Good point, but I'm guessing they will travel at minimum as good than most BE teams. Plus they would give the bowl sponsors exposure in TX.
TCU had huge ticket numbers for their bcs bowls. Numbers BE teams have rarely come close to.

(04-22-2011 11:38 AM)TerryD Wrote:  I really enjoyed going to the Sun Bowl last December. I wouldn't want to move to El Paso, but the people there were great.

Yes, that part of the country is great during the winter. Cold, blustery, a real taste of the "old west". El Paso is a great place to spend 5-6 days.

(04-22-2011 11:40 AM)CyberBull Wrote:  long term the Champs Bowl is best for the big east for many reasons...

1. they actually want us there
2. its an affordable travel destination for fans of all incomes
3. for a school like USF having two out of our 6 bowl games in florida can help its young fanbase grow and sell a lot of tix
4. potential games against FSU or Miami could make this bowl game transcend it time slot....especially if its against an in state rival like USF
5. beats the hell out of getting rewarded for a good season and having to travel to Toronto, Detroit....or Boise

Champs is our #1 non-BCS, so it hasn't replaced Toronto or Detroit or Boise in our lineup. As for USF, well, Champs is great for out-of-state alums like me, but if i was living in Tampa, what would be exciting about driving an hour up I-4 to the Champs game? Boring. To me, Champs is just a poor bowl to have as our #1. It's not in the same league with the #1s of the top BCS conferences.

Of course i agree with you that to get better bowls, we need to step up, all of us, and travel a whole lot better than we have in the past.

Quote:I am not including TCU in this discussion b/c we don't know how well they will travel to a non-BCS

How many TCU fans traveled to LA for the Rose Bowl? 50,000?
That's a lot more than UConn fans traveled to the Fiesta ...

(04-22-2011 11:31 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-22-2011 11:05 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  Only problem with the Sun Bowl (El Paso, TX...Mountain Time Zone) is that outside of TCU...its not a drivable location for any Big East Fans.

Even for TCU fans in Ft Worth...El Paso is over 600 miles away...which is longer distance than Charlotte, NC to Orlando, FL.

Having bowl games within easy driving distances and/or where a ton of Big East Alumni live (i.e. NC and FL) helps with attendance for most of these non-Jan 1st bowl games.

True, that is a drawback about the Sun, but IMO it's positives far outweigh that. It's a venerable bowl, lots of tradition, it is broadcast by CBS, and it gave the Big East our only real opportunity for western exposure.

One other thing about the Sun is that it's one of the bowls that's least worried about traveling fan bases because most of the tickets are bought up by locals. The BE should go after this bowl next time if at all possible - it has a great time slot with CBS exposure without having much to worry about whether your school is going to sell enough tickets.

There were a lot of non-local ND fans at the last Sun Bowl. Most of the locals managed to buy ND gear in time for the game.

It felt like an ND home game. I rarely saw anyone not in Notre Dame jackets, caps, etc...

Many locals told me that having Notre Dame come to the Sun Bowl was a long time dream come true for the bowl committee and the fans.

(04-22-2011 03:34 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-22-2011 11:31 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-22-2011 11:05 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  Only problem with the Sun Bowl (El Paso, TX...Mountain Time Zone) is that outside of TCU...its not a drivable location for any Big East Fans.

Even for TCU fans in Ft Worth...El Paso is over 600 miles away...which is longer distance than Charlotte, NC to Orlando, FL.

Having bowl games within easy driving distances and/or where a ton of Big East Alumni live (i.e. NC and FL) helps with attendance for most of these non-Jan 1st bowl games.

True, that is a drawback about the Sun, but IMO it's positives far outweigh that. It's a venerable bowl, lots of tradition, it is broadcast by CBS, and it gave the Big East our only real opportunity for western exposure.

One other thing about the Sun is that it's one of the bowls that's least worried about traveling fan bases because most of the tickets are bought up by locals. The BE should go after this bowl next time if at all possible - it has a great time slot with CBS exposure without having much to worry about whether your school is going to sell enough tickets.

Good point. The Sun Bowl is the big sporting event in El Paso, it's moment in the sun, so it's like a point of community pride to support it. That's not often the case with many bowls.

(04-22-2011 05:53 AM)TIGER-PAUL Wrote:  I'm thinking BE may have a chance with the sun bowl and liberty bowls next cycle.

May be right on liberty, If UCF and CUSA beats SEC a couple more times they will be demanding BE opponents.

I have no problems with the Champs Bowl right now. Is in a good location for Big East fans to travel to. My biggest problem is the stadium sucks, but the reality is that as long as the Bowl system exists, travelling fan base will be use to decide future bowl deals and the Champs allows the league the best opportunity for our fan bases to travel.
I enjoyed the Sun Bowl , but is just too far for our fans to travel, and eventhough they have great local support it really doesnt help in changing the league's fan travelling image. With TCU now in the league, I would hope that we could get a game in Dallas and maybe the Liberty Bowl. So something like:
#1 in BCS
#2 in Champs vs ACC
#3 in Meineke vs ACC
#4 in Liberty vs SEC
#5 in NYC vs Big 12
#6-#7 in Dallas vs Armed forces or #6- #7 St Pete Bowl vs CUSA

That would be a nice set up for now for a 9 team league with Notre Dame in the mix.

Please stay on topic everyone.

A word of caution. Its a virtual certainty that the Big 12 will be dumping one of their bowl tie-ins, possibly at their spring meetings in May. Commissioner Dan Beebe conceded recently that having eight bowl tie-ins is likely at least one too many for a ten team conference.

Based on the location of all Big 12 bowls, I'd say there's a good change they'll dump the Pinstripe Bowl. When you look at all their other bowl tie-ins, they are in Arizona (BCS/Fiesta, Insight), California (Holiday) or Texas (Cotton, Texas, Alamo, part time w/Ticket City). They also have a part time tie-in with the Military Bowl they could bail on.

For 2011, its possible that the Pac-12 or BYU could be an option. BYU did not sign any primary bowl agreements for 2011 (yet) and the Pac-12 did not add any for 2011 (2012-13 they will replace the WAC in the New Mexico Bowl).

As a point of reference, the Pac-10 rarely was able to fill seven bowl tie-ins under their round-robin scheduling format.

(04-23-2011 12:04 PM)mattsarz Wrote:  A word of caution. Its a virtual certainty that the Big 12 will be dumping one of their bowl tie-ins, possibly at their spring meetings in May. Commissioner Dan Beebe conceded recently that having eight bowl tie-ins is likely at least one too many for a ten team conference.

Based on the location of all Big 12 bowls, I'd say there's a good change they'll dump the Pinstripe Bowl. When you look at all their other bowl tie-ins, they are in Arizona (BCS/Fiesta, Insight), California (Holiday) or Texas (Cotton, Texas, Alamo, part time w/Ticket City). They also have a part time tie-in with the Military Bowl they could bail on.

If the Big 12 drops the Pinstripe that would be suboptimal, since it wouldn't be a slot that we could fill in place of them. Better they drop a bowl that we don't have a tie-in with so maybe we could get it.

Then again, with 6 tie-ins, we're just about filled-up too, though with TCU on board it might make sense to add a 7th.

Really though, our main bowl lineup problem right now isn't quantity, it's quality.