The preferred means of bowl entry for the University of Hawaii football team after a five-year drought would be to stride through the front door and on into the postseason.

But there could be a back door left open for them this year, if they need it.

The glut of bowl games — 40 — and the difficulty of filling them with teams with winning records means the Rainbow Warriors’ bowl hopes might not be dead, even if they fail to beat 24th-ranked Boise State on Saturday.

The ‘Bows are 4-6 with three regular-season games remaining, which would require them to win out to earn a winning record that guarantees bowl eligibility.

But the plenitude of bowl games from here to the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl and the prospect of a lack of even moderately deserving teams means organizers could be forced to work their way down the four-deep list of NCAA bowl policy exceptions to fill them all.

Last year, for example, there were only 77 qualified (6-6 or better) teams for 80 bowl slots, thereby allowing three 5-7 teams — San Jose State, Minnesota and Nebraska — to crash the bowl party.

This year a similar scenario might be unfolding. Currently there are 48 teams already bowl eligible and 24 one victory away. So, the bowl game industry is eyeing potential prospects.

This is where UH could come in. A 6-7 team, which is what the ‘Bows would be if they win two of their final three games, would leap-frog most 5-7 teams.

The 6-7 proviso was inserted, bowl officials said, to allow teams who lost in their conference championship game to play in bowl games, which was how Fresno State found its way into the postseason with a 6-7 record in 2014.

However, the loophole here is that it also means UH, which is allowed a 13th game under the NCAA’s so-called “Hawaii Exemption,” may cash in as well.

“Hawaii would go to a postseason bowl game at 6-7 if there are not 80 qualified 6-6 (or better) bowl teams,” a Mountain West Conference spokesman told the Star-Advertiser. “The only teams that would be selected ahead of UH would be teams that were 6-6 and lost in their conference championship game and (Football Championship Subdivision counting teams).”

A wild card in this whole scenario is that teams who beat non-qualifying FCS teams are selected first. Army (5-4) and South Alabama (4-5) are possibilities there, if they don’t earn traditional bowl eligibility.

Ideally, of course, UH would render the whole convoluted process moot by winning out to guarantee a berth at 7-6. But the ‘Bows haven’t won three games in a row against anybody since their last bowl season of 2010 and are a 17-point underdog on the Las Vegas betting line this week to the Broncos (8-1), a team they have beaten once (the 2007 Sugar Bowl season) in the past 12 tries.

UH, however, should be favored in its final two regular-season games, at free-falling Fresno State (1-9) next week and back at Aloha Stadium against tumbling Massachusetts (2-8) on Nov. 26.

Just enough to leave the back door ajar, if they need it.

Bowl Eligibility

Definition: An eligible team is defined as one that has won a number of games against Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponents that is equal to or greater than the number of its overall losses (e.g., a record of 6-6, or better). Tie or forfeited games do not count in determining won-lost record.

If a sufficient number of institutions do not meet the definition of a “deserving team” to participate in a postseason bowl game, the following conditions will be in place to select participants.

1. Each year, a FBS institution may count one victory against a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponent that has averaged 90 percent of the permissible maximum number of grants-in-aid per year in football during a rolling two-year period. If there is not a sufficient number of teams to fill the 80 bowl slots, an institution that would have met the FCS Opponent exception but for the fact that one victory was against a FCS opponent that had not averaged 90 percent of the permissible maximum number of grants-in-aid per year in football during a rolling two-year period and the institution’s waiver request was denied, would be selected first.

2. An institution that participated in 13 regular-season contests and finished the season with a record of six wins and seven losses.

3. An institution that is in its final year of reclassification from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision and meets the definition of a “deserving team.”

4. An institution that finished its season with a minimum of five wins and a maximum of seven losses and achieves a multi-year football APR score that permits participation in the postseason (e.g., 930) to be identified as alternates in descending order of the most recently published multi-year FBS football APR scores.

Source: Mountain West Conference.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.