I live in the D.C. area, and a few of my other WVU fans are going to catch this classic matchup between Navy and Wake Forest on Saturday. It's being played at RFK Stadium, which is across from the DC Armory and next to a D.C. Metro stop.

Does anyone think that this would be a decent low-level Big East bowl? D.C. is only three hours from Morgantown, and the weather is actually pretty mild here this time of year (upper 40s, sunny on Saturday). I personally feel that this would be a better destination for a 7-5 Big East team than the International Bowl or PapaJohn's.

As of this morning 24,000 tickets had been sold, and they are expecting in the mid-30s for ticket sales (we're scalping ours). It doesn't help this year that the two teams had already played each other this year ...

I think it would be better than the Papa John's, about 3 hours from Morgantown, about 4.5 from Pittsburgh, about 3.5 from New Brunswick, etc. Heck it being so close I'd probably go many years even when Rutgers wasn't in it.

I live near DC too, and might try and catch this game. I think it would be a terrific low-level BE bowl, and hope that it can happen eventually.

It would be a horrible choice for a Big East bowl. We already have a cold weather bowl in Toronto. At least that one is played in a world class indoor stadium. The Big East does not need anymore cold weather bowls nor anymore opening weekend bowls.

We will have a perfectly acceptable bowl line-up once we get a good fit (Sun, Champs, Music City, etc.) for our #3, push the Meineke down to #4, get a BCS opponent in St. Petersburg, and kick the useless Papa John's situation to the Birmingham curb.

I would trade it with Toronto. Pitt has a huge alumni base in the DC area and Pitt fans would actually show up to the game similar to the Pitt @ Navy game this season. I think cold weather Bowls help the Big East more than hurt the Big East because finally we would have Bowls in our backyards instead of having to travel thousands of miles to watch a game.

animus Wrote:I think cold weather Bowls help the Big East more than hurt the Big East because finally we would have Bowls in our backyards instead of having to travel thousands of miles to watch a game.

Somebody said it...

I'll be d@mned! Common sense does exist, after all...

28,777 was the official attendance today. So much for the drawing power of Navy. But the match-up was a hard sell.

WacoBearcat Wrote:28,777 was the official attendance today. So much for the drawing power of Navy. But the match-up was a hard sell.

I'd say that it was a good Navy draw. 28,000 Navy fans to 777 Wake Forest fans. Not bad for Navy during a holiday who only has a 35, 000 seat stadium to fill at home anyway.

So who would the Big East bump out of this bowl? The ACC, which has Maryland located just outside the host city, two Virginia schools just a couple of hours away, and four North Carolina schools only a little further away than that? Navy and Army, who the bowl was created for in the first place, and who could sometimes be replaced by a MAC team, or worse, when they are occasionally ineligible?

Big East fans spend all of October and November sitting in cold stadiums. One of the main points of bowl games is to reward the teams and fans with nice postseason trips to places they do not normally get to go. Nice weather and different things to do, of course, are great bonuses. The effort of trying to kick the ACC or Navy/Army out of this bowl could be better spent on more worthwhile projects.

And how often do Maryland and the Virginia schools visit that particular bowl?

MD should have been there this yr, stupid sending MD to Boise
& Wake to WASH

This is a brand new bowl in its first season. There is no way to know how often the Maryland or Virginia or North Carolina schools will go there until it has been around for a few years. The ACC and Navy/Army, however, make more sense for the game than the Big East at this point in time. This bowl will very likely renew the same arrangement from 2010 through 2013 anyway, regardless of what anyone on this board wants, so it is a pretty meaningless argument no matter how you slice it.

bitcruncher Wrote:And how often do Maryland and the Virginia schools visit that particular bowl?

The ACC would rather have this cold bowl than the Boise Smurf Turf Bowl. Location would be the key factor. It is easier to travel to than Boise with as many ACC schools close to this bowl as the whole BE. BC would rather travel here, driving down from Boston. Then you have VT, Virginia, Maryland, UNC, NC ST, Wake, Duke, Clemson, and Georgia Tech, within minutes (Maryland would be a home game), or within a few hours just like BE schools Rutgers, UConn, Syracuse, L'Ville, Pitt, Cinn, and WV. The only schools that would have to fly there would be the Florida Schools in both leagues. The $750k equals the Humanitarian bowl with out the major travel expenses and is certainly higher than the crappy payout of the Pizza Bowl in Birmingham. It would make a great bowl for the last seated team in either league at 7 and 5, or 6 and 6, for both the ACC or the BE. I am sure the ACC is happier with this bowl than the Humanitarian Bowl and so are the teams and the fans of the teams that get sent there. The Humanitarian Bowl is a better regional fit for the WAC, MWC, and the Northern PAC - 10 teams anyway. I would love to see the BE in this bowl too as it is easy to drive to from my location just like the Toronto Bowl, and the Meineke Bowl in Charlotte where I have relatives in the region.

An ACC school going to the Blue Balls Bowl is the worst idea.....EVER

Anybody going to a bowl game in Boise is a bad idea. It's a bad idea for Boise to go to a bowl game in Boise. Nobody wants to be there...

Imagine playing at Boise, spending all your time working towards a bowl game, and then you don't even get a trip? What kind of deal is that?

bitcruncher Wrote:It's a bad idea for Boise to go to a bowl game in Boise.

POTD!!

So there were two inaugural bowls to kick off the bowl season, and the one in DC was played outdoors, and the one in Florida was played inside.

(12-23-2008 08:17 PM)CardHouse Wrote:  So there were two inaugural bowls to kick off the bowl season, and the one in DC was played outdoors, and the one in Florida was played inside.

That is some serious irony right there.

To add to the irony: The one in DC was played in a former baseball stadium and the one in Florida, a former hockey arena.