Let's Talk About the New Orleans Bowl

BTG_Fan1 · November 28, 2017

3 hours ago, Wag Tag said:

NM match up with SDSU, Fresno, or CSU would be great!

Why would it be great? We do not recruit there nor do we go up against them regularly in terms of offering kids?

Wag Tag · November 28, 2017

4 hours ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

Why would it be great? We do not recruit there nor do we go up against them regularly in terms of offering kids?

They are MWC teams that are recognizable to a college football fan. They are also ranked higher then UNT. Would like to see C- USA be on par with the MWC.

meangreanmick · November 28, 2017

6 hours ago, NM Green said:

We need the best matchup possible. We need to be fearless like tcu was when they took on usc and Wisconsin I believe on their way up. They have had gut wrenching losses and took their lumps and look at them now. We may get creamed by a p5 in our bowl and this weekend in boca, but we will learn from the tough competition and grow. By the way Troy may be from the sun belt but they are tough competition. Our guys are going to have to bring it whoever we play. All the bowl teams are going to be solid and definitely more solid than UNLV was in ‘13.

GMG

TCU was also much further along in the rebuilding process when they played those teams. We have put together exactly 1 legit winning season with a very suspect defense, I think we are getting way ahead of ourselves thinking we can go beat an established P5 team. We are worried about what FAU will do against this defense, TT is far better and plays far better competition than FAU.

Certainly there are examples of overnight wonders, but go back and look at the Boise State, K State, TCU approach. They competed where they could win, built a following over time, and were smart about how they worked their way up. We saw what one blowout (FAU) can do to North Texas’ precarious fan support - the next week was our worst home attendance of the year.

Going and getting blown out by a P5 in a bowl will not help our fan support. People eventually forget who you played, but they remember 10 wins. Lets build a team that can legitimately compete at the P5 level first. Sure beating a P5 would be great, but the facts of our team don’t support that (Defense), “hope” is not a plan.

Cerebus · November 28, 2017

They way things are shaking out now there is probably only going to be one CUSA team playing a P5, if that. This is not on accident. ESPN want's P5 v P5 match ups, they see a P5 v G5 bowl game as lost ratings.

So keep that in mind, chances are we will be playing a G5 team, the real question is who and were.

CaribbeanGreen · November 28, 2017

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.

Harry · November 28, 2017

26 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

So keep that in mind, chances are we will be playing a G5 team, the real question is who and were.

I hear you but Why do the prognosticators seem to miss this fact in their projections?

Cerebus · November 28, 2017

12 minutes ago, Harry said:

I hear you but Why do the prognosticators seem to miss this fact in their projections?

Cause they don't give a damn about anything except the CFP. They only pay a little attention to the P5 outside of the CFB because their big fanbases bring clicks.

oldguystudent · November 28, 2017

Let's just please not pull a LaTech and end up shut out of a bowl game because we feel a given bowl is beneath us.

What a difference a couple of years makes, eh?

VideoEagle · November 28, 2017

8 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

Cause they don't give a damn about anything except the CFP. They only pay a little attention to the P5 outside of the CFB because their big fanbases bring clicks.

Yes! This is it exactly. Just look at how things are worded - "The rest of the NY6" and "Everything else." Almost all the prognosticators do it that way.

As for CUSA having a the most bowl eligible teams in a "down year" - folks, it basic math. You need six wins to be bowl eligible. You play twelve games. In CUSA, you play four OC games and for most teams at least one is a body bag or a challenge game. In any case, very few CUSA teams go undefeated in OOC games. To get to six wins, most teams must win at least three and many four or more conference games. That means an equal number of losses scattered among the rest of CUSA. To have ten teams eligible means at least thirty and more likely forty losses in the 112 conference games played. You can't have a lot of winning without having most of them at 6-6 unless you have a LOT of 1-11 or 2-10 teams. If you look, most of the bowl eligible teams in FBS are 6-6 or 7-5.

I don't understand how playing a team like Troy that IS receiving poll votes is a negative for a team like us that is NOT receiving any votes. Obviously, the perception among to people who get to vote is Troy is better than us, not the other way around. I don't care that they are in the Sun Belt as after the last round of realignments ALL the G5 conferences got weaker than they were before as the strongest G5 teams moved up to P5 status. Again, it's math - if you pull out the highest then the average of what remains is lower.

And the Mountain West teams are more recognizable to average fans in the Mountain and Western time zones, not nationally. And most of the viewers in the US live East of the Mississippi. If you ask the average SEC or B1G fan about "Nevada," most think you are talking about Las Vegas and not Reno.

Lastly, yes, the New Orleans bowl is the first one of the bowl season. It is also the first college football game played as a lay off. The two balance out - ESPN management has repeated said they are pleased with the ratings it generates. Ignore the talking heads on the ESPN shows - the talking heads don't make any of the decision, they express opinions to get generate enough interest to get you to sit through Viagra and Credit Karma commercials. The talking heads are fired by the management the moment they don't generate enough eyeballs watching TitleMax ads. Yes, there are better bowls but suggesting New Orleans is "only for the fans" ignores the fun the students and the team had in New Orleans. You don't have to drink to enjoy some of the best restaurants, music, sight seeing and museums in the country. I still think we should look for the best overall match up we can, but that could be Troy in New Orleans!

MeanGreenTexan · November 28, 2017

48 minutes ago, CaribbeanGreen said:

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.

Agree.
NO Bowl should be for a C-USA #3-5 team. Wish UAB would've taken that one. Instead, it should be SoMiss. I think Ito Smith would give ARSt/Troy problems.

If we happen to win this weekend, then take this game, it's the C-USA champ VS SBC champ, which certainly helps legitimize the SBC... but does what for C-USA/North Texas?

VideoEagle · November 28, 2017

27 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Let's just please not pull a LaTech and end up shut out of a bowl game because we feel a given bowl is beneath us.

What a difference a couple of years makes, eh?

That's not going to happen - fans don't get to pick and the athletic department, et al, aren't going to make that mistake.

Green Lantern · November 28, 2017

George said he was hearing New Orleans Bowl likely for NT on his show this morning.

Sounding more and more like there won't be a P5 at Independence or HOD to match up against. As @Cerebushas pointed out, it seems the organizers are positioning those for P5 vs. P5 matchups.

Edited November 28, 2017 by Green Lantern

Cr1028 · November 28, 2017

5 hours ago, VideoEagle said:

I don't understand how playing a team like Troy that IS receiving poll votes is a negative for a team like us that is NOT receiving any votes. Obviously, the perception among to people who get to vote is Troy is better than us, not the other way around. I don't care that they are in the Sun Belt as after the last round of realignments ALL the G5 conferences got weaker than they were before as the strongest G5 teams moved up to P5 status. Again, it's math - if you pull out the highest then the average of what remains is lower.

You are basing this on the assumption that we would beat Troy? A team we are 2-8 all-time against? A team in a conference generally perceived to be lesser than ours?

What if I told you 100% guaranteed we lose our bowl game regardless of opponent, would you still want that loss coming against Troy? It isn’t worth the risk to me because it would be a bad loss for us and the conference.

I’d love to go to New Orleans for a bowl but not if it means facing the Sun Belt. The Belt has a stigma and if we lost, it would be beyond embarrassing for us.

Edited November 28, 2017 by Cr1028

NM Green · November 28, 2017

Troy already has the glossy win, so if we lose to them we lost to the team that beat 9 win LSU.

Littrell has put a golden goal in front of this team that they need to win the bowl game to put a star on this season ⭐️.

We have a chance of beating Troy. It would feel great to end this amazing season in celebration. Don’t make this the first bowl choice if given options, but blessings sometimes come in disguise.

Just jump on this Mean Green bullet train now, pack the shades and shorts and enjoy the adventure.

Next stop Boca Raton.

GMG

shaft · November 28, 2017

I'm not so sure it's going to be Troy, it can easily be Arkansas State or App State.

chrisfisher · November 28, 2017

Beating a Sunbelt team does absolutely nothing to advance our football program. Period. End of story.

CaribbeanGreen · November 28, 2017

2 hours ago, NM Green said:

Troy already has the glossy win, so if we lose to them we lost to the team that beat 9 win LSU.

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.

meangreenthirteen · November 28, 2017

A bowl game vs a Sun Belt team would be a monumental failure on the part of the AD.

Mean Green 93-98 · November 28, 2017

13 minutes ago, meangreenthirteen said:

A bowl game_____________ would be a monumental failure on the part of the AD.

IMO, there is virtually no way to fill in the blank for this sentence to be true.

MeanGreenTexan · November 28, 2017

1 minute ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

IMO, there is virtually no way to fill in the blank for this sentence to be true.

True.
"not preferable", maybe, but not a "monumental failure".

meangreenthirteen · November 28, 2017

3 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

IMO, there is virtually no way to fill in the blank for this sentence to be true.

With the season we have had, a bowl game against an obviously-lesser opponent would be very "same ole UNT" of us. Maybe I was being a bit hyperbolic, but the point is sound.

MeanMag · November 28, 2017

6 minutes ago, meangreenthirteen said:

With the season we have had, a bowl game against an obviously-lesser opponent would be very "same ole UNT" of us. Maybe I was being a bit hyperbolic, but the point is sound.

I get the point, but you also cannot hold the AD solely responsible. There is TV interests conference interests and other conference school interests, as well as opponents interests, not to mention the bowl game chair people...

the blame would not only be hyperbolic, but misplaced.

Mad Hatter · November 28, 2017

Just win. Wherever we go. Whoever we play. This will build the fan base. If it's playing a SunBelt team, and winning, I don't care. I want the fans (and new fans) to walk away with a smile on their faces. If we can build something sustainable, we can begin to worry about what looks like a "better" win, or "better" loss. If we can't make it sustainable, we'll remember the fun we had with the win.

Cr1028 · November 28, 2017

1 hour ago, meangreenthirteen said:

A bowl game exclusion would be a monumental failure on the part of the AD.

1 hour ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

IMO, there is virtually no way to fill in the blank for this sentence to be true.

Do I get the W?

aztecskin · November 28, 2017

6 hours ago, Green Lantern said:

George said he was hearing New Orleans Bowl likely for NT on his show this morning.

Sounding more and more like there won't be a P5 at Independence or HOD to match up against. As @Cerebushas pointed out, it seems the organizers are positioning those for P5 vs. P5 matchups.