As I said we ALL have our pluses and negatives and will probably end up ALL 9-3.

The answer is simple: UCONN has to beat WVU and that would send 2 BE teams to the BCS bowls. Then Cincy and USF can get Tire or Sun. RU can go to Toronto and UL can go to Papajohn provided they win the RU game.

For the future, I think it's clear that we need to drop the PapaJohns.com bowl. That seems to be the only bowl everyone is upset about. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if it's gone under by the next bowl cycle, but either way we need to get in somewhere else.

FWIW....I think UConn gets the Sun. Just a hunch. I think they're just waiting to make sure they don't get the BCS bid.

I'm going to take a stab at this idea - IF UConn and Cincinnati end up in the MCCB/Sun Bowls, what are the chances that the Big East and the MAC can get together and trade the GMAC for the PapaJohns.com bowl for this year? That would allow USF to go to a different bowl and both bowls would essentially be against the same conference opponent (C-USA). While it would still be something of a disappointment (probably being a ranked team and all), it would still have to be viewed as more attractive than revisiting the same bowl twice in a row.

I should point out, I'm going to whatever bowl USF plays in regardless. And, for as much as some people get pissy about Birmingham, I personally had a great time. Dreamland and Jim 'n Nicks are two of the most amazing BBQ places I've ever visited, and my mouth's watering at the thought of going back. I just don't want to be one of 30 USF fans sitting in the stadium that day...

USFFan

I dont think is the location as much as the opponent. If we were facing an SEC in that bowl people wouldnt be as upset.

Cubanbull Wrote:I dont think is the location as much as the opponent. If we were facing an SEC in that bowl people wouldnt be as upset.

Maybe, maybe not. I for one would LOVE another crack at Southern Miss, and just the thought of sticking it to R.C. Johnson again makes me smile. We've never faced Tulsa before, so that's not an awful game, either. I'd be up for any of those games.

USFFan

Ill be at any of the USF bowl games.

All I'm saying is that no one cares that Pitt and Louisville beat UC and USF and UConn beat those teams when Cincinnati beat those teams head-to-head. I doubt that anyone who makes a decision is going to pick Connecticut over USF over Cincinnati because you guys beat Pitt. And I doubt that UConn and USF has a traveling fan base that is far and away more powerful then Cincinnati's. Great home attendance, though Cincinnati's was strong to, but pretty much everyone but WVU and Louisville are unproven on a consistent bases when it comes to traveling fan bases.

CatsClaw Wrote:All I'm saying is that no one cares that Pitt and Louisville beat UC and USF and UConn beat those teams when Cincinnati beat those teams head-to-head. I doubt that anyone who makes a decision is going to pick Connecticut over USF over Cincinnati because you guys beat Pitt. And I doubt that UConn and USF has a traveling fan base that is far and away more powerful then Cincinnati's. Great home attendance, though Cincinnati's was strong to, but pretty much everyone but WVU and Louisville are unproven on a consistent bases when it comes to traveling fan bases.

I agree with you 100%. Nobody's going to care who beat who. It also seems as though the Sun Bowl isn't too worried about how many fans the schools will bring. So, with that said, I think USF has just as good of a chance of going to El Paso as UConn or Cincinnati. And I'm hoping that the Big East conference is doing something to ensure that NOBODY has to go back to the same place they went last season.

As Cubanbull said, if all goes according to Hoyle, USF, Cincinnati and UConn are all going to end up 9-3. It's now a game of musical chairs, and one of us is going to be unhappy with the way this plays out. We can all make guesses as to what's going to happen, but I don't think anybody has any real inside information. I've tried working my contacts in the USF athletic department, some that can be counted on to provide information if there's some available, and they've all said that it's all very much up in the air and not to count out any site as a possibility. That's why I think all of this "inside" information I've seen elsewhere is bogus speculation.

USFFan

Updated from the blog before...

http://runwayramblings.blogspot.com/

Quote:BCS or bust.

A week ago, I spoke with the Sun Bowl's selection committee chairman John Folmer, and left the conversation feeling strongly that if UConn beat Syracuse, the Huskies would be chowing down Tex-Mex cuisine on New Year's Eve in El Paso, Texas (that is, provided they didn't win the BCS berth by knocking off West Virginia).

Folmer said last week that his bowl followed a strict criteria based on rankings rather than head-to-head. So if UConn finished ahead of the Bearcats in the Big East standings, which they would clinch with a win over the Orange, his committee would weigh that strongly against the fact that Cincinnati defeated the Huskies. As of last week, the committee was split between UConn and Cincinnati. But Folmer encouraged me to call him again after the committee's weekly meeting on Monday to see if anything had been cleared up.

So on Tuesday morning, I called Folmer again to see how the meeting went. Seems the committee is still very much undecided on what they want to do, but left me with the impression that UConn isn't such a sure thing for El Paso any more. In fact, the committee criteria just might favor Cincinnati, provided the Bearcats take care of Syracuse in the season finale. Folmer also mentioned South Florida has worked its way into the conversations after stomping Louisville on Saturday. And Rutgers hasn't been completely eliminated from the discussion just yet, though it seems unlikely they'll win the 10-person committee's majority of votes.

"The general consensus is there could be three teams that finish 9-3," Folmer said. "It's going to be a tough decision to make. Some guys are saying 'Why Connecticut?' Some are saying 'Why not Connecticut?' At the end of the day, it's going to come down to who comes out with the highest-ranked team. Then the question is, which ranking do we use? Do we use our own ranking? Do we use the BCS? Do we use the AP top 25 or the coaches poll?"

Folmer reiterated that the committee won't need to take into account the usual factors that go into other bowl game's decisions. Namely, attendance. The Sun Bowl doesn't really care which schools have a history of traveling well because they're going to sell the place out no matter what.

"It's probably going to come down to who is the highest-ranked team," Folmer said. "That could hurt Connecticut. Then again, it might not hurt them. We took an informal poll three times, and all three times the outcome was different because someone was influenced by someone else's argument."

USFFan

As a UC fan I do think our wins over UCONN and USF are more important to than our losses to the 2nd tier teams. But if we do get passed over we only have ourselves to blame for the fiasco in Pittsburgh. And don't forget we still have one game left to play, if you can lose to Pitt you can lose to anybody.

trained geese better show some sense of urgency this offseason concerning our bowl lineup because as of now it's a joke. i'm still wondering what happened to the promising new years day big apple bowl. i wouldn't shed a tear if we tell the gator to take a hike and anchor that bowl with our number 2 team. than start another florida bowl.

wvu, louisville, and rutgers have proven they can travel well to just about anywhere. uconn if given a chance will travel. south florida and cinci set attendance records this year and cinci preordered over 6,000 bowl tickets, cuse travels well if they're winning and pitt at least is a national name. no excuse for us to get the shaft during the next bowl arrangements.

I dont have anything against the City of Birmingham and the Papa Johns Bowl. I as a USF fan just dont want to see the BULLS play in the same bowl game two years in a row. I am sure Birmingham feels the same way in that they want to get a different team. I personally would want to see USF in the Toronto Bowl over the Papa Johns Bowl this season because it would be a different bowl game for USF.

Cincy to Sun
UConn to Muffler
USF to International
Rutgers to Pizza

Problem solved.

Bearcat 1984 Wrote:Cincy to Sun
UConn to Muffler
USF to International
Rutgers to Pizza

Problem solved.

hate to break it to you cinci fans but if they pick based on bcs rankings south florida will be the team if we beat pitt. cal vs south florida the battle of the former number 2's that cracked under the spotlight, i guess it could be renamed the redemption bowl.

The most important question in the mind of the Bearcats fan is this: where will UC play?

Well, as long as the Bearcats don't falter against the Orange (2-9, 1-5 Big East) at 7:15 p.m. this Saturday, a Dec. 31 Sun Bowl berth is a definite possibility. Folmer, the chairman of the selection committee for the contest in El Paso, was asked if it was fair to say UC has a good chance of earning an invite to the Sun Bowl, and he said, "That'd be very accurate."

"They play hard football, and they have a great chance of going," said Folmer, whose bowl gets the second Big East pick. "Depending on what happens in the rest of the season, we'd sit down and look at how they're ranked and how they played head to head."

If that's the criteria, UC would have an advantage. With two Sun bowl representatives in attendance, the Bearcats - who were a six-point underdog - dominated UConn two weeks ago, and earlier this month, UC outlasted South Florida 38-33 on the road.

But the head-to-head matchups are only part of the solution.


"When you've got three teams with 9-3 seasons, we'll consider who beat who," Folmer said. "But more important, it's if they're ranked and where they're ranked. I think USF will be ranked. I think UC will move up. There's a chance for them to move to the top-20. When CBS puts it up on the marquee and you get the 13th ranked team playing the 20th ranked team on New Year's Eve Day in El Paso, all that has a lot of sizzle."

**

The Meineke Care Car Bowl - which likely will match a Big East conference squad with either the No. 5, No. 6 or No. 7 team from the ACC - will get the third Big East pick, and Kay has even less of an idea who eventually will play in Charlotte.

"Cincinnati is obviously on our radar screen," said Kay, the bowl's director of media relations. "With everything being bunched up, you've got UConn, Rutgers and South Florida also. We get the third pick. It's a question of whether or not Cincinnati is there when it comes (to the bowl picking). This is strange. Usually we can narrow it down to two or three. It's so wide open."

One factor that might work in UC's favor for the Meineke Car Care Bowl game is the city's proximity to the bowl game as compared to the rest of the 9-3 teams. With Cincinnati a 470-mile drive to Charlotte, Kay said that drivable distance could play a factor. Especially since UC has sold more than 5,500 bowl credits.

"A school that shows commitment to a team and a school that's pressing for a bowl, bowls have to take that into consideration," Kay said. "Bowls don't want to play to an empty stadium. When everything comes to be, we always felt Cincinnati would make sense because of the location. You can argue it's a regional game. It makes it easier to come down. We always felt that would be a good option to have."

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...3/1035/SPT

One scenario people are not considering is what happens if South Florida gets upset by Pitt this weekend? That would drop the Bulls to 8-4. It would also knock South Florida into fifth place, based on tiebreakers, if Rutgers goes on to defeat Louisville.

Maybe the Bulls would have less reason to complain about being sent to the Papa John's Bowl if things unfolded this way. The idea USF fan proposed above about the MAC switching to the Papa John's Bowl from the GMAC this year also makes sense.

Everyone also seems to be forgetting that the situation will improve next year with the return of the Texas Bowl to the Big East. It is 2009 which we have to worry about. We need to have a Tampa Bowl set up to replace the Texas Bowl by that time.

Does Bir bowl see USF as promblem this yr, or just USF fans looking for bigger & better things. I tought I read if LV could end up with SEC, they would trade for UCF. What about Haw if they don't end up in BCS bowl, Haw bowl would trade Tulsa for USF, Tulsa & So Miss have not played last 2 yrs. NCST wins & goes to Char, Boise could send GT for USF. How about Troy to Bir & USF plays Memphis in NO.

The reason the PAC assigns its teams to bowls by its conference standings is the PAC doesn't travel well. The PAC mandated this requirement or some of its teams would be continually skipped over.

I don't think the Houston Bowl works well for BE. Traveling to Sun Bowl is fine to play highly ranked PAC team.....but an 8th place Big 12 team in Houston? If Kansas State loses to Fresno this weekend, the Big 12 won't be able to supply a team to Houston Bowl. Plus CUSA plays there 2 out of 4 years.

The BE need that Florida Bowl in Tampa/St Pete to be closer to home and/or attract a highly ranked opposing team. The BCS Bowl, Gator/Sun, Meineke, and Florida Bowl is a attractive and strong bowl lineup for BE. CUSA also needs a bowl in UCF/Orlando for the same reasons.

I dont think ANY Bowl would be happy with having same team return two years in a row. Is one of the problems with having fixed conference tie ins. Im not sure Bowls are allowed to trade teams but it would be an idea for 2-3 bowls in close geographic area to share their tie ins so as to prevent same teams going every year and also shake up conferences opponents yearly.