CSNbbs

As many as six bowls, the Poinsettia, Texas, Music City, PapaJohns.com, Hawaii, and Independence Bowl, might have to scramble for the best at-large team possible, and why? A few of the major conferences aren’t going to come remotely close to filling out all of their bowl slots.

The SEC will be the biggest culprit. Two SECers are certain to be in the BCS, likely leaving three open SEC bowl spots. The hope for the bowls will be for Vanderbilt to finally get off that five-win bump, but it’s unlikly to happen at Kentucky or against Tennessee, as bad as the Vols might be right now. Auburn’s probably going to be stuck on five wins with Georgia and Alabama to close, and Arkansas needs to beat both Mississippi State in Starkville, as well as LSU, to be bowl eligible. That’s not going to happen.

The Pac 10 will be almost as big a problem, and it won’t have the excuse of putting two teams into the BCS (unless Oregon State wins out against Cal, at Arizona and Oregon). Arizona State going 3-6 hasn’t helped, Stanford will need to pull off an upset against USC or at Cal to be eligible, and UCLA isn’t going to be alive in the chase.

The Big 12 will likely leave two bowl spots open with Colorado and Texas A&M, two teams that appeared headed for six wins, needing to pull off shockers to be eligible. The Buffs will have to beat either Oklahoma State or Nebraska at Nebraska, while Texas A&M will have to win at both Baylor and Texas.

What does this all mean, really?

Get ready to see an infiltration of MAC teams in the bowls. The Sun Belt will be certain to get two teams into the bowls, and there might be a third. The Big Ten won’t have teams like Michigan or Purdue available, the ACC will likely leave Clemson at home, and the Big East will do what it can to fill in as many blanks as possible. And that leads to the other major bowl story that’s going to kick in … ticket sales.

http://cfn.scout.com/2/810112.html

Here is the flip side the the excitement as noted in the end of that article...

Let us all agree that if WMU goes to any bowl outside the 150-200 mile mark from kalamazoo... ticket sales and attendance would be abysmal. Correct? Let us also agree that the bowl selection commitee looks more at ticket revenue than competition on the field when it comes to filling out the non-bcs bowls with bowl eligible competition. Correct? I fear that this may be the year that has Corso and Co. remarking "And this is why the MAC conference gets picked over by other bowl eligible teams for at large consideration. They just dont make it economically feasible for the bowl committee to even consider them."

I understand now why the MAC commisoner really pursued the bowl in Toronto. Simple... its travel... and its an understanding of how awful MAC teams travel outside of the mid-west to support their teams.

If WMU somehow draws an exciting at-large bowl matchup due to the lack of SEC teams... WMU darn well better put some butts in that stadium wherever it is, as it will have positive/negative affect on the future selection of MAC teams for bowl consideration down the road.

34 bowls is an absurd number anyway. Hopefully some of those mentioned bowls fail. What they really ought to do if they're never going to have a playoff is cut the # of bowls back to about 20 and require 8 wins to be invited as an at-large. I've never seen why a mediocre 6-6 BCS team's fanbase would even *want* to go to a bowl game unless 6 wins is the most they've had in a decade or something. Sure, for northern schools, it's an excuse to go somewhere warm around the holidays, but hell, I can do that without watching two lousy teams muddle around a neutral site. The only reason I watch most of the bowl games is because I know that football season is almost over.

I really don't mind the bowls as they are. Right now, mostly any city that wants to promote tourism, if they can find sponsors, can enter the bowl picture.

Without having as many bowls as there are, the MAC might be returned to the days of just 1 team getting to go bowling. There have been many very worthy MAC teams sitting home with a 9-3, 10-2 record watching Big State U playing in a bowl with their 7-5 record.

IMO, if the number of bowls is limited, the MAC gets shut out.

Crebman Wrote:I really don't mind the bowls as they are. Right now, mostly any city that wants to promote tourism, if they can find sponsors, can enter the bowl picture.

Without having as many bowls as there are, the MAC might be returned to the days of just 1 team getting to go bowling. There have been many very worthy MAC teams sitting home with a 9-3, 10-2 record watching Big State U playing in a bowl with their 7-5 record.

IMO, if the number of bowls is limited, the MAC gets shut out.

Agreed. Think about it this way -- without the extra bowl slots, there's a chance that a 10-2 WMU team could be shut out of a bowl this year (BSU 10-2, CMU 10-2 and whatever crap the MAC East spits out could get the 3 guaranteed bowl bids). Any 10-2 (or even 9-3) MAC team sitting at home without a bowl bid would be a travesty.

Is there still a stipulation that records be a determining factor in bowl selection? A few years back I thought there was something written that wouldn't allow a 6 win team take a bowl from a team with > 6 wins. At least as an at-large.

GRPunk Wrote:Is there still a stipulation that records be a determining factor in bowl selection? A few years back I thought there was something written that wouldn't allow a 6 win team take a bowl from a team with > 6 wins. At least as an at-large.

There might be something about 6 win teams not taking games from 7 win teams, but it doesn't go beyond that. There is no requirement that at-large spots go to the team(s) available with the best record.