C-USA Bowl Picture?

[Harry]

1 Liberty Bowl Memphis, Tennessee SEC or Big East 7/8 or 5

2 Hawai'i Bowl Honolulu, Hawaii Mountain West 5

3 Heart of Dallas Bowl Dallas, Texas Big Ten 7

4 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl St. Petersburg, Florida Big East 6

5 New Orleans Bowl New Orleans, Louisiana Sun Belt 1

This is the lineup for 2013. Any thoughts on the bowls or bowls that could be added? Would be nice if we could get into the armed services bowl in Ft. Worth. C-USA League adds a championship game as well which we didn't have in the Belt.

BCS Opportunity

The C-USA champion will receive an automatic berth in one of the five Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games if they are the highest ranked non-automatic qualifying conference champion and either of the following:

Ranked in the top 12 of the BCS Rankings.

Ranked in the top 16 of the BCS Rankings and its ranking is higher than that of an automatic qualifying conference champion.

Any C-USA team ranked in the top 14 of the BCS Rankings and that has at least nine wins is eligible to be selected for an at-large BCS berth by the individual bowl committees.

[Mean Green 93-98]

I'm pretty sure the Liberty is gone with Memphis to the new conference.

[outoftown]

I wonder if the Big east will generally try to play C-USA in bowl or try to avoid us. On the other hand they might have aa hard time avoiding.

Personally I would not mind getting a second bowl with the belt. I am sure karl benson would not mind talking about that.

[JesseMartin]

1 Liberty Bowl Memphis, Tennessee SEC or Big East 7/8 or 5

2 Hawai'i Bowl Honolulu, Hawaii Mountain West 5

3 Heart of Dallas Bowl Dallas, Texas Big Ten 7

4 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl St. Petersburg, Florida Big East 6

5 New Orleans Bowl New Orleans, Louisiana Sun Belt 1

Not that I don't want us to be conference champs, but if we could be #2 in about 3-4 years (assuming the bowls stay the same in that period, wishful thinking with conference realignment) I'd love to go to the Hawai'i bowl as that's the only spot on the list I've yet to visit.

I'm pretty sure the Liberty is gone with Memphis to the new conference.

Is the Liberty Bowl tied with the school at all? If not then it would probably be the same. The people that run the bowls want money, and aside from trying to get Memphis in to get a big home crowd to buy tickets (if they even pull off enough wins), there doesn't seem to be any other reason that they would switch it over. Since lots of SEC teams are nearby and have big fan followings, they could probably get a decent crowd regardless. Plus note that it's SEC OR Big East, so until the BE changes to A12 or whatever, Memphis could still be in it, and the Liberty Bowl powers would probably try to swing that anyway.

I wonder if the Big east will generally try to play C-USA in bowl or try to avoid us. On the other hand they might have aa hard time avoiding.

Personally I would not mind getting a second bowl with the belt. I am sure karl benson would not mind talking about that.

I would think that some of the matchups would generate some interest. With the Big East taking a bunch of CUSA, it could be a rematch of old conference rivalries and sell a lot of tickets.

[shaft]

I think the Liberty Bowl is safe, but I worry the New Orleans Bowl might go with Tulane.

The SBC will likely keep its New Orleans Bowl tie-in with the conference head quarters being in N.O.

At the same time the Big East is danager of losing its bowls. The Big 12 is already trying to poach the Russel Atheletic bowl.

[MeanGreen61]

I think the Liberty Bowl is safe, but I worry the New Orleans Bowl might go with Tulane.

The SBC will likely keep its New Orleans Bowl tie-in with the conference head quarters being in N.O.

At the same time the Big East is danager of losing its bowls. The Big 12 is already trying to poach the Russel Atheletic bowl.

Tulane has absolutely no ties to the NO Bowl.

[Arkstfan]

1 Liberty Bowl Memphis, Tennessee SEC or Big East 7/8 or 5

2 Hawai'i Bowl Honolulu, Hawaii Mountain West 5

3 Heart of Dallas Bowl Dallas, Texas Big Ten 7

4 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl St. Petersburg, Florida Big East 6

5 New Orleans Bowl New Orleans, Louisiana Sun Belt 1

This is the lineup for 2013. Any thoughts on the bowls or bowls that could be added? Would be nice if we could get into the armed services bowl in Ft. Worth. C-USA League adds a championship game as well which we didn't have in the Belt.

Any C-USA team ranked in the top 14 of the BCS Rankings and that has at least nine wins is eligible to be selected for an at-large BCS berth by the individual bowl committees.

Liberty is going to pitch SEC vs. Big XII, if they can't get Big XII they are going after ACC, depending on who you talk to their 3rd choice to pursue is either Pac-12 or the league formerly known as Big East.

Hawaii, conventional wisdom is that they are going to take a run at the Pac-12 while there is internal pressure within CUSA to get out of that financial albatross.

Heart of Dallas absolutely stays with CUSA the question is who is the opponent.

Beef O'Brady my guess is that it will be CUSA vs. former Big East.

New Orleans will stay with the Sun Belt but the rumor is that they will make a run at the former Big East.Rumor mill says MAC is offering some money to the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation for a basketball classic to be held at Lakefront Arena the weekend of the New Orleans Bowl that would be a doubleheader featuring two MAC teams and two Louisiana teams and/or Sun Belt teams with the promise that the two MAC teams would be their best guess as to being bowl eligible football teams and if one of the MAC participants is bowl eligible the New Orleans Bowl would get priority selecting that team to try draw better crowds. None of that means that CUSA won't stay just that the MAC does want in and is willing to sweeten the pot but GNOSF does want aligned with Tulane, Houston, SMU, Memphis, doesn't mean the feeling is mutual.

I suspect CUSA picks up Armed Forces.

[Arkstfan]

Tulane has absolutely no ties to the NO Bowl.

Except for the members of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation who went to Tulane or support Tulane or see Tulane as beneficial.

[JesseMartin]

Except for the members of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation who went to Tulane or support Tulane or see Tulane as beneficial.

Yeah, see, that was kind of my point with the Liberty Bowl. The changes in terms of which team/conference gets preference falls to whatever group runs each bowl game...fact is, bowl games are created as business endeavors and then marketed to conferences and entertainment (TV) companies to generate revenue. I would be willing to bet that there are about a dozen groups, if not more, currently trying to organize new bowl games and hoping that the FBS will expand further so that there will be enough eligible teams to make that opportunity materialize. The fact remains that even if a school has no ties to the game, the loyalty of the organizing group, if there is a majority or even decent plurality, will play a factor in pressing for their alma mater or preferred team. So yes, Memphis may have a bit of an edge with the Liberty Bowl, and Tulane may have an edge with the NO Bowl, but they do have to play to whatever business opportunity is most reasonable. If that means a ton of tickets sold to a hometown team, then so be it...but if not, they will still push forward with the most legitimate market that they feel will field the most fiscal returns.

[Arkstfan]

Yeah, see, that was kind of my point with the Liberty Bowl. The changes in terms of which team/conference gets preference falls to whatever group runs each bowl game...fact is, bowl games are created as business endeavors and then marketed to conferences and entertainment (TV) companies to generate revenue. I would be willing to bet that there are about a dozen groups, if not more, currently trying to organize new bowl games and hoping that the FBS will expand further so that there will be enough eligible teams to make that opportunity materialize. The fact remains that even if a school has no ties to the game, the loyalty of the organizing group, if there is a majority or even decent plurality, will play a factor in pressing for their alma mater or preferred team. So yes, Memphis may have a bit of an edge with the Liberty Bowl, and Tulane may have an edge with the NO Bowl, but they do have to play to whatever business opportunity is most reasonable. If that means a ton of tickets sold to a hometown team, then so be it...but if not, they will still push forward with the most legitimate market that they feel will field the most fiscal returns.

The local folks matter. La.Tech's conduct with the I-Bowl galled several members who have ties to ULM, and galled the LSU booster contingent who felt offended that Tech deemed themselves to be any different from ULM or too good to come to Shreveport, thus the drop dead deadline.

But the sponsors matter too. AutoZone nixed taking the ASU-MTSU winner when a Big XII team became available. They figured it was better for their brand and they want the game to be SEC-Big XII and saw that game as a chance to court the Big XII. That's why I haven't made a single purchase at Autozone but have made several at O'Reilly's.

Relationships also matter. In 2010 the New Orleans Bowl agreed to let CUSA short them by sending UTEP to the New Mexico Bowl. They were not happy in 2011 when CUSA was short teams to not be protected after having helped CUSA the year before.

[North Texas Shep]

I love hearing about bowl options. Do you know what I love more? UNT getting into a dang bowl game. They all sound wonderful and I will be happy with which ever one we get to play in. For the sake of all that is holy we better get to play in one next season. It is time.