(05-22-2017 08:49 PM)Attackcoog Wrote: (05-22-2017 08:27 PM)arkstfan Wrote: (05-22-2017 01:43 AM)Attackcoog Wrote: What Ive never figured out is what anyone thinks the G5 sticking together will do. We have zero leverage apart or together. If we did, the G5 wouldn't be stuck at the children's table. The only upgrade the G5 is going to get in the bowl system is the one the G5 pays for. Until the G5 as a whole (or an individual G5 conference), sets aside enough money to create bowls with payouts large enough to attract high selections from the P5---the G5 post season (other than the access bowl) will continue to exist exclusively within the very bottom rungs of the bowl system.
At the very least, every G5 champ should have a post season destination that is clearly superior to the bowls the rest of the teams from the conference will participate in. Right now---thats not the case. There's virtually no difference between the bowl a G5 champ gets and the bowl the 4th place team in the same conference gets. Personally, I think that's part of the problem with the G5 TV values. Because there is little reward for winning a G5 conference, there is reduced interest in the conference races. If the Sunbelt Champ was going to the Gator Bowl---to play a 9 win SEC team---or to the MAC Champ was going to the Pinstripe Bowl to play a 9 win Big10 team----there would be more interest in the how these conference races played out. The prize at the end of the season would give the race context and serve as a catalyst to create drama and interest.
Together we can create bowl pairing that make better sense. There is no reason to have X bowl ties per league with specific bowls, makes better sense to have a pool of bowls and pairings set to reflect attractive match-ups and geography. As it is we end up with weird deals where a school gets sent far from its region.
They "try" to do that every season. Its not really a G5 issue (the P5 has their share of it as well). I certainly wouldnt think it's something that the AAC "P6 marketing campaign" would stymie. What gets in the way of these interesting matchps is bowl ties and the preferences of many fan bases (probably most fanbases) to play a P5 6-6/7-5 team whenever the opportunity arises. If there was decent money placed on the table to create these interesting pairings --they would get locked in.
Frankly, the ratings for some of the bowl games featuring top preforming G5 teams have been quite good of late. The general public seems to be interested in watching these high win total G5's either against one another or against high performing P5's. You;d think some young network exec would see an opportunity there.
With a few exceptions, deals don't get worked and pick orders create messes.
For example this year Montgomery and Mobile wanted the same match-up. Troy vs. Toledo, AState wanted to play in either Alabama bowl, App State wanted to play in Orlando. The word AState had was that whichever bowl ended up without that match-up was taking AState vs. Ohio, Cure in Orlando was going to pit App and UCF, and USA was headed to Tucson with a deal being brokered to send Idaho to Boise.
Mobile had second selection of Sun Belt and second selection of MAC while Montgomery had 1st (after NY6) of MAC and third of the Sun Belt.
So Mobile took Troy and Montgomery took Toledo. Neither would budge.
Looking over what was left of MAC, Mobile took Ohio. AState and Toledo had already played in the regular season so they went with App even though they had hoped to let App go elsewhere after going to Montgomery the year before.
Meanwhile Cure hasn't scouted Arkansas State and is now looking at South Alabama and calls AState to say they are passing and the assistant AD says he is surprised given the presale numbers they had submitted, bowl director is like "What presale numbers, we didn't see anything from you". They dig around, find the report and invite AState.
This isn't 1985 any more, the bowls no longer hold the leverage if the conferences exert it. Toledo and Troy should have met. App should have been in Orlando and AState should have played Ohio.
Now I have no beef with how it turned out and our people loved the Cure Bowl and felt it was well done but the pairings could have been even better.