CaribbeanGreen

No, it wasn't at all...that was one of the best Mean Green nights of my fan experience, and Gino Guidugli for life... but they ended up 7-7. The equivalency game is dangerous, and we're all probably about to play that LSU card while ignoring that Troy lost to South Alabama while scoring 8 points. I'm just frustrated. No non-SBC 9 win team has ever played in the NO Bowl before, and that combined with the absolute last conference matchup I'd pick just bums me out.

Don't get this locked, kids. This is kind of a fun sportz chat. p.s.: More like HeminGAY, amirite? (he's my favorite American author and I'm gigging CBL so shut up)

Just my personal opinion, but GOD yes. That's a solid G5 that's currently in the top 25 and about to play for a conference championship. I'd much much rather play a team like that than a SBC school... Way more to gain/less to lose.

I haven't read past this post yet, so apologies if this was mentioned, but that CUSA champ was 7-7. I'm not furious Fred over here saying I won't be all in and supporting the team and all that - I've been here long enough to know the value of a bowl game - again, I just hoped that a 9 win division championship season would get us more than the first bowl of the season against a Sun Belt team. That's all. It's a personal let down for me, all I'm saying... feel like we'd have had this or a better matchup at 6-6 or 7-5... and I hope I'm wrong, but I worry that the general perception of this matchup will be overwhelmingly negative.

I just want to go on record as saying I'm not in the weird "WE TURNED DOWN A P5 TO GO TO NEW ORLEANS?!?" camp. I'm not. I know that's a bit of a long shot, getting a P5 matchup in a bowl game, and I'm sure WB would be all over it were it possible. I'm more just anti-New Orleans Bowl and anti-playing the Sun Belt. I don't think there's any benefit and I think Troy in particular is as dangerous as most of the other G5s or middling P5s we could even theoretically face. I don't like playing in the first bowl of bowl season, I don't like playing a team from anyone's last choice conference matchup wise, and I think most importantly I don't like the weird feeling I'm getting from this that wins 7, 8, and 9 didn't really matter. We could be in NOLA with 6 wins. No non-Sun Belt team with 9 wins has ever played there. And every CUSA team we beat, every CUSA team beneath us in the standings..... well, watching them play better G5 (and god forbid P5) opposition after our season is over is gonna make me kinda crazy. This may all be petty fandom on my part, I guess I just hoped for something different and at least a LITTLE bit off the bottom rung of the bowl/G5 ladder after all those extra wins.

I feel what you're saying, and straight up in week 1 or 2 I don't disagree.... but you get Tech or Texas in a bowl game this year and you have all the momentum and capital on your side. Everything to gain, very little to lose against a very possibly somewhat disinterested P5, bitter about having to play us and ready to pack it in. Again, i get the 10 win argument... but i also suggest a motivated Troy squad is not just at the opposite end of the spectrum perception wise; they also might be as tough or an even tougher matchup than a middling P5. Plus, that "Everything to gain and very little to lose" scenario? That completely flips upside down against Troy.

Yup. We'll be an underdog. They're good. They have a hot coach. This is why - though I completely understand the whole "let's get to 10" argument - I don't feel like it applies here. I'm not even married to the P5 thing, I'd rather have a more name G5 from ANY other conference than the SBC... when that SBC team is actually good and we'd be an underdog to them? That just feels like no win worst case scenario to me. I hope Cerebus is right and we get the win on Saturday and head to Shreveport. Problem solved if that's the case. Personally I just can't get past the fact that I can't find a single positive to NOLA besides "hey, it's a cool town".... I feel like if any of us had heard before the season that: We're gonna have this magical run, go undefeated at home, win 9 regular season games, have our biggest worry be SL getting hired away, and win CUSA West... and oh, by the way, we'll be in the very first bowl game playing a Sun Belt team... there's just ZERO chance anyone would see that as anything but a massive disappointment. "Cool town" just isn't enough for me. We had plenty of "cool town" time with sub-.500 DD teams.

Yes, yes, and yes. Don’t think twice about it either. The bowl schedule has always been about timing. Playing in the very first bowl on Dec 16 sends a very clear message. When UNT’s season ends before UAB, Marshall, Southern Miss, WKU, FIU, and possibly freaking UTSA?? Yeah, that sucks.

So 9 (at least) wins and a conference championship game berth gets us the very first bowl on the entire schedule against a Sun Belt team? Wow. Something ain’t right. Somehow, almost every other spare 6 win team in our own conference - all of whom will be playing AFTER our season is over - has a more prestigious matchup. What’s the point? Also, the NO Bowl has only had a 9 win team so much as appear twice in its entire history, and that’s NEVER been the team that isn’t from the SBC. Even the freaking SBC hasn’t sent a 9 win team there in eight years. I just remember how excited I was as a student in 2001 when DD’s 5 win team got a bid to NOLA. To think that this team is going to the same bowl, playing in that slot.... that’s a massive gut punch on the whole season.

Completely agree. This would be INCREDIBLE - a long time established bowl, positioned late in the bowl season adding to the prestige, and by far the shortest drive of the "out of town" bowl options. This would be incredible, and a well-deserved end to a magical season.

As of right now, HoD and Indy have 60 and 47 votes in that poll. New Orleans has....... 6. I legit respect this level of spin, sir. Well done.

I see what you're saying, but South Alabama beat Troy. I don't know what kind of boost that gave them. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows.

I get the general logic of NOLA giving you a better shot to get that bowl win, but it puts you in a position where you're in the first game of the bowl season (which, like it or not, gives more gravitas to every single other CUSA bowl team that plays after our season is done) and puts you in a spot where you're almost certainly an underdog to a SBC team (if it's Troy). I can barely conceive of a worse option.

The absolute 1st game of the bowl season. Like it or not, there's a huge connotation to that. Add into that lost practice time and the potential of a damn good Troy team (that yes, the average fan still sees as a Sun Belt squad) that has a huge potential to hurt us and very little to help us.... I tend to agree that NOLA feels like the reward for a middling 6-6 season, not the awesome year we just had. I don't see any upside beyond selfish reasons. JMHO.

Oh.... my bad. Good one.

Boca is 12/19.... very first bowl is NOLA on 12/16.

Great city, but terrible bowl slot. Way too early in the bowl season - the very first bowl- against a SBC team (if it's Troy, look out) just feels incredibly spare. I'm still in love with Independence.

Could be for sure. How does that impact other bowls (Indy, etc.) that don't have CUSA tie ins but use us to fill spots?

Done deal. Again, i'm more than a little skeptical of the "winner gets to choose the bowl" thing.

Seconding N'Awlins Vet..... CUSA accounts now posting Congrats to UAB on the Bahamas Bowl, so that's a bullet dodged as far as I'm concerned.... and also makes me wonder about the "champ picks the bowl" bit we've heard

Give me SI.... https://www.si.com/college-football/2017/11/26/bowl-projections-playoff-rankings-schedule-matchups

Another huge stop by the D! A long drive and points here ends it.

Man, I'd have really loved that too, and we definitely had our chances to do that.... but Rice's last two games they were within 10 of USM and lost to ODU by 3.... Mix in the fact that they apparently never lose on senior day, and i'm afraid we're back in dogfight mode, per usual. Just get the W and stay healthy.

Houston. He actually transferred from Houston.

D stepped up! Huge stop... now go score and put a knife in 'em.