete wildcard.
There is some concern with former Pac-12 teams too. The Big 12 has some of those, and they may have to fill some remaining Pac-12 obligations, which could further complicate things for the Independence Bowl matchup.
What Big 12 Team Could Be In The Independence Bowl?
The Big 12 appears to be in position to have teams included in the College Football Playoffs. If that happens, they're removed from the available teams for bowl games. Since we know the Independence Bowl doesn't get the first few picks of available teams, they will need to have a lot of bowl eligible teams in the Big 12 this year.
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If the College Football Playoffs started today, Iowa State would be the only Big 12 representative. Leaving the rest of the conference for other bowls. But there are a few teams withing Playoff striking distance, including Texas Tech, UCF, Arizona, BYU, Houston, and TCU.
After 3 weeks (I guess 4 if you count Week 0) there are 9 schools in the Big 12 that are halfway to bowl eligibility. Meaning it would be hard for them to faceplant so hard that they didn't find another 3 wins each. Then you have a handful with 2 wins, meaning they need 4 over their last 8 or so games. Meaning the odds are in Shreveport's favor as of today.
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There are some exciting possibilities for the Independence Bowl this year, both for geography and storyline. Think about Colorado, who has 2 wins right now, and one of the most well known coaches in college football. If Deion Sanders can find 4 more wins this year, the Buffaloes would be in play.
Baylor has 2 wins right now, and a geographical position that makes them and exciting option. Same for TCU, who has 3 wins right now.
Texas Tech has been to Shreveport for the Indy Bowl before, and would be a fun flashback. While the Kansas program is on the upswing and could bring some flair to the game.
What Conference USA Team Could Be In The Independence Bowl?
Looking over at Conference USA, the College Football Playoffs won't be a concern here. They're a 'group of 5' conference, and all teams in the league already have a loss.
Louisiana Tech would obviously be awesome...but would their program, or the bowl, want to run it back two years in a row? We know the fans would be fine with it, probably excited about it. Both the bowl and the Bulldogs did each other a favor last year by coming to the rescue when Marshall showed their true colors. So maybe it would be another favor to bring a better La Tech team in for a better matchup.
If not La Tech, the only other geographically interesting options would be Missouri State or Jax State. Both are within a day-drive of Shreveport, and have 2 wins already.
Marquee matchup names would probably be limited to Western Kentucky or New Mexico State...and we're kind of stretching there. Those two programs have received some national attention over the years, at least more than FIU or Delaware have.
What Could Be The 2025 Independence Bowl Matchup?
It feels like both of the main tie-in conferences will be able to provide a team to Shreveport this year. Meaning we don't have to look at the Sun Belt or 'at large' options...at least yet.
Our Way Too Early Prediction right now, Kansas vs. Louisiana Tech.