According to the Liberty Bowl officials on the radio, if LSU and Ole Miss finish at 8-4, Cotton Bowl will select LSU over Ole Miss even after they beat both LSU and Florida on their field. You know that rule about bowl attendance not being part of the equation, it seems to me that it is "understood" thing. It may not be in the rule book anymore, but it is obvious they considering theses things. Ole Miss would be in 2nd place because they beat LSU in the head to head match. It seems to me that the BCS is losing control based on performance of these so called power teams.
I have said it before and I will say it again, the BCS is set up for certain team in the 6 BCS conferences to ensure certain team out of these conferences to get certain bowls regaurdless of record or finishing in their conference. The NC game is set up for the top travel bowl teams to play for the championship every year. Look at the past BCS ranking and see who is always in it.

If Ok beat OK ST this weekend, they will probably jump Texas in the BCS standing, making OK in the championship game because they use the BCS standing to determine the south champion. Texas wiil be pissed at this and will start making some noise for a play off.

Basically EVERY Bowl game is about the $$$$$$ (from attendance to TV ratings).

LSU (Louisiana, next door neighbors to TX) would probably more $$$$ to the Cotton Bowl than Ole Miss (if LSU can win at Arkansas).

Plus, considering all the former Louisiana residents now living in TX after Katrina...I'm sure many of them will want to watch their Tigers play in Dallas as well.

Bowls are almost never about "who placed what in what conf"...its all about the $$$$$$$$$$$.

Of course...if LSU loses to Arkansas...then this is probably a moot pt anyway.

If the BCS is not going to impose the rules they set, then they shouldnot have control over any bowl games at all. Rules are rules and should be applied to everyone and not just certain teams.

It is time for them to lie in the bed that they have made. There should be no exception for anyone.

I'd think it would be a GOOD thing for Ole Miss to go to the Liberty Bowl. Its a short trip and I know that tons of Ole Miss alums live/work in Memphis. Maybe the city wouldn't get as many hotel rooms booked as they like, but I'd wager that the bars and restaurants would do absolutely awesome business.

This "rule" can't possibly be a rule. Attendance has been a factor, although not the only one, in bowl selection since forever.
And wouldn't BCS rules apply only to BCS bowls?
I call BS.

i think they would be stupid to select LSU...Mississippi (Oxford, MS) is 45 mins from Memphis...and they haven't been to a bowl game is what, 4 years now? their fans are dying for a a chance to see their team play one more game.

besides, Memphis has the largest amount of Mississippi alums.

Go Tigers!!!
Drew

rferry Wrote:This "rule" can't possibly be a rule. Attendance has been a factor, although not the only one, in bowl selection since forever.
And wouldn't BCS rules apply only to BCS bowls?
I call BS.

The bowl attendance thing isn't a rule but its definitely a thing bowls use as a guideline.

BCS standing will apply to a three team tie in the Big 12. It applied when Pitt got sent to the Fiesta vs. Utah when a four team tie occurred.

If I understand how the SEC tie ins work:

1) BCS
2) Capital One
3) Outback & Cotton = Outback selects an east team, Cotton selects a west team
4) Peach & Liberty = Peach selects an east team, Liberty selects a west team
5) Music City, Independence and Papa John's work together based on remaining teams.

I know the ACC has a rule re: the championship game loser not falling below the Champs Sports Bowl. This seemed to apply more to the Gator Bowl and Jacksonville as the ACC Championship site as teams were apprehensive about having plenty of fans available to travel to Jacksonville twice in a 30 day span. I wonder if that will change once the ACC title game moves to Charlotte since they also host a bowl.

gdayre suggests there's rules in place that restrict bowls from considering attendance when selecting teams. Clearly that's not the case. No such rule is in place.


Technically, Independence picks behind the Music City. Thus they will be without a SEC team if Auburn fails to become bowl-eligible and the SEC loses 2 to the BCS. Killer for Independence, because it's likely the Big 12 won't be able to fill their obligations either. Could Louisiana Tech take a spot? Local or not, got to be more appealing than MAC vs. San Jose St.

rferry Wrote:gdayre suggests there's rules in place that restrict bowls from considering attendance when selecting teams. Clearly that's not the case. No such rule is in place.


Technically, Independence picks behind the Music City. Thus they will be without a SEC team if Auburn fails to become bowl-eligible and the SEC loses 2 to the BCS. Killer for Independence, because it's likely the Big 12 won't be able to fill their obligations either. Could Louisiana Tech take a spot? Local or not, got to be more appealing than MAC vs. San Jose St.

I think the Sun Belt is a backup to the PapaJohn's, Independence and GMAC bowls, but only if they have a team who is 7-5 and not going to the New Orleans Bowl OR the Sun Belt has a 6-6 team available and one of those bowls are not filled with a 7-5 team from the at-large pool.

WAC needs 5 with 7 wins to get LousT to Independence bowl, WAC already sighned agreement with Poinsetta

Independence will have 2 at-large spots to fill.

WAC won't need 5 with 7. They're better draws than the MAC and SBC for the bowls expected to have at-large spots.

This is assuming there will be space. There's 63 teams that are bowl-eligible. However, only 61 of those are guaranteed bowls (BCS teams, ND, Navy, 7 win teams, Colorado St and Nevada/or/SJ St (guaranteed bowls by conference or secondary agreements)). That leaves 7 spots left and there's only 9 BCS teams that can become bowl-eligible. Look for at least four additional 6-6 non-BCS teams to go bowling. (Also, CUSA can get 2 more guaranteed if their teams become eligible.)

Here is where the Big East can make a move bowls like Independence that wont be able to fill their slots could be gotten

The only rules are on a bowl-by-bowl basis with respect to strict records-based considerations (i.e. the Capital One Bowl has the 2nd Big Ten pick - it doesn't necessarily have to be the 2nd place Big Ten team, but whoever they pick must be within 1 game in the conference standings of the 2nd place team). Other than that, attendance considerations are a HUGE factor - it's not the only factor, but it's at the top of the priority list with TV ratings. Whether it is actually a good matchup is almost always a secondary consideration - bowl officials don't care if it's a good game if no one shows up to watch it. The only spots that are strictly "merit-based" are the BCS National Championship Game and then the automatic conference champion slots. After that, it's all about attendance and TV ratings, which is why USC or Ohio State will absolutely get an at-large bid over a 2nd non-BCS conference team.

As has been mentioned, this has nothing to do with the BCS. The Cotton Bowl is not part of the BCS and the ability of most bowls to select teams for traveling fanbases is almost as old as the bowls themselves. If anything the bowls have less power to choose now with all the conference affiliations.

mattsarz Wrote:I'd think it would be a GOOD thing for Ole Miss to go to the Liberty Bowl. Its a short trip and I know that tons of Ole Miss alums live/work in Memphis. Maybe the city wouldn't get as many hotel rooms booked as they like, but I'd wager that the bars and restaurants would do absolutely awesome business.

A Mississippi/ECU matchup in the Liberty Bowl would be great for Memphis.