(12-10-2015 12:25 PM)MWC Tex Wrote: Nah. The AZ bowl will be fine. The MW would have enough teams for fill on there end. Just happens that there were no at large Sunbelt teams this year.
I think the TV exposure will be surprisingly good when you are flipping through your local channels and see the game on. They (ASN) have lined up 125 stations coast to coast for the game.
Back in our MWC days, I was as big of a proponent as you could find of having a post Christmas Bowl game in Arizona for a top MWC team. I have hated seeing #20 BYU (2006), #24 TCU (2006), #16 BYU (2007), #11 TCU (2008), #16 BYU (2008), #14 BYU (2009), #23 Utah (2009), #19 Utah (2010), #7 Boise (2011), #18 TCU (2011), #19 Boise (2012), #20 Fresno (2013), 10 win CSU (2014), 9 win Utah St (2014), 9 win Air Force (2014) and 10 win SDSU (2015) being relegated to pre-Christmas bowl games. They all deserved much better.
That said, signing up the Arizona Bowl without a television partner, quality opponent and any vision was NOT the solution. Unfortunately, ever since the realigment earthquake, it looks like Craig Thompson has no idea what he's doing anymore.
I feel like the MWC would have been better off negotiating a deal to send its #1/2 to either the Heart of Dallas or Armed Forces Bowl on a post Christmas Saturday afternoon or post Christmas weekday night to play #1/2 from the AAC, CUSA, MAC or Sun Belt. Instead, this mess happened.
I hope some things change because I would still love to see the top G5 teams featured in post Christmas Bowl (that are not on while we're at work) against either other top G5 teams or P5 #4s or bettter.