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Paul Zeis

Quote:Aw shucks, you mean there is no chance that those of us who cover Pitt or any other Big East team will be asked to go to El Paso again any time soon?

Is that a promise? Can we get that in writing?

Oh, I know it is a bad development for the Big East to lose the Sun Bowl because it can use every mid-level bowl it can get for the teams who finish in the top half of the league but since I don't work for the Big East or Pitt, well that doesn't matter and the bright side of it is that nobody - namely me -- from this neck of the woods will be sentenced to a week in El Paso again any time soon....

Now don't get me wrong, the people of El Paso were nice enough and the people who organized and volunteered the bowl were unbelievably cordial and hospitable and the stadium is kind of neat as it is set in the mountains, but truthfully, the only thing worse than the weather there was the food and there is something undesirable about visiting a city which, as part of its welcome speech, the visitor's bureau must make sure to tell you to not go to the next town over if you want to stay alive because there are Mexican drug cartels jockeying for position.

Of course, there is probably some punch line out there that the people of El Paso have about never wanting to see the Big East come back to town after having to endure the stink-bomb laid there by the Panthers in December, but again, when it comes to a return trip to El Paso, better those who cover the ACC than me....

On a more serious note -- the big question is what does this mean for the Big East's bowl lineup?

I'd say that basically unless there is a rabbit to pull out of the hat that we haven't heard about yet, the whole "we're in a better position to negotiate than we were four years ago" line coming out of the powers that be in Providence is starting to look more than a little bit suspect.

As it stands, the Big East has a BCS spot, a Champs Sports spot and if they hold onto their old bowls a Meinecke spot, a PapaJohns.com spot, a St. Petersburg spot and an International Bowl spot. That's not exactly an upgrade over what it had with the Gator/Sun thing other than Notre Dame can only take the second team's spot once in four years.

And if that is what the line-up really looks like, in a year when the Irish don't qualify for the BCS and thus end up in the Champs Sports Bowl, the second place team will go to Charlotte to face an ACC team but the third place team in the Big East will end up in either Toronto, Birmingham or St. Petersburg against some MAC or Conference USA school.

That's not a very attractive lineup and speaks volumes about the work left to be done by the conference to continue to build itself up and change the perception of the programs in it.

And of course, Pitt selling a few tickets to bowl games over the next few years wouldn't hurt, either.

Our bowl record each year certainly won't suffer from leaving us the scrapings. We'll win the conference bowl race almost every year with this lineup...

All we need to do is stick together, take care of business on the field, and everything will turn out just fine...

This is nothing to brag about by anymeans but Pitt brought more fans to El Paso than Oregon did and Oregon only scored 3 points. So really no reason for some of the people out there to be blaming Pitt for losing the Sun for the Big East. Oregon played just as sh1tty as us and brought less fans. Why didn't the PAC 10 lose the Sun as well is the question?

(08-21-2009 12:28 PM)animus Wrote:  This is nothing to brag about by anymeans but Pitt brought more fans to El Paso than Oregon did and Oregon only scored 3 points. So really no reason for some of the people out there to be blaming Pitt for losing the Sun for the Big East. Oregon played just as sh1tty as us and brought less fans. Why didn't the PAC 10 lose the Sun as well is the question?

The Pac 10 is viewed in a higher regard than the Big East.

They won't be if USC gets canned by the NCAA after all the investigations are complete. However, I doubt the NCAA will do a thing to USC. If they were going to, it would have happened already...

(08-21-2009 12:24 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  Our bowl record each year certainly won't suffer from leaving us the scrapings. We'll win the conference bowl race almost every year with this lineup...

Except for the same rep that the national media throw at us now because we aren't playing any big boys.

That's not our problem. We play the games we're 'allowed' to play. If we win them, is it our fault that our bowl schedule is so lame? No. It's what we were left with...

(08-21-2009 12:13 PM)animus Wrote:  http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/...e-sun.aspx

Paul Zeis

Quote:Aw shucks, you mean there is no chance that those of us who cover Pitt or any other Big East team will be asked to go to El Paso again any time soon?

Is that a promise? Can we get that in writing?

Let me guess...the author of this article has never had to travel to BIRMINGHAM or TORONTO in the middle of the winter to cover a bowl game in front of a 2/3 empty stadium?

If he had...El Paso would be considered "El Paradise".

(08-22-2009 09:43 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(08-21-2009 12:13 PM)animus Wrote:  http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/...e-sun.aspx

Paul Zeis

Quote:Aw shucks, you mean there is no chance that those of us who cover Pitt or any other Big East team will be asked to go to El Paso again any time soon?

Is that a promise? Can we get that in writing?

Let me guess...the author of this article has never had to travel to BIRMINGHAM or TORONTO in the middle of the winter to cover a bowl game in front of a 2/3 empty stadium?

If he had...El Paso would be considered "El Paradise".

KL
Get a grip NO ONE is knocking the Sun Bowl game atmosphere, the knock is on getting there and what to do once you are there. I went to the Sun Bowl when USF played and loved the support the locals give it but the reality is that is not a great tourist destination. We drove a few hours to Carlsbad Caverns, Juarez was really not anything to talk about. The food was good and inexpensive. Was it better than Bham? absolutely no one is comparing the two. But once again if you are going that far west would it be abetter destination tourist wise than San Francisco? Nope

He nails the bottom line:

"I'd say that basically unless there is a rabbit to pull out of the hat that we haven't heard about yet, the whole "we're in a better position to negotiate than we were four years ago" line coming out of the powers that be in Providence is starting to look more than a little bit suspect."

As for El Paso, well as a fan of the "old west" i had a blast the time i visited there. The mountains, trails, deserts, Carlsbad caverns, the whole panoramic landscape of the southwest was beautiful to me, had a great time traveling all over the area.

I remember the 1987 Sun Bowl from Major Harris' freshman year. El Paso was a nice place to travel to back then, and Jaurez wasn't crawling with smugglers either. But even then, there was only so much TexMex you can take. The best part of the trip was the game, even though the Mountaineers lost...