I think getting the gator back to BE/ND possible one year is the best to hope for this round.

Husky & Cuse, the reason the Tire Bowl has been so successful is because they have paired a local school with an out of state school three out of the six years they had the bowl. West Virginia & Navy played the other two of three games. West Virginia & Navy fans travel well. The one year the bowl had UVA vs Pitt, the attendance droped by over 22,000. See the link with an article concerning the bowl & local teams. I can assure you that hotels & restaurants would be pack with ECU fans if ECU played in the bowl.

http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/382880.html

Brick City Pirate Wrote:Husky & Cuse, the reason the Tire Bowl has been so successful is because they have paired a local school with an out of state school three out of the six years they had the bowl. West Virginia & Navy played the other two of three games. West Virginia & Navy fans travel well. The one year the bowl had UVA vs Pitt, the attendance droped by over 22,000. See the link with an article concerning the bowl & local teams. I can assure you that hotels & restaurants would be pack with ECU fans if ECU played in the bowl.

http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/382880.html

You could be right as much as SFHusky and I are right. The article also mentioned a concern in hotel room sales. UNC brought 61,000 fans to the game one year, but the game only generated 9000 hotel room sales. That bowl group has a good formula. But with so many regional teams available to them from the BE and acc, why would they need ECU?

We are LUCKY to have the Gator for our #2, we almost got completely kicked out last time. The Gator is lucky to have us, as well, but that doesn't mean that they won't talk to every conference out there in an attempt to land someone else. For some reason, Catlett really hates the Big East, and if he could throw us under the bus for the Big Ten or SEC #4, he'll do it.

cuse, The Tire Bowl needs ECU for the same reason they wanted Navy a couple of years ago. They know there are going to be years when they have to select an ACC school, like Boston College, just because you can't keep sending Boston College to Boise or some other remote location, when they have a better record than a local ACC school. That Washington DC bowl would also be a good one for ECU to target.

I attended the bowl when Navy played BC. If it wasn't for Navy, the bowl would have been a bust. I live within driving distance but chose to stay overnite to enjoy the atmosphere. As bad as the ecomomy is this year, I'd bet the Tire Bowl would like to have two local schools playing this year.

Brick City Pirate Wrote:cuse, The Tire Bowl needs ECU for the same reason they wanted Navy a couple of years ago. They know there are going to be years when they have to select an ACC school, like Boston College, just because you can't keep sending Boston College to Boise or some other remote location, when they have a better record than a local ACC school. That Washington DC bowl would also be a good one for ECU to target.

Its been well documented that the Tire Bowl chose Navy that year because of Mike Tranghese flirting with the Liberty Bowl in an attempt to let The Tire Bowl choose 4th as opposed to 3rd. They had that option available that year and used it to send a message to Micky T. Because of contractual agreements, they will not be able to do that again, nor will thay have to.

BTW, it was their loss that year, imo because they could have gotten an 11 win Rutgers against BC. Rutgers has proven that they travel very well, maybe as well as Navy. In fact the Rose Bowl wanted to invite Rutgers that year had they won the BE.

Cuse, I think the jury is still out as to how well Rutgers travels. It's easy to get a fanbase fired up to travel when a school hasn't been to a bowl in quite a while. I'd like to see how well Rutgers travels after their fanbase becomes a little complacent when they go to minor bowls year after year.

cuseroc Wrote:

Brick City Pirate Wrote:Husky & Cuse, the reason the Tire Bowl has been so successful is because they have paired a local school with an out of state school three out of the six years they had the bowl. West Virginia & Navy played the other two of three games. West Virginia & Navy fans travel well. The one year the bowl had UVA vs Pitt, the attendance droped by over 22,000. See the link with an article concerning the bowl & local teams. I can assure you that hotels & restaurants would be pack with ECU fans if ECU played in the bowl.

http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/382880.html

You could be right as much as SFHusky and I are right. The article also mentioned a concern in hotel room sales. UNC brought 61,000 fans to the game one year, but the game only generated 9000 hotel room sales. That bowl group has a good formula. But with so many regional teams available to them from the BE and acc, why would they need ECU?

There is also a benefit to being able to circulate teams in Bowl games. No Coach, team or fanbase wants to go to the same Bowls over and over.(Unless it is a championship bowl)

Clemson, unc-ch, ncsu, and Wake may sell a bunch of tickets BUT like the article says not nearly as many hotel rooms and everything that comes with that. Like food.

What ECU would guarantee and does guarantee (We play in Charlotte every 3 years or so) is 20-30,000 tickets and 1 or 2 nights in the local economy.

That has always been my issue with the Memphis/Liberty. The Liberty Bowl MAY want a relationship with the league that Memphis is in but they do not want Memphis is the Liberty Bowl game.

That is also a issue with the Gator Bowl tie in and Florida teams. Adding USF and maybe UCF in the future may not help the Gator Bowl deal. Orlando is only a couple of hours from Jacksonville. Tampa is ~3. Many folks will drive in and back out. Just like a Bowl in Tampa. These Bowls are designed to bring people in. Not keep the same folks who are already in town.

ECU will bring 20,000+ to Charlotte with hotels. ECU will be 15,000 to the Liberty with hotels (we have done it before). ECU would bring 10,000+ to the Gator Bowl with hotels. ECU would bring 10,000+ to DC with hotels. Maybe even more to those 2 Bowls. We have never been before so I had to guess. We took 8,000 to Navy for a regular season game. Not that ECU/C-USA/Big East has a chance but we took 30,000 to the Peach Bowl.

People may not like ECU's "market" but we would be a big benefit for Bowls.

ECU should have a tie-in with the Tire Bowl IMHO. Topcard is probably accurate with his numbers.

However - that will NEVER happen as long as the other team is from the ACC. The ACC eliminated post season play against ECU after the 92 peach bowl. The NC ACC schools will make sure there is no chance that they are put in that position again.

I think bowl alignments, and the entire bowl system, is a joke. It should be abolished.

FYI Temple fan ....Cincinnati and ND are way closer to St Pete than Houston! Thousands of Cincy people have condos along the Gulf Coast and other parts of Florida. You can drive 1-75 from Cincy to St Pete without changing roads once. You can drive in about 12 to 14 hours no way you can get to Houston from Cincy in that time.... You can usually fly a lot cheaper too.

don't see the tire bowl changing at all, last years tv ratings were very strong. If the gator/ND is the best BE can do for #2, it needs another at least similiar to tire for when ND takes gator. The focus may end up being on papa johns vs sec or st pete in future vs bcs to be that.

TIGER-PAUL Wrote:don't see the tire bowl changing at all, last years tv ratings were very strong. If the gator/ND is the best BE can do for #2, it needs another at least similiar to tire for when ND takes gator. The focus may end up being on papa johns vs sec or st pete in future vs bcs to be that.

The Tire Bowl should be fine. Potentially there are a lot of interesting matchups.

LUVECU Wrote:ECU should have a tie-in with the Tire Bowl IMHO. Topcard is probably accurate with his numbers.

However - that will NEVER happen as long as the other team is from the ACC. The ACC eliminated post season play against ECU after the 92 peach bowl. The NC ACC schools will make sure there is no chance that they are put in that position again.

Huh!!!

I have never heard that said or even implied. The situation has simply not come up.

Has there been a situation where one team from a particular conference can arrange their own bowl tie-in? I don't see that happening.

MichaelSavage Wrote:Has there been a situation where one team from a particular conference can arrange their own bowl tie-in? I don't see that happening.

It would have to be through the conference but ECU was able to get a MASN TV deal separate from the C-USA TV deal.

It is apples and oranges though. C-USA is set through 6 Bowl slots and ECU would certainly fill one of them if they win 6 games. With the Bowl tie ins going so deep into conferences I just do not see that being a possibility.

See if C-USA is willing to trade its Liberty Bowl spot to the BE in the years it wants to send ECU to the Tire Bowl.

MichaelSavage Wrote:Has there been a situation where one team from a particular conference can arrange their own bowl tie-in? I don't see that happening.

TCU with the Texas Bowl? I don't think the other MWC are considered for it.

I've said before, the BE needs to fast track the St Pete bowl into a big time bowl. Grow your own big time bowl, if the others aren't on board. Make that into a BE/BCS matchup ASAP and quickly move it up the bowl food chain. (Especially since USF will get "stuck" playing here a lot, and I don't want it to be against a CUSA opponent).

MichaelSavage Wrote:Has there been a situation where one team from a particular conference can arrange their own bowl tie-in? I don't see that happening.

Ohio State seems to have managed a tie-in to the BCS Championship game. Go figure...