(12-26-2015 06:14 PM)LifetimeTopper Wrote:  I'm afraid this just sounds like FCS+ to me... As much as I like the bragging rights between conferences, the average joe doesn't give a ****. I'm afraid the main way we get national respect is to beat P5 teams.

Don't mean to piss on your parade as I personally love the idea, I just don't think it's in our best interests. Kinda like screwing without a rubber.

I am sensitive to that as well, and that is why I would definitely be opposed to a G5 playoff. But if we're being honest, unless you're playing in one of about 10 historic bowl games with desired timeslots, then you might as well flip a coin for the other 30. I'm saying work to carve out a space to ensure the G5 champions have a desired destination at a desirable game time, so no G5 champion is having to choose between a game 5 days before Christmas, or the day after Christmas. Set a Dec. 30 slot in Miami, and know if you win, we're going to a beach in a prime recruiting locale, and fans would be excited and able to go a week after Christmas.

I would mind setting up a champions bowl with another conference. I don't mind the MW champ or #2 MW (with the #1 team going to the access bowl) playing the CUSA champ or #2 if your champ is in the Access bowl.
But the date still has to be on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1. Put on a ASN network so its OTA and people without ESPN still get to watch bowl games on those days.
It'll start out slow I'm sure but with enough years put behind it, it'll be a tradition like the PAC vs Big10. The Rose still holds value to those conferences even if the #2 team(s) are playing.
I was watching some bowls games with some in-law family members (the Venezuelan side) and they ask which teams were ranked, when I said none they lost interest.

Putting the MW vs CUSA champions bowl would provide a more intriguing matchup. The only bowl options for that type of setup would be one not own by ESPN, which 2 of them that I know of are the Arizona bowl and the Poinsettia bowl (However, they are owned by the Holiday bowl and would never go for it.)

The best G5 gets the access slot, and they're the only ones in any position to really prove anything worth a damn when it comes all these casual fans and media-types to whom some of you want to pander.

I'd be all for letting the next 2 highest-rated conference champions play each other in a designated bowl. That should guarantee the winner finishes ranked unless it's a particularly screwy season.

The MWC/MAC/CUSA/ACC/Belt champion beating a P5 also-ran doesn't directly show those casual fans and media-types much (just look at all the ACC folks poo-pooing WKU's win over USF as not indicative of anything within the G5). Match 2 top teams against each other, and one of them is assured a quality win.

I'd even be OK with the remaining 2 G5 champs playing each other in another bowl.

I've said it a million times now. To spend all season and off-season insisting that the best of the G5 is as good or better than most of the P5, then come bowl season, prefer to play a P5's 4th-place team over a G5 champion is the height of hypocrisy. You can't have it both ways. If in our own minds, a 10-win Rice beating a 7-5 Indiana means more than them beating a 10-win Ohio, we have no right to complain when that Ohio team can't crack the polls. Respect starts from within.

(12-26-2015 05:27 PM)PirateJim Wrote:  in the near future it could be arranged that the conference champs from the G5 conference, that are not in the access bowl, play each other in a bowl game? CUSA vs MAC, MWC vs Sunbelt or some other mathchup. Or would you rather play a mediocre P5 team cause were not going to matched up with an upper tier P5. Any opinions?

Mediocre P5 team.

Our champion played the MAC Champion last year and won, 52-23.

It didn't do anything for our league because there's way too much perception, which is valued more than reality, and that perception comes direct from Bristol, CT.

It's why some people out there actually think the AACk was full of good teams this year. It wasn't.

The AAC was pretty good during the regular season. We had some wins over the P5 and some close losses. ESPN and the AP notice things like that. Toledo got some respect in the polls because of their win over Arkansas. Western Kentucky is a really good team and will be ranked at seasons end. Scheduling and beating some P5's will get you noticed by the pollsters. However, we (the aac) really wet the sheets this bowl season which will put us right back with the rest of the G5. But that could be quickly forgotten because 247 already has their preseason rankings out and Houston and USF are in the top 25.

ESPN is the "pied piper" of the casual fan.They follow them blindly because they either do not have or do not desire to use their free time taking a long look at such matters.

(12-26-2015 05:27 PM)PirateJim Wrote:  in the near future it could be arranged that the conference champs from the G5 conference, that are not in the access bowl, play each other in a bowl game? CUSA vs MAC, MWC vs Sunbelt or some other mathchup. Or would you rather play a mediocre P5 team cause were not going to matched up with an upper tier P5. Any opinions?

If you remember, the CUSA Champion played the MWC Champion in the Liberty Bowl at one time. Don't take any offense, but I don't see your league, the AAC, agreeing to it. They have tried hard to create the perception that the AAC is above the other G5 leagues. I doubt the AAC would agree to it because of that.

I'd much rather play a P5 school. Does more for my program to beat them than another G5 school.

(12-27-2015 06:01 PM)usmbacker Wrote:  

(12-26-2015 05:27 PM)PirateJim Wrote:  in the near future it could be arranged that the conference champs from the G5 conference, that are not in the access bowl, play each other in a bowl game? CUSA vs MAC, MWC vs Sunbelt or some other mathchup. Or would you rather play a mediocre P5 team cause were not going to matched up with an upper tier P5. Any opinions?

If your remember, the CUSA Champion played the MWC Champion in the Liberty Bowl at one time. Don't take any offense, but I don't see your league, the AAC, agreeing to it. They have tried hard to create the perception that the AAC is above the other G5 leagues. I doubt the AAC would agree to it because of that.

That's a very good possibility.