Taking some guesses on bowls
SBC is in an unusual situation this year because of the # of eligible teams to # of Bowl slots ratio. We are in the position of having outside bowls that are very interested in our teams.
That makes me wonder, will the SBC work with the teams and their bowls this year to make sure each team is placed in a bowl that should be a good draw for that bowl?
Think about this scenario:
CUSA elects to send its champion to Heart of Dallas instead of Liberty because they like the New Years Day spot. Liberty Bowl becomes open.
SEC doesnt fill its bowl obligations and the Independence Bowl is left open.
New Orleans bowl has top choice, but yet again has the option to not take a champion. Go Daddy took the champion last year, and again, is under no obligation to take the champ this year because the champion is pretty much guaranteed a bowl bid regardless.
ASU and ULM approach SBC about allowing their schools to fill the open slots in Shreveport and Memphis. Both bowls make sense for those teams, as they are regional bowls, and in the case of ASU, we would send 20K to Memphis easy. Liberty Bowl is in a much better TV slot on New years Eve, and the league would look really good having one of its teams playing in a bowl on this day. SBC agrees, and goes to New Orleans and Go Daddy to work out a deal.
Selection time comes:
New Orleans takes a 7 win ULL team, and is guaranteed a good crowd again.
Go Daddy picks up an MTSU team that usually travels down their well.
Liberty comes along and picks up ASU to match up against an SEC opponent.
Independence takes ULM
WKU gets shipped off to a far away bowl, but still plays its first bowl game.
Think about the positives here:
ULL would easily send a great crowd to New Orleans, and its another night game. We look good in front of the cameras.
ULM sends a decent crowd to Shreveport. Warhawks have Browning back, and a large walkup crowd shows up out of curiosity to see the media darling this year. Its another night bowl game. We look good on TV.
ASU goes to Liberty and plays a team like Ole Miss (My understanding is the Liberty bowl is pushing hard for this if Ole Miss can become bowl eligible) Liberty markets the heck out of a Malzahn/Freeze matchup, and Ole Miss fans who are bowl starved, and an exuberant ASU fan base fill the place. Game is an afternoon game on New Years Eve. We look good on TV
MTSU goes to Go Daddy. MTSU may or may not be league champs heading that way. Either way, MAC champ gets there, and the Go Daddy takes advantage of local interest, and draws a big crowd. Game is the night before the national title game, and is the only thing on TV that night. We look good on TV.
WKU goes to Detroit, bad for WKU, but the MAC gets to fill the other slot, and both teams put on a show. Crowd isnt good, but Detroit never is, and the game is impressive looking ending in a WKU win. We look good on TV
All of these scenarios are very possible this year.
(This post was last modified: 11-09-2012 05:00 PM by chiefsfan.)
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