HOD might just be waiting as a courtesy, since C-USA and the affiliated bowls are supposed to work together. Hard to imagine Rice fans outnumbering UNT fans.

(12-03-2013 12:30 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  HOD might just be waiting as a courtesy, since C-USA and the affiliated bowls are supposed to work together. Hard to imagine Rice fans outnumbering UNT fans.

That's what I'm thinking as well. Hope I'm wrong, but I just don't think HOD will take us if we are available. I hope we aren't.

(12-03-2013 12:24 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:18 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:06 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:05 PM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(12-02-2013 10:49 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  I still think the HOD will take Rice over UNT if it gets it's choice. Rice would take a lot of fans to that game.

UNT has 9x the undergrad population, hasn't been to a bowl game since 2004, and has never been to a bowl game this close to home. I'm thinking HOD would love to take them.

Then why wait to extend the invite?

This.

I think, based upon the showing last year at the Armed Forces Bowl in Dallas, that we are not an unattractive option to the HOD. Perhaps they are waiting to see how things play out and how well we perform/draw at the CUSA championship.

How many fans did we take to the Armed Forces Bowl? On television it looked like a small group, maybe 4k?

Attendance was reported as 40,000.

I couldn't imagine that Rice fans were only 10% of that. We may have only sold 4,000 tickets through Rice, but I wouldn't be surprised if many Rice fans bought tickets from another source.

(12-03-2013 12:50 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:24 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:18 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:06 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:05 PM)d1owls4life Wrote:  UNT has 9x the undergrad population, hasn't been to a bowl game since 2004, and has never been to a bowl game this close to home. I'm thinking HOD would love to take them.

Then why wait to extend the invite?

This.

I think, based upon the showing last year at the Armed Forces Bowl in Dallas, that we are not an unattractive option to the HOD. Perhaps they are waiting to see how things play out and how well we perform/draw at the CUSA championship.

How many fans did we take to the Armed Forces Bowl? On television it looked like a small group, maybe 4k?

Attendance was reported as 40,000.

I couldn't imagine that Rice fans were only 10% of that. We may have only sold 4,000 tickets through Rice, but I wouldn't be surprised if many Rice fans bought tickets from another source.

Here is a pic that I took of the Rice side.


Other Side


Didn't good pics of end zones.

Now that I know that the money is split evenly, I fear that if we don't go Liberty, we are bound for Hawaii.

Tulane already accepted to NO
UNT logical for Dallas
ECU/MTSU to Military/Bahamas
FAU to St Pete


Am I missing anything?

My problem with this is the match-up more than the location

(12-03-2013 01:05 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Now that I know that the money is split evenly, I fear that if we don't go Liberty, we are bound for Hawaii.

Tulane already accepted to NO
UNT logical for Dallas
ECU/MTSU to Military/Bahamas
FAU to St Pete


Am I missing anything?

My problem with this is the match-up more than the location

This seems more than reasonable due to proximity to the bowl/fanbase.

The only thing I could see changing this is if the bowl felt that it could draw reasonable attendance regardless of CUSA opponent, and subbed us in because it felt we would make the game better through our performance.

While I think the attendance is important to a bowl game, there are other considerations...such as...how many hotel rooms would Rice sell as opposed to UNT in the HOD bowl? How would restaurants, etc be affected.

If you're looking for a fan to buy a ticket, go to the game and then go home, UNT would obviously be advantageous. If you're looking for a fan to go to Dallas, spend a couple of nights in a hotel, eat a few meals at restaurants and then head home, the difference might not be as great. (All of which prompted Jim Brock's comments about UH in the Cotton Bowl many years ago).

(12-03-2013 01:05 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Now that I know that the money is split evenly, I fear that if we don't go Liberty, we are bound for Hawaii.

Tulane already accepted to NO
UNT logical for Dallas
ECU/MTSU to Military/Bahamas
FAU to St Pete


Am I missing anything?

My problem with this is the match-up more than the location

You are missing a few things:
(1) No Bahamas until 2014. CUSA has 6 bowl tie-ins this year (Liberty, New Orleans, HOD, Military, St. Pete, Hawaii).
(2) CUSA has 8 bowl-eligible teams but only 6 bowl tie-ins (though some have mentioned that UTSA needs to petition). Regardless, there are more CUSA teams than there are guaranteed bowl spots. This means at least 1 CUSA team goes into the pool of teams looking to fill open bowl spots. As you can see below, there are approximately 16 bowl-eligible teams that will be looking to fill only 3 or 4 open bowl spots!

Bowl-eligible teams without guaranteed tie-in (conference has more bowl-eligible teams than bowl tie-ins):
SEC - none
Big 12 - none
Big Ten - none
Pac-12 - 2 teams (maybe 1 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
ACC - 3 teams (unlikely to send 2 to BCS)
Independents - 2 teams (Notre Dame & BYU, Navy already committed to Armed Forces)
American - none
MWC - 1 team
CUSA - 1 team (maybe 2 if UTSA petitions and is granted)
MAC - 3 teams guaranteed (maybe 4 if N. Illinois is not in BCS)
Sun Belt - 4 teams (maybe 5 if S. Alabama beats ULL)

Bowls with open spots (conference has more bowl tie-ins than eligible teams):
SEC - none (maybe 1 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
Big 12 - guaranteed 1 (maybe 2 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
Big Ten - guaranteed 1 (maybe 2 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
Pac-12 - none
ACC - none
American - probably 1 (maybe 2 if Rutgers loses to South Florida, unlikely zero as that would require SMU beating UCF)
MWC - none
CUSA - none
MAC - none
Sun Belt - none

Teams like FAU and San Jose St. have to be a little concerned about staying home, and the lower MAC & Sun Belt teams seem to have no chance. For instance, just glanced at the 2 projections from posts #213 and #214 above. Projection in #213 leaves Syracuse and FAU out while projection in #214 leaves Oregon State, Washington State, Pittsburgh, and San Jose State out. This is due to the ACC (11 of 14) and Pac-12 (9 of 12) producing a lot of bowl-eligible teams this year.

(12-03-2013 12:18 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:06 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Then why wait to extend the invite?

This.

I think, based upon the showing last year at the Armed Forces Bowl in Dallas, that we are not an unattractive option to the HOD. Perhaps they are waiting to see how things play out and how well we perform/draw at the CUSA championship.

Or, maybe they'd run afoul of the IRS if the wrote off $4000 of liquor and $15,000 of "expenses" at Rick's on a weekend boondoggle to Houston if they had already issued the invite to UNT. Who knows?

(12-03-2013 01:05 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Now that I know that the money is split evenly, I fear that if we don't go Liberty, we are bound for Hawaii.

Tulane already accepted to NO
UNT logical for Dallas
ECU/MTSU to Military/Bahamas
FAU to St Pete


Am I missing anything?

My problem with this is the match-up more than the location

Your fear is well grounded. Per an earlier post, the Military Bowl basically already said they're taking ECU if Marshall is in the Liberty.

If it just comes down to projected ticket sales/attendance, then yes, I would bet the HOD Bowl will pass us over for UNT if that is an option. If we had beaten them and had 10 wins as opposed to their 7, it's probably a different story. That ship has sailed, though.

However, one thing to remember which could work in our favor is that the HOD (assuming the Big 10 doesn't fill its slot) is competing with other bowls in the marketplace to get a P5 conference team as a replacement. I'm biased of course but I think it's a better selling point to say to a P5 conference school, "If you come to Dallas, we'll get you Rice as your opponent" as opposed to "we'll get you North Texas." We are a legacy power-conference school with a long history, our name means something, we used to be in that fraternity. UNT has never been in that fraternity; power conference fans think of them as a directional school, little more than I-AA. If you're Pitt, Oregon State, Syracuse, even Notre Dame, etc., and you're being courted by a couple bowls and you have a little leverage, maybe you use it to push for Rice instead of North Texas.

Obligatory: let's beat Marshall and make it all moot.

One last thing - at least Hawaii does project to have a better matchup than St. Pete. The CUSA team sent to St. Pete will be playing a Belt or MAC team unless SMU beats UCF (and Rutgers beats USF). Those conferences have a backup agreement with the St. Pete bowl. Hawaii will have a MWC team. Anyone but a Belt/MAC school, please. We've done that 2 out of our last 3 bowls. You cannot get a lower Q rating than a bowl game vs. a MAC or Sun Belt also-ran.

(12-03-2013 01:45 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 01:05 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Now that I know that the money is split evenly, I fear that if we don't go Liberty, we are bound for Hawaii.

Tulane already accepted to NO
UNT logical for Dallas
ECU/MTSU to Military/Bahamas
FAU to St Pete


Am I missing anything?

My problem with this is the match-up more than the location

You are missing a few things:
(1) No Bahamas until 2014. CUSA has 6 bowl tie-ins this year (Liberty, New Orleans, HOD, Military, St. Pete, Hawaii).
(2) CUSA has 8 bowl-eligible teams but only 6 bowl tie-ins (though some have mentioned that UTSA needs to petition). Regardless, there are more CUSA teams than there are guaranteed bowl spots. This means at least 1 CUSA team goes into the pool of teams looking to fill open bowl spots. As you can see below, there are approximately 16 bowl-eligible teams that will be looking to fill only 3 or 4 open bowl spots!

Bowl-eligible teams without guaranteed tie-in (conference has more bowl-eligible teams than bowl tie-ins):
SEC - none
Big 12 - none
Big Ten - none
Pac-12 - 2 teams (maybe 1 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
ACC - 3 teams (unlikely to send 2 to BCS)
Independents - 2 teams (Notre Dame & BYU, Navy already committed to Armed Forces)
American - none
MWC - 1 team
CUSA - 1 team (maybe 2 if UTSA petitions and is granted)
MAC - 3 teams guaranteed (maybe 4 if N. Illinois is not in BCS)
Sun Belt - 4 teams (maybe 5 if S. Alabama beats ULL)

Bowls with open spots (conference has more bowl tie-ins than eligible teams):
SEC - none (maybe 1 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
Big 12 - guaranteed 1 (maybe 2 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
Big Ten - guaranteed 1 (maybe 2 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
Pac-12 - none
ACC - none
American - probably 1 (maybe 2 if Rutgers loses to South Florida, unlikely zero as that would require SMU beating UCF)
MWC - none
CUSA - none
MAC - none
Sun Belt - none

Teams like FAU and San Jose St. have to be a little concerned about staying home, and the lower MAC & Sun Belt teams seem to have no chance. For instance, just glanced at the 2 projections from posts #213 and #214 above. Projection in #213 leaves Syracuse and FAU out while projection in #214 leaves Oregon State, Washington State, Pittsburgh, and San Jose State out. This is due to the ACC (11 of 14) and Pac-12 (9 of 12) producing a lot of bowl-eligible teams this year.

Minor point: the SEC is actually guaranteed to send 2 teams to the BCS, so they will have one guaranteed vacancy (Independence Bowl in Shreveport). The Auburn/Missouri winner is guaranteed a BCS invite, and Alabama is guaranteed to finish in the BCS top 4 which also guarantees an invite.

OK 2 questions.

1. Are we sure we are going to the Liberty Bowl if we win?
2. Where is the most likely destination if we lose? Dallas? Hawaii?

(12-03-2013 02:47 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 01:45 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 01:05 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Now that I know that the money is split evenly, I fear that if we don't go Liberty, we are bound for Hawaii.

Tulane already accepted to NO
UNT logical for Dallas
ECU/MTSU to Military/Bahamas
FAU to St Pete


Am I missing anything?

My problem with this is the match-up more than the location

You are missing a few things:
(1) No Bahamas until 2014. CUSA has 6 bowl tie-ins this year (Liberty, New Orleans, HOD, Military, St. Pete, Hawaii).
(2) CUSA has 8 bowl-eligible teams but only 6 bowl tie-ins (though some have mentioned that UTSA needs to petition). Regardless, there are more CUSA teams than there are guaranteed bowl spots. This means at least 1 CUSA team goes into the pool of teams looking to fill open bowl spots. As you can see below, there are approximately 16 bowl-eligible teams that will be looking to fill only 3 or 4 open bowl spots!

Bowl-eligible teams without guaranteed tie-in (conference has more bowl-eligible teams than bowl tie-ins):
SEC - none
Big 12 - none
Big Ten - none
Pac-12 - 2 teams (maybe 1 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
ACC - 3 teams (unlikely to send 2 to BCS)
Independents - 2 teams (Notre Dame & BYU, Navy already committed to Armed Forces)
American - none
MWC - 1 team
CUSA - 1 team (maybe 2 if UTSA petitions and is granted)
MAC - 3 teams guaranteed (maybe 4 if N. Illinois is not in BCS)
Sun Belt - 4 teams (maybe 5 if S. Alabama beats ULL)

Bowls with open spots (conference has more bowl tie-ins than eligible teams):
SEC - none (maybe 1 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
Big 12 - guaranteed 1 (maybe 2 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
Big Ten - guaranteed 1 (maybe 2 if they send 2 teams to BCS games)
Pac-12 - none
ACC - none
American - probably 1 (maybe 2 if Rutgers loses to South Florida, unlikely zero as that would require SMU beating UCF)
MWC - none
CUSA - none
MAC - none
Sun Belt - none

Teams like FAU and San Jose St. have to be a little concerned about staying home, and the lower MAC & Sun Belt teams seem to have no chance. For instance, just glanced at the 2 projections from posts #213 and #214 above. Projection in #213 leaves Syracuse and FAU out while projection in #214 leaves Oregon State, Washington State, Pittsburgh, and San Jose State out. This is due to the ACC (11 of 14) and Pac-12 (9 of 12) producing a lot of bowl-eligible teams this year.

Minor point: the SEC is actually guaranteed to send 2 teams to the BCS, so they will have one guaranteed vacancy (Independence Bowl in Shreveport). The Auburn/Missouri winner is guaranteed a BCS invite, and Alabama is guaranteed to finish in the BCS top 4 which also guarantees an invite.

I wouldn't be surprised in Mizzou wins by a hair, if Auburn pushes Bama out of that #4 slot.

But either way, the SEC will send 2 to the BCS.

[quote='RiceFootball2K5' pid='10117092' dateline='1386100166']
OK 2 questions.

1. Are we sure we are going to the Liberty Bowl if we win?
2. Where is the most likely destination if we lose? Dallas? Hawaii?
[/quote

Spoke with Dr. K before the Tulane game. He semed pretty certain after a recent phone conference that the CUSA champion was going to the Liberty Bowl...

(12-03-2013 01:03 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:50 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:24 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:18 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 12:06 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Then why wait to extend the invite?

This.

I think, based upon the showing last year at the Armed Forces Bowl in Dallas, that we are not an unattractive option to the HOD. Perhaps they are waiting to see how things play out and how well we perform/draw at the CUSA championship.

How many fans did we take to the Armed Forces Bowl? On television it looked like a small group, maybe 4k?

Attendance was reported as 40,000.

I couldn't imagine that Rice fans were only 10% of that. We may have only sold 4,000 tickets through Rice, but I wouldn't be surprised if many Rice fans bought tickets from another source.

Here is a pic that I took of the Rice side.


Other Side


Didn't good pics of end zones.

Those are the first shots I've seen of our fans. Impressive. Looks like we did well.

Here's other views of the fans in the stands.
If you click on "Open Photo Viewer", it will present a larger version.
Sorry, I can't figure out how to embed just the image here (can't remember my tumblr password).

Armed Services Bowl - the view from The MOB

Armed Services Bowl - east and endzone stands, during halftime, from the 50 yard line.

(12-03-2013 11:06 AM)mrbig Wrote:  Projection with Rice in the HOD vs. Oregon State (Pac-12 filling spot of Big Ten). Wouldn't complain at all about that match-up, though the Liberty would be better. Has anyone seen a single projection with Rice in the Liberty?

I would personally be ecstatic about playing Oregon State. I lived in Portland, OR, for several years, and I know many Oregon State sports fans. Reminding them of an Owl victory over the Beavers would never grow old.

We'll just have to try to beat whoever we play in whatever bowl we're in wherever it is. We haven't reached the level of respect to start demanding much of anything yet, and it seems no one paid much attention to the fact that Rice actually traveled quite well to its two recent bowl games, better than some of the bigger schools did.

First, let's see about beating Marshall Saturday, which will not be easy, even at home.

I am not thrilled with the stated projections of bowels/opponents so far, but they are meaningless projections at this point.

Would love to play Georgia or Ole Miss or LSU in the Liberty or anywhere else for that matter. Michigan in HOD would be fine as well for the name value (I don't care if they're down now, it would be good to beat them anytime)

But at least debating bowl scenarios when we know we will go somewhere is a step up from not going at all.

(12-03-2013 05:12 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  I am not thrilled with the stated projections of bowels/opponents so far

Yuck.

(12-03-2013 05:14 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  

(12-03-2013 05:12 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  I am not thrilled with the stated projections of bowels/opponents so far

Yuck.

Unintentional typo foul. 15 yards, repeat first down!