In keeping with the theme of the day ... and not getting much work done ... here is a reply I gave to someone's post on a Sun Belt board recently. Now the Big East doesn't have to play a bowl against the Sun Belt. I'm sure most of the posters here would be against it. But can two bowls work in Tampa? Could the Big East start this up against the Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, or even CUSA or SBC? This seems like a natural fit to me. Come on USF, earn your money :D! Am I making any sense on the ACC thing, by the way? Isn't three bowl match-ups too many?

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It's well known that the Sun Belt needs a second bowl. It may be even more well known that the Big East is having serious issues with its bowls. The Gator Bowl, its #2 bowl behind the BCS, wanted to either get Notre Dame every year or otherwise dump the Big East. The Gator Bowl director has also said disparaging things about the Big East in some news articles. They've been trying to court the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, etc., but the most they can get is a #4 team. So the Gator Bowl may have no choice but to let the Big East back into it.

Why stay in a situation where you're unwanted though? The ACC is probably behind the whole thing anyway. There is speculation that the ACC used its muscle to get the Gator Bowl to try to boot the Big East. As it is, the ACC and Big East play two bowls against each other ... Gator and Muffler. If the Big East adds the Champs Sports bowl, that would be three against the ACC. It can't be good to play so many bowl games against one conference. So it should be time for South Florida to prove it belongs in that league.

Instead of going after the Champs Sports bowl, why doesn't the Big East start a second bowl in Tampa? Orlando has the Citrus and Champs Sports bowls. New Orleans has the Sugar and New Orleans bowls. Phoenix has the Fiesta and Insight bowls. San Diego has the Holiday and Poinsettia bowls. So why wouldn't Tampa be able to support two bowls? If the Outback people don't want to pony up for a second bowl, the Big East and Sun Belt could hit up George Steinbrenner. He allegedly was influential in getting South Florida admitted.

So it's time to put their money where their mouth is. To some critics, South Florida looks like a horrible addition to the Big East made on an emotional whim in the wake of Boston College's late defection. If they could help deliver a bowl, that would help give something of value to their conference. Would the Big East be willing to play the Sun Belt in a bowl? Well, they are going to try again next year to start a bowl in Toronto where they would play the MAC. It would certainly be a major coup for the Sun Belt if this happened.

The Sun Belt would then have the New Orleans Bowl and the Nectarine Bowl (or whatever the second Tampa game would be called). The Big East would have the BCS, Mazda Gator or Champs Tangerine (one but not both), Meineke Muffler, Insight/Music City (switch every other year), Nectarine, and Toronto. The Big Apple Bowl idea is dead in the water for now as the New York politicians voted against a domed stadium in the city. The GMAC would keep CUSA against the MAC. Why would the Sun Belt want to play against CUSA in both bowl games anyway?