Independence Bowl

Green P1 · December 28, 2017

4 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

You seemed so determined to defend...Almost as if you were ordered to. Seems weird...

Anyhow, we should've went to the NM Bowl in the first place.

Not saying... just saying?

97and03 · December 28, 2017

17 hours ago, Cerebus said:

I'm logging in from Barcelona just to remind everyone that yah it would have been cool to see how many mean green fans would have gone down to Shreveport.

But they never invited us.

Stop trying to make it look like we chose New Orleans over the liberty bowl, that didn't happen.

That isn't exactly how I see things from Budapest, but I understand your point.

MeanGreenTexan · December 28, 2017

4 hours ago, Cerebus said:

We asked them to extend, they decide to leave us twisting. We would have looked like idiots if it hadn't come.

I know.

Thats why we needed our conference to help make it happen. I’ve heard McCleod talk a few times... it sounds like she’s half-asleep. Maybe she was napping during the selection process.

And I still think NM would have been there (they’d have waited instead of grabbing Marshall, because Marshall would also be waiting around like USM).

NM obviously not as fun as NO though. Tough predicament for WB. He made the call he thought best. He shouldn’t have had to. He should have had help.

MattMakesLoans · December 28, 2017

Lots of silly comments on here, but why let the facts get in the way of your on-line narrative.

Bowl invites are the product of bowl selection committees, conference affiliation, ticket sales, revenue potential, tv ratings potential, conference politics, program status, and finally a team’s record.

The facts remain:

The Independence Bowl never extended an invite.

Southern Miss is historically better than UNT. 18 consecutive winning seasons. 7 winning seasons out of the last ten. Won the New Orleans Bowl last season. Has played in the NO Bowl 3 times in the last 10 years.

LA Tech played in the NO Bowl two seasons ago.

An Army rematch at the Armed Forces Bowl wasn’t in anyone’s best interest.

So that left a choice between New Mexico and New Orleans.

The “we should have waited” crowd are ignoring the reality that the conference has to play nice with its bowl partners, and the school has to play nice with the conference.

Waiting would have probably looked like this; NO Bowl invites Marshall, New Mexico takes LA Tech. UNT is then on the clock for the Frisco Bowl. The Inpendence Bowl is telling the room they are only taking Southern Miss, and UTSA is ready to accept the Frisco invite. UNT folds and accepts the Frisco invite.

The haters on this board are still going to scream, we still should have waited and forced the i-bowl to pick us. In the process burning every conference and bowl bridge along the way.

Ben Gooding · December 28, 2017

10 minutes ago, MattMakesLoans said:

Lots of silly comments on here, but why let the facts get in the way of your on-line narrative.

Bowl invites are the product of bowl selection committees, conference affiliation, ticket sales, revenue potential, tv ratings potential, conference politics, program status, and finally a team’s record.

The facts remain:

The Independence Bowl never extended an invite.

Southern Miss is historically better than UNT. 18 consecutive winning seasons. 7 winning seasons out of the last ten. Won the New Orleans Bowl last season. Has played in the NO Bowl 3 times in the last 10 years.

LA Tech played in the NO Bowl two seasons ago.

An Army rematch at the Armed Forces Bowl wasn’t in anyone’s best interest.

So that left a choice between New Mexico and New Orleans.

The “we should have waited” crowd are ignoring the reality that the conference has to play nice with its bowl partners, and the school has to play nice with the conference.

Waiting would have probably looked like this; NO Bowl invites Marshall, New Mexico takes LA Tech. UNT is then on the clock for the Frisco Bowl. The Inpendence Bowl is telling the room they are only taking Southern Miss, and UTSA is ready to accept the Frisco invite. UNT folds and accepts the Frisco invite.

The haters on this board are still going to scream, we still should have waited and forced the i-bowl to pick us. In the process burning every conference and bowl bridge along the way.

Speculate, much? NM Bowl should've been the ticket if Indy wasn't in the cards.

VideoEagle · December 28, 2017

1 hour ago, Ben Gooding said:

Speculate, much? NM Bowl should've been the ticket if Indy wasn't in the cards.

Oh good grief. Multiple sources have reported the Indy Bowl wanted to find a P5 to play FSU. Any P5 and they find a way to get out of inviting a CUSA team. Since no P5 was available, the committee at the Indy Bowl wanted a known commodity in USM.

The committee is very familiar with USM and I've read committee members didn't want to take a chance on any other CUSA team for reasons of their own. This has been reported by multiple folks from multiple different schools. It's not "speculation." It's not a failure of the CUSA office. It's not some giant conspiracy against NT fans.

As for NM verse NO, have you ever been to Albuquerque? There are a lot of great destinations in New Mexico, but Albuquerque isn't one of them. As for the game, you had a 7-5 Colorado State team with no significant wins or a 10-2 Troy team that beat LSU. Causual fans who follow the SEC ALL heard about Troy beating LSU. They might not know what conference Troy is in, but if you watched college football in 2017, you heard about Troy beating LSU. Colorado State, not a lot of coverage for beating San Jose State and New Mexico. Don't give some silly "perception" argument as this season fans who watched ESPN or other sports TV saw that Troy was better in dozens of news stories.

Since there never was any option for NT to play a P5 school, Baker took the best available choice. It was the best available team in the best available location.

meangreenJW · December 28, 2017

2 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

Speculate, much? NM Bowl should've been the ticket if Indy wasn't in the cards.

Actually, I think he pretty well nailed how the process works. Speculation is by everyone else. I would imagine we could have chosen NM Bowl. I think 90% of people like NO over NM. Better destination, more history with the bowl. I can' imagine we'd have had 500 people in NM. But I do agree CSU would have been a more beatable opponent.

MeanGreenTexan · December 28, 2017

32 minutes ago, VideoEagle said:

Oh good grief. Multiple sources have reported the Indy Bowl wanted to find a P5 to play FSU. Any P5 and they find a way to get out of inviting a CUSA team. Since no P5 was available, the committee at the Indy Bowl wanted a known commodity in USM.

The committee is very familiar with USM and I've read committee members didn't want to take a chance on any other CUSA team for reasons of their own. This has been reported by multiple folks from multiple different schools. It's not "speculation." It's not a failure of the CUSA office. It's not some giant conspiracy against NT fans.

As for NM verse NO, have you ever been to Albuquerque? There are a lot of great destinations in New Mexico, but Albuquerque isn't one of them. As for the game, you had a 7-5 Colorado State team with no significant wins or a 10-2 Troy team that beat LSU. Causual fans who follow the SEC ALL heard about Troy beating LSU. They might not know what conference Troy is in, but if you watched college football in 2017, you heard about Troy beating LSU. Colorado State, not a lot of coverage for beating San Jose State and New Mexico. Don't give some silly "perception" argument as this season fans who watched ESPN or other sports TV saw that Troy was better in dozens of news stories.

Since there never was any option for NT to play a P5 school, Baker took the best available choice. It was the best available team in the best available location.

They wanted the “best available” from the remainder of the CUSA teams (contracted tie-in) that did not already accept another invite. Had we been there, I’m convinced it would have been us. But we weren’t, because WB had to make a tough decision on his own.

VideoEagle · December 28, 2017

13 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

They wanted the “best available” from the remainder of the CUSA teams (contracted tie-in) that did not already accept another invite.

Thats not what multiple folks from different schools including people with connections to the bowl committee have written. They could be wrong, but those people have been proven right in the past. Some members of the committee wanted USM over any other CUSA team I'd they couldn't find a P5.

Edit - I didn't down vote you!

Edited December 28, 2017 by VideoEagle

Cerebus · December 29, 2017

23 hours ago, 97and03 said:

That isn't exactly how I see things from Budapest, but I understand your point.

Pick me up some Zsolnay while you are there and we'll just agree to disagree.

Grant.UNT · December 29, 2017

I went to New Orleans and had an awesome time! I definitely would not have gone to the NM Bowl, and quite sure several others would not have either. I'm glad we went to NO. I would have preferred Shreveport, but that's where I was born. So, glad I got to take my wife to NOLA. Wish we would have had a better result, but what a fun trip.

97and03 · December 29, 2017

7 hours ago, Cerebus said:

Pick me up some Zsolnay while you are there and we'll just agree to disagree.

Oh I felt the same as you when I was in Vienna earlier this week. Let me see what I think when in Bratislava this weekend.

TreeFiddy · December 30, 2017

So, did we actually send more fans to New Orleans than USM sent to Shreveport? Photo of the USM side of the field.

Cerebus · December 30, 2017

7 hours ago, 97and03 said:

Oh I felt the same as you when I was in Vienna earlier this week. Let me see what I think when in Bratislava this weekend.

Lambos on the moon man, lambos on the moon.