(07-24-2019 02:24 PM)panite Wrote:  

(07-24-2019 01:03 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(07-24-2019 09:01 AM)panite Wrote:  

(07-24-2019 01:12 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  McMurphy tweeting the MW Bowl line up. If McMurphy is correct---then the MW/Pac12/BYU rumor for the Indy Bowl is false.



Brett McMurphy
@Brett_McMurphy
Sources told
@Stadium
, Mountain West's new bowl lineup in 2020-25 will be:

Los Angeles
Famous Idaho Potato
Hawaii
New Mexico
Arizona

Plus one bowl from among the 16 ESPN-owned bowls. Mountain West will have 6 guaranteed bowls, plus back-up deal w/ Cheez-It, sources said

I don't think the rumor is dead especially if the MWC can reject the ESPN pool selection if a school chooses not to participate in the bowl assigned to them in the process. I really don't know if it is possible to do that so I'll defer to others who might know about that subject. If it is possible the MWC has more latitude to chose an invitation to the Independence Bowl over a lower paying ESPN bowl with a bad Pre - Christmas date. There is also some latitude with the Hawaii Bowl if Hawaii is bowl eligible as they get the spot as basically a home game. Should the MWC have 7 bowl eligible teams without the NY6 Bowl they would need the ESPN Pool Bowl plus another bowl such as the Independence Bowl.

The Independence Bowl is desperate right now since the B-10, SEC, B-12, and ACC have all signed contracts eliminating them from this bowl over the next 6 years so if it wants a P5 conference for it's required minimum conference backing it will give the PAC-12 what ever it wants as it lost it's other major P5 players. Based on past history CUSA and the Sunbelt would be the last conferences they would approach to survive regionally. If the PAC-12 signs on for this bowl along with BYU, Army, and the MWC since they have not finalized their announcement yet, the Independence can avoid the Sun Belt and CUSA which they have only invited once each in the bowl's history. Also any Conference that has signed into a bowl pool including P5 conferences could potentially reject a low paying ESPN Bowl with a bad bowl date and time, to play in the Independence Bowl against an anchoring PAC-12 school.

Past School Appearance History:

SEC - 18 - out
ACC - 12 - out
Independent - 11 - still in play
B-12/SWC/B-8 - 12+4+2 = 18 - out
WAC/MWC - 4+1=5 - still in play
B-10 - 4 -out
MAC -3 - out
PAC-12 - 4 - still in play
American - 3 - out
CUSA - 1 - still in play
Sun Belt - 1 - still in play

Regionally the Sun Belt and CUSA would work just as well in this bowl especially with their member schools in Louisiana however it appears the Independence Bowl wants a higher pecking order with at least one P-5 team and an Independent like BYU first. Time will tell as the MWC and probably the PAC-12 will make their bowl announcement this week. The MWC is definitely meeting this week for their summer FB primer and I believe the PAC-12 is scheduled to meet in the near future too.

So, if your theory is based on the idea that a conference can ignore its ties if something better comes up---then yeah---the MW can still be in the indy bowl. In fact, using your novel "a tie really isnt a tie" theory---EVERY conference can still be in pretty much ANY bowl it wishes. Seems like kind of stretch to me, but who knows?

More likely---the Indy either goes CUSA vs SB or negotiates a deal to become part of the ESPN Events Bowl pool. That would also probably be the best bet for the Pac12 #8.

We'll see when the MWC and especially the PAC-12 finally reveal their bowl choices.