SEC has 10 bowl eligible teams and 9 bowl agreements. Under 2014 national playoff, Auburn and Alabama would be involved in the 4 team national championship playoff. So SEC could not provide a team for the Independence Bowl, where CUSA has a back up agreement.

ACC, without bowl eligible Maryland but with bowl eligible Louisville, would have a bowl eligible team for Independence. It does appear CUSA will be represented often in the Independence Bowl in the future.

The CUSA back up bowl agreements with Independence Bowl and Armed Forces Bowl, plus its annual bowls in the Heart of Dallas Bowl and New Mexico Bowl, provide CUSA with an interesting and fan friendly driveable bowl line up. CUSA will also appear in New Orleans Bowl 3 out of 6 years, yet another fan friendly driveable bowl. CUSA will appear 3 out of 6 years in Hawaii Bowl, definitely not a driveable bowl. My guess is PAC eventually replaces CUSA and Nbe/AAC in this bowl....and CUSA and Nbe/AAC end up playing each other in another bowl.

Another attractive feature of CUSA's bowls is that the Heart of Dallas Bowl is on New Year's Day (along with Rose, Fiesta, Outback, Capital One, and Gator) and the Independence Bowl is the day before New Year's Day (along with Sun, Liberty, and Peach).

If I were CUSA and MWC, I would move the New Mexico Bowl from Albuquerque to San Antonio and get it out of the cold weather. 5 out of 6 MWC bowls are played on their own campuses which is a bummer; moving it off a MWC campus to a new site and especially the fun travel site of San Antonio, I think would be appealing to MWC.

(12-30-2013 02:49 PM)Tallgrass Wrote:  SEC has 10 bowl eligible teams and 9 bowl agreements. Under 2014 national playoff, Auburn and Alabama would be involved in the 4 team national championship playoff. So SEC could not provide a team for the Independence Bowl, where CUSA has a back up agreement.

ACC, without bowl eligible Maryland but with bowl eligible Louisville, would have a bowl eligible team for Independence. It does appear CUSA will be represented often in the Independence Bowl in the future.

The CUSA back up bowl agreements with Independence Bowl and Armed Forces Bowl, plus its annual bowls in the Heart of Dallas Bowl and New Mexico Bowl, provide CUSA with an interesting and fan friendly driveable bowl line up. CUSA will also appear in New Orleans Bowl 3 out of 6 years, yet another fan friendly driveable bowl. CUSA will appear 3 out of 6 years in Hawaii Bowl, definitely not a driveable bowl. My guess is PAC eventually replaces CUSA and Nbe/AAC in this bowl....and CUSA and Nbe/AAC end up playing each other in another bowl.

Another attractive feature of CUSA's bowls is that the Heart of Dallas Bowl is on New Year's Day (along with Rose, Fiesta, Outback, Capital One, and Gator) and the Independence Bowl is the day before New Year's Day (along with Sun, Liberty, and Peach).

If I were CUSA and MWC, I would move the New Mexico Bowl from Albuquerque to San Antonio and get it out of the cold weather. 5 out of 6 MWC bowls are played on their own campuses which is a bummer; moving it off a MWC campus to a new site and especially the fun travel site of San Antonio, I think would be appealing to MWC.

Albuquerque gives you the opportunity to go skiing before Christmas in nearby Taos or Santa Fe. Not sure how moving the game 700 miles further away from the Pac-12/MWC would really boost the game. While it would be more appealing to have the game in San Antonio, you'd still be faced with several logistical/perception problems:

1) Increased distance (doubt many Pac-12 fans will want to travel that much farther to see their likely mediocre 7th place team play a game);
2) Traveling that increased distance before Christmas;
3) Dealing with the reality that the game would be seen as inferior to the existing Alamobowl;
4) Having to likely cede the authority to run the game to the Alamobowl powers that be.

A better idea would be to have CUSA figure out a way to cut ties with the Independence Bowl or raise the money to buy the game and move it somewhere besides Shreveport/Bossier City, in as much as pretty much ANYWHERE would be more attractive to visiting fans. Perhaps a deal could be cut to move the Independence Bowl to Jerry World in North Texas, assuming a deal could be worked out with the Cowboys, or to Houston for a pre-Christmas game if the Texans could be persuased, or you could move the game to Alamodome and space it out a week before the Alamobowl. CUSA would appear to have local teams that would have a chance in playing in that game anyway and who would be within a reasonable driving distance of any of those locations. (UNT, UTSA, La Tech, UTEP, Rice etc.).

Not sure how the Indy Bowl backup will work. Both CUSA and the AAC are claiming backup agreements with the Indy. I agree this bowl will often be open---Im just not sure who the big beneficiary will be. Could be CUSA. Could be the AAC. Could be split between the two.

(12-30-2013 03:51 PM)Hoodoyoubelongto Wrote:  

(12-30-2013 02:49 PM)Tallgrass Wrote:  SEC has 10 bowl eligible teams and 9 bowl agreements. Under 2014 national playoff, Auburn and Alabama would be involved in the 4 team national championship playoff. So SEC could not provide a team for the Independence Bowl, where CUSA has a back up agreement.

ACC, without bowl eligible Maryland but with bowl eligible Louisville, would have a bowl eligible team for Independence. It does appear CUSA will be represented often in the Independence Bowl in the future.

The CUSA back up bowl agreements with Independence Bowl and Armed Forces Bowl, plus its annual bowls in the Heart of Dallas Bowl and New Mexico Bowl, provide CUSA with an interesting and fan friendly driveable bowl line up. CUSA will also appear in New Orleans Bowl 3 out of 6 years, yet another fan friendly driveable bowl. CUSA will appear 3 out of 6 years in Hawaii Bowl, definitely not a driveable bowl. My guess is PAC eventually replaces CUSA and Nbe/AAC in this bowl....and CUSA and Nbe/AAC end up playing each other in another bowl.

Another attractive feature of CUSA's bowls is that the Heart of Dallas Bowl is on New Year's Day (along with Rose, Fiesta, Outback, Capital One, and Gator) and the Independence Bowl is the day before New Year's Day (along with Sun, Liberty, and Peach).

If I were CUSA and MWC, I would move the New Mexico Bowl from Albuquerque to San Antonio and get it out of the cold weather. 5 out of 6 MWC bowls are played on their own campuses which is a bummer; moving it off a MWC campus to a new site and especially the fun travel site of San Antonio, I think would be appealing to MWC.

Albuquerque gives you the opportunity to go skiing before Christmas in nearby Taos or Santa Fe. Not sure how moving the game 700 miles further away from the Pac-12/MWC would really boost the game. While it would be more appealing to have the game in San Antonio, you'd still be faced with several logistical/perception problems:

1) Increased distance (doubt many Pac-12 fans will want to travel that much farther to see their likely mediocre 7th place team play a game);
2) Traveling that increased distance before Christmas;
3) Dealing with the reality that the game would be seen as inferior to the existing Alamobowl;
4) Having to likely cede the authority to run the game to the Alamobowl powers that be.

A better idea would be to have CUSA figure out a way to cut ties with the Independence Bowl or raise the money to buy the game and move it somewhere besides Shreveport/Bossier City, in as much as pretty much ANYWHERE would be more attractive to visiting fans. Perhaps a deal could be cut to move the Independence Bowl to Jerry World in North Texas, assuming a deal could be worked out with the Cowboys, or to Houston for a pre-Christmas game if the Texans could be persuased, or you could move the game to Alamodome and space it out a week before the Alamobowl. CUSA would appear to have local teams that would have a chance in playing in that game anyway and who would be within a reasonable driving distance of any of those locations. (UNT, UTSA, La Tech, UTEP, Rice etc.).

The New Mexico Bowl becomes an annual CUSA/MWC match up starting in 2014; Pac is out.

Given that CUSA/West has two western oriented bowls in HOD Bowl and NM Bowl, keeping the Independence Bowl, which is CUSA centered and close to non-western CUSA teams, is probably okay, for example, Southern Miss, La Tech, WKU, MTU.

There are a lot of cities that host two bowls.

(12-30-2013 05:33 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Not sure how the Indy Bowl backup will work. Both CUSA and the AAC are claiming backup agreements with the Indy. I agree this bowl will often be open---Im just not sure who the big beneficiary will be. Could be CUSA. Could be the AAC. Could be split between the two.

I think (not sure) that AAC will be a back-up if CUSA is unable to provide a bowl eligible team. See link which, after reporting the CUSA back up agreement, then states: "Additional back up agreements for the AdvoCare V100 Bowl will be announced in the near future."

In addition to AAC backing up CUSA, it might be that neither ACC or SEC are able to provide a bowl eligible team and so the Independence Bowl might, via its back up agreements, become a CUSA/AAC matchup for that year.

Advocare Bowl Agreement

(12-30-2013 05:51 PM)Tallgrass Wrote:  

(12-30-2013 05:33 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Not sure how the Indy Bowl backup will work. Both CUSA and the AAC are claiming backup agreements with the Indy. I agree this bowl will often be open---Im just not sure who the big beneficiary will be. Could be CUSA. Could be the AAC. Could be split between the two.

I think (not sure) that AAC will be a back-up if CUSA is unable to provide a bowl eligible team. See link which, after reporting the CUSA back up agreement, then states: "Additional back up agreements for the AdvoCare V100 Bowl will be announced in the near future."

In addition to AAC backing up CUSA, it might be that neither ACC or SEC are able to provide a bowl eligible team and so the Independence Bowl might, via its back up agreements, become a CUSA/AAC matchup for that year.

Advocare Bowl Agreement

If you notice neither conference has indicated they are the "primary" backup. It could be the Indy Bowl gets to select the best available from the 2 conferences. It could be the two conferences rotate years as backup. It could mean the AAC backs up the SEC pick and CUSA backs up the ACC selection. Or--it could mean what you indicated (As well as the inverse of what you indicated). There has been virtually nothing said about the backup slot. I hope one of the commissioners fields that question in an interview. It will be interesting to see the exact nature of the backup slots.

(12-30-2013 06:01 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(12-30-2013 05:51 PM)Tallgrass Wrote:  

(12-30-2013 05:33 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Not sure how the Indy Bowl backup will work. Both CUSA and the AAC are claiming backup agreements with the Indy. I agree this bowl will often be open---Im just not sure who the big beneficiary will be. Could be CUSA. Could be the AAC. Could be split between the two.

I think (not sure) that AAC will be a back-up if CUSA is unable to provide a bowl eligible team. See link which, after reporting the CUSA back up agreement, then states: "Additional back up agreements for the AdvoCare V100 Bowl will be announced in the near future."

In addition to AAC backing up CUSA, it might be that neither ACC or SEC are able to provide a bowl eligible team and so the Independence Bowl might, via its back up agreements, become a CUSA/AAC matchup for that year.

Advocare Bowl Agreement

If you notice neither conference has indicated they are the "primary" backup. It could be the Indy Bowl gets to select the best available from the 2 conferences. It could be the two conferences rotate years as backup. It could mean the AAC backs up the SEC pick and CUSA backs up the ACC selection. Or--it could mean what you indicated (As well as the inverse of what you indicated). There has been virtually nothing said about the backup slot. I hope one of the commissioners fields that question in an interview. It will be interesting to see the exact nature of the backup slots.

I agree with your observations.