Bowl Predictions

[MDH]

BTW, Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth is more prestigious (IMO).

Not to mention one hell of a lot better stadium to play in.

[JesseMartin]

St. Petersburg

Ouch. I would NEVER take my kids to St. Pete's at night, even for a bowl game, until they're in their teens. Too crazy there. Lots of fun when you're single, or hitched and without babies, but after dark that whole area is pure lunacy. Maybe I was thinking the BWW Bowl? One of them is in Tempe.

[Rudy]

Ouch. I would NEVER take my kids to St. Pete's at night, even for a bowl game, until they're in their teens. Too crazy there. Lots of fun when you're single, or hitched and without babies, but after dark that whole area is pure lunacy. Maybe I was thinking the BWW Bowl? One of them is in Tempe.

So, pretty much like New Orleans?

[ADLER]

Isn't the Beef O' Brady out here in AZ? That would be awesome. Then I could go and all of you would have to visit

I don't know about Gray Eagle's point about records, though. I think the bowl committee will look at likely ticket sales. They get the pick, not the conference rank...so if we haven't already been snatched up, I don't think we would necessarily need to match the records of those teams. If they consider another CUSA team, they will probably look at their regular season travel numbers...and if they aren't great, they will want to maximize profits via ticket sales and give us the berth.

I just hope we don't go to the Hawai'i Bowl until at least next year. It's one of my 14 remaining states to visit, and I'm $3K behind where I wanted to be right now on my 10-year plan that I'm pushing to make up. So my #1 pick is HOD so all of you can go and make a big statement in terms of numbers and fan support, and my #2 pick is BOB if it's here in AZ, of course.

The Heart of Dallas Bowl is the most visible in our recruiting territory and most of our recruits will be in attendance.

The Heart of Dallas Bowl is accessible to all of our local alumni. No need for travel or expensive hotels. Many that have not watched the Mean Green in years/decades will be enticed to come to this game.

The Heart of Dallas Bowl is on January 1, 2014 giving our team a whole additional month of practice time, valuable time for developing players that will replace the departing seniors.

The Heart of Dallas Bowl will be extremely cost effective for North Texas, providing additional revenue to invest in our programs.

The Dallas West End will be an outstanding local for a Mean Green New Year's Eve Party the night before the Heart of Dallas Bowl.

[NT03]

St. Petersburg

And both in the metroplex..

[NT03]

Southern Miss

Bingo

[eulessismore]

HoD would deal to get us.

[UNTflyer]

The Heart of Dallas Bowl has a larger payout than the Armed Forces Bowl.

Sold.

[ADLER]

The Heart of Dallas Bowl has a larger payout than the Armed Forces Bowl.

Sold.

Think about it this way. Out of town alumni could come for the athletic department and alumni association parties at the West End, celebrate New Years, stay at the downtown hotels, and take the Dart train to the Heart of Dallas Bowl in the Cotton Bowl to compete in what would essentially be a home game against a storied school from the Big Ten.

That's an incredible holiday event, and all on a very reasonable budget.

[JesseMartin]

The Heart of Dallas Bowl will be extremely cost effective for North Texas, providing additional revenue to invest in our programs.

I pointed this one out a few weeks ago. Even if the payout was lower, the net is better due to lower travel costs. And if the HOD doesn't pan out, if it's between the Armed Forces Bowl and one that isn't local, the same holds true - don't look at the payout, look at the net after expenses and the fact that we could have a huge contingent of fans in attendance.

And Rudy...St. Pete's, Tampa, and Ybor aren't quite like New Orleans. Not sure if you were just kidding, or kidding along with actually wondering, but I've been to some pretty shady places in my travels and most of the time the "shady" people are not so bad if you conduct yourself properly. In the Tampa metro area, I wouldn't recommend you wander too far or in too small of a group after dark. I know there are some areas that are more tailored to the country clubs and other fairly mature travel plans, so if you stick to those areas you should be okay, but the underbelly of that area is a lot darker and more violent and temperamental than anywhere else I've been.

There are certainly other places in the US you should try to avoid, but usually those aren't locales with a modern tourist draw. I would suggest a bar crawl in St. Pete's as soon as I would suggest you pace back-and-forth in front of a known crackhouse in Brooklyn. Others may have a different take based on their experiences, but I was there for a week visiting some people I met at a student government conference (!), and seriously, almost everybody they introduced me to was selling drugs and carrying guns. I think I saw more steel in a week there than in over a decade in Texas. Crazy.

(edit: After that, I should probably point out that I tried to spend as much time as possible finding cool restaurants, swimming at their apartment, etc., primarily due to the insanity that was the "nightlife" when they wanted to go out to clubs and bars. Definitely not going to turn in every person I meet who has a penchant for illicit substances, but I'm not Tupac.)

Edited October 21, 2013 by JesseMartin

[vpackrats]

Bowl info straight from College Football News.com. Hey, I'll take it!!!

Wed, Jan 1 12 pm ESPNU
Heart of Dallas Bowl
Cotton Bowl, Dallas, TX
Big Ten No. 7 vs. C-USA

Projected Matchup: Iowa vs. North Texas

[JesseMartin]

Wed, Jan 1 12 pm ESPNU

ESPNU?! I didn't notice that before. Bowl games aren't a big enough deal to get them televised on all major packages anymore?

[Sig381]

WE Havent won 6 games yet. im just as excited about what has gone on this season. but the tap the breaks til we win 6.

[VideoEagle]

The majority of bowl games LOSE money for the participants. And you can't look at the headline payout amount as many bowls start with that amount and deduct ticket sales, mandatory hotel room sales, mandatory restaurant sales, etc., and deduct those from the actual payout. If I remember right, some bowls even charge teams a fee to cover the TV production costs though that might be old information. When we were in the NO Bowl games, a lot of our fans complained about the "low" pay outs even though the net pay out was actually higher than several other bowls.

Let's win six or better yet seven games and THEN worry about a bowl game. Remember La Tech's collapse last year! We do not want to repeat that!

[Yellow Snow]

I'd love to see the Iowa St fans that would come out to support us if we got to play Iowa.

I'd love that match-up! Since my Cyclones are 1-5 this year so far, it looks like I'm all in on the Mean Green this year during bowl season.

There are a ton of ISU alums in the Dallas area, and if you play Iowa, you'll get a great walk-up crowd of Cyclones in green

[Harry]

I'd love that match-up! Since my Cyclones are 1-5 this year so far, it looks like I'm all in on the Mean Green this year during bowl season.

There are a ton of ISU alums in the Dallas area, and if you play Iowa, you'll get a great walk-up crowd of Cyclones in green

Hey man good to see you again and I gotta ask is Baylor that good?

[JesseMartin]

Ahhhhhahahah his name is Yellow Snow...please don't eat him....

[Yellow Snow]

Hey man good to see you again and I gotta ask is Baylor that good?

I'm now convinced that Baylor is pretty good. They gave us the worst beating we have taken in ISU football history (point spread wise), and we've rolled out some pretty bad teams in the past against Oklahoma, Nebraska, etc. when they were winning national championships.

That said... I still don't trust Baylor to win out. I'm sort of conflicted on this.

I don't know if you saw the ISU-Texas game... or the Iowa game... or the Tech game... but we have to be the BEST 1-5 team in the country right now. Lol!

Baylor flat out took it to us and we had no answer, it was a straight up beatdown. I don't think that Baylor has been challenged defensively yet though. We are certainly inept in that category. K-State had the blueprint to beat them.

[Army of Dad]

I'm now convinced that Baylor is pretty good. They gave us the worst beating we have taken in ISU football history (point spread wise), and we've rolled out some pretty bad teams in the past against Oklahoma, Nebraska, etc. when they were winning national championships.

That said... I still don't trust Baylor to win out. I'm sort of conflicted on this.

I don't know if you saw the ISU-Texas game... or the Iowa game... or the Tech game... but we have to be the BEST 1-5 team in the country right now. Lol!

Baylor flat out took it to us and we had no answer, it was a straight up beatdown. I don't think that Baylor has been challenged defensively yet though. We are certainly inept in that category. K-State had the blueprint to beat them.

Y'all got jobbed in the Texas game.