West Virginia became bowl eligible today as they finally made it to six wins after beating Iowa State 31-24.

Big deal.

The Mountaineers started the season 5-0 and ranked as high as No. 5 in the country. They were a trendy pick for winning the Big 12 and they had a shot of playing for a national championship.

Big losses to Texas Tech and Kansas State put a quick end to that. In fact, the Mountaineers lost those two games by a combined 103-28.

West Virginia fought TCU hard but fell to the Horned Frogs in double overtime. They then got beat big again by Oklahoma State and lost to Oklahoma by one.

Now, let's take a look at the teams the Mountaineers have beaten this year. You have 5-7 Marshall, FCS James Madison, 4-7 Maryland, 5-5 Baylor, 8-3 Texas and now 6-6 Iowa State. That's a grand total of one team with a winning record.

West Virginia will probably pick up their seventh win against 1-10 Kansas next week.

Whoop-de-do.

Now, I will say that Geno Smith and the offense has played well enough to play in a postseason game. Smith has 3,597 yards passing and 37 touchdowns. The Mountaineer was the No. 8 scoring offense coming into this game averaging over 40 points per game.

But the Mountaineer defense deserves to stay at home this bowl season.

West Virginia is No. 117 in total defense (496.5 yards/game), No. 120 in passing defense (364.6 points/game) and No. 123 in scoring defense (42.3 points/game).

By the way, there are only 124 teams in the FBS. 

This debate, however, is bigger than just West Virginia. Currently there are 35 bowl games, meaning that 70 teams make it to college football's postseason. 

And really, how many of those games are any good?

West Virginia will probably go to either the Pinstripe Bowl against the No. 4 team in the Big East or the Heart of Dallas Bowl against the No. 7 selection from the Big Ten.

Anyone rushing to buy tickets to either bowl?

The Mountaineers are far from the only team who will play in a bowl game but should be left out. 

Personally, I'd like to see a reduction in bowl games. There's just too many of them, and many of them simply reward mediocrity. Besides, what does winning a bowl game really mean?

More troubling, the NCAA is looking at filling some bowl games with 5-7 teams if there are not enough bowl eligible teams at the end of the season. What teams will get the nod will be determined, according to this report, by Academic Progress Scores.

I'm not making this stuff up. That means some teams with a losing record are going to get rewarded with a bowl game based on their academics.

I'd much rather have fewer teams playing in bowls that matter than a watered-down postseason in college football which is what we have now.

Regardless, West Virginia has six wins and that means the Mountaineers will make appearance in a bowl, deserving or not. However, I'm sure the fans aren't going to forget when West Virginia was 5-0 and a trip to a BCS bowl seemed to be almost a given.