Now in its second year, the EagleBank planned to pit Army against the ninth team from the ACC. But Army (5-6) must beat Navy (8-3) on Dec. 12 to be eligible. The ACC won't be able to uphold its end of the matchup.

"There are still so many unknowns out there," said EagleBank executive director Steve Beck, who might be tasked with finding two alternate teams. "I'm going to be watching three, four, five games this weekend, and it's like I have no control over anything."

Creating matchups for some of the 34 bowls can be chaotic, but the move of the Army-Navy game to a week after the rest of major college football has completed its season has made this year even crazier. If Army loses to Navy, the EagleBank has arranged to take a team from Conference USA to fill the spot. Still, a C-USA school will spend a week in limbo.

"I think it's problematic for a lot of reasons. All the other bowls will be decided the week before," said C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky. "But we feel pretty good about our situation because there are enough bowls for all of our eligible teams."

Banowsky and Beck said if Army qualifies, a C-USA team would be at the head of the list to fill the ACC half of the matchup. Heading into this weekend, 69 teams are bowl-eligible, eight need one more victory, and Hawaii must win both remaining games.