(04-03-2015 10:34 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(04-03-2015 10:29 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(04-02-2015 10:05 PM)firmbizzle Wrote:  Little Rock in December is underrated.

Weather is the most ridiculous bowl complaint to ever come to be. Especially when you consider that Arkansas usually is fairly mild in December, and doesn't start really getting cold until Mid January.

The last time I remember a major December winter storm was 13 years ago when I was in the 10th grade. It just doesn't happen very often. I'd be far more worried if it was a January Bowl.

Besides, it's football

When it's a Yankee Stadium or Lambeau Field it is part of the charm of football.

It's "charming" if the game means something.

I wonder how the subjects from the Gang Bangin' in Little Rock HBO documentary are doing these days.

(04-03-2015 06:00 PM)Chappy Wrote:  I wonder how the subjects from the Gang Bangin' in Little Rock HBO documentary are doing these days.

Starting at linebacker for Marshall.

Lol

(04-02-2015 05:09 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  I know a lot of people are not happy with the bowl. That said, most of the people who are unhappy about it are in the east. The way I see it, you eastern guys will be heading to Boca, Orlando, Miami, and the Bahamas for your G5 bowls. I hated the idea of traveling 1000 miles to face G5 schools. Now western teams don't have to. The west will see G5 opponents in closer locations like Austin, Little Rock and sometimes Nola.

FWIW---from what Im hearing Little Rock Bowl officials want to model the bowl after the very successful GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile. The bowl there has done an excellent job of rolling out the red carpet and gearing the town to be all about the bowl for that week. The fans keep returning because they enjoy the fun affordable experience. This is an article from ArkState Scout site on how the Little Rock Bowl is looking to replicate that kind of experience. Its a pretty good article--especially for anyone who has never been there. The main point here is just because it's not the Cotton Bowl doesn't mean it can't be fun.

http://arkansasstate.scout.com/story/153...-gem?s=334

A little Rock bowl would look like two g5's playing in a dump stadium in a town that's basically a war zone in front of 12k people on December 15th at 2pm on ESPN8. Count me out.

(04-02-2015 10:38 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(04-02-2015 09:34 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(04-02-2015 05:09 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Little Rock Bowl officials want to model the bowl after the very successful GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile. The bowl there has done an excellent job of rolling out the red carpet and gearing the town to be all about the bowl for that week. The fans keep returning because they enjoy the fun affordable experience.

This overlooks the fact that Mobile really is an interesting city with fun things to see/do and (usually) mild climate around late Dec./early Jan. Little Rock, not so much.

I really like Mobile and I've spent a ton of money there, but the only thing Little Rock won't top them at is mardi gras parades, battleships, and fresh seafood. Little Rock has superior restaurant options and more bars and more attractions which should be expected with Little Rock being the heart of a metro that has nearly double the population of the Mobile metro and is a state capital. Only two of the state's seven Fortune 500 corporations are based in Little Rock (Arkansas is one of the top 9 states in business growth the past 20 years according to Fortune) but they have had a strong influence on getting the various cities in the metro to cooperate.

arkstfan, I like Little Rock. I'm not sure how well the city leaders can put on a bowl game, but the city is getting shortchanged in a lot of folk's comments. I think that you're sort of wasting time trying to change anyone's opinion here because evidently, it's OK for programs and universities like Missouri, South Carolina, Oklahoma State, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Arizona, Boston College, Miami of FL to go to Shreveport.......Shreveport, let that sink in, but as members of the AAC, our programs are too good and our fans are too dignified, sophisticated, etc to go to Little Rock.

Most of those comments are made in humor :) with a hint of absolute truth sprinkled in. However, Little Rock is being treated unfairly in this and another thread on this board. I'd challenge anyone to spend a couple of nights in the Capital Hotel, walk the riverfront/entertainment/restaurant row(or whatever it's called), visit the Presidential Library, take the short drive to Hot Springs, etc, etc,and not enjoy a short stay. There's absolutely nothing wrong with spending a day, two or three in Little Rock.

Coog they sound like people from rural Arkansas who are terrified of Little Rock.

There is a bad area where bad stuff happens but no one is likely to stumble there by accident.

I've lived here 25 years I'm in several civic organizations and the only person I know directly impacted by a violent crime is the college age son of an acquaintance who got shot when he tried to buy pot in a bad area and the person robbed him and shot him when he fought back. I lost one of the keys to my front door and for nearly 20 years never locked it when I left unless we were out of town for several days. Only got another key made when I started working out of town.

In 25 years I've had a jacket taken from my unlocked truck downtown (in 1991) and a few years ago someone grabbed less than a dollar in change out of the cup holder of my unlocked car.

It's freaking Baghdad here anyone stupid enough to be afraid or concerned needs to stay in their trailer and talk back to Fox News on the TV.

(04-04-2015 09:12 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  Coog they sound like people from rural Arkansas who are terrified of Little Rock.

There is a bad area where bad stuff happens but no one is likely to stumble there by accident.

I've lived here 25 years I'm in several civic organizations and the only person I know directly impacted by a violent crime is the college age son of an acquaintance who got shot when he tried to buy pot in a bad area and the person robbed him and shot him when he fought back. I lost one of the keys to my front door and for nearly 20 years never locked it when I left unless we were out of town for several days. Only got another key made when I started working out of town.

In 25 years I've had a jacket taken from my unlocked truck downtown (in 1991) and a few years ago someone grabbed less than a dollar in change out of the cup holder of my unlocked car.

It's freaking Baghdad here anyone stupid enough to be afraid or concerned needs to stay in their trailer and talk back to Fox News on the TV.

Who is afraid of Little Rock?Noone on this thread has said anything about being scared to travel to Little Rock because of the people.Folks have made snarky comments about the crime,but they are being sarcastic. Do you want to know what I am terrified of in the state of Arkansas?A bowl game in Little Rock that involves any AAC team. That frightens the hell out of me.

(04-04-2015 10:30 AM)baruna falls Wrote:  

(04-04-2015 09:12 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  Coog they sound like people from rural Arkansas who are terrified of Little Rock.

There is a bad area where bad stuff happens but no one is likely to stumble there by accident.

I've lived here 25 years I'm in several civic organizations and the only person I know directly impacted by a violent crime is the college age son of an acquaintance who got shot when he tried to buy pot in a bad area and the person robbed him and shot him when he fought back. I lost one of the keys to my front door and for nearly 20 years never locked it when I left unless we were out of town for several days. Only got another key made when I started working out of town.

In 25 years I've had a jacket taken from my unlocked truck downtown (in 1991) and a few years ago someone grabbed less than a dollar in change out of the cup holder of my unlocked car.

It's freaking Baghdad here anyone stupid enough to be afraid or concerned needs to stay in their trailer and talk back to Fox News on the TV.

Who is afraid of Little Rock?Noone on this thread has said anything about being scared to travel to Little Rock because of the people.Folks have made snarky comments about the crime,but they are being sarcastic. Do Dont to know what I am terrified of in the state of Arkansas?A bowl game in Little Rock that involves any AAC team. That freightens the hell out of me.

I am not afraid to travel to Little Rock for a bowl, i just see no reason to ever want to go there. Like going to Birmingham.

Little Rock us a nice town War Memorial Stadium is roughly the equivalent of Legion Field though

It is a bottom wrung bowl, for bottom wrung bowl eligible west teams to go to. I don't know why anyone in east AAC cares period, pro or con. We wont be going.
I think we are jumping the shark a bit #s wise, but who cares. We need 6 or 7 bowls, locked up. 2 or 3 of those should be west of the Miss river.

The Little Rock bowl would be an immediate failure it needs to go to Texas or Boston

Bottom line is we need to add fuel to the dumpster fire so adding Wichita State adds fuel which will give us more negotiating money with the networks.
This is how we grow our conference the additions of Navy in Wichita gives us more credibility

(04-05-2015 11:39 AM)Stookey57 Wrote:  Bottom line is we need to add fuel to the dumpster fire so adding Wichita State adds fuel which will give us more negotiating money with the networks.
This is how we grow our conference the additions of Navy in Wichita gives us more credibility

Assume this belongs in the WSU thread?......maybe?

(04-05-2015 08:35 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  It is a bottom wrung bowl, for bottom wrung bowl eligible west teams to go to. I don't know why anyone in east AAC cares period, pro or con. We wont be going.
I think we are jumping the shark a bit #s wise, but who cares. We need 6 or 7 bowls, locked up. 2 or 3 of those should be west of the Miss river.

Only 3 of 13 members are west of Mississippi so 2-3 sounds like too many.

One Texas bowl should be enough.

(04-06-2015 09:53 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-05-2015 08:35 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  It is a bottom wrung bowl, for bottom wrung bowl eligible west teams to go to. I don't know why anyone in east AAC cares period, pro or con. We wont be going.
I think we are jumping the shark a bit #s wise, but who cares. We need 6 or 7 bowls, locked up. 2 or 3 of those should be west of the Miss river.

Only 3 of 13 members are west of Mississippi so 2-3 sounds like too many.

One Texas bowl should be enough.

Three west of the Mississippi. Two actually ON the Mississippi. So, 5 schools are easy drives to western bowls.

To answer the OP:

(04-06-2015 10:04 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(04-06-2015 09:53 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-05-2015 08:35 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  It is a bottom wrung bowl, for bottom wrung bowl eligible west teams to go to. I don't know why anyone in east AAC cares period, pro or con. We wont be going.
I think we are jumping the shark a bit #s wise, but who cares. We need 6 or 7 bowls, locked up. 2 or 3 of those should be west of the Miss river.

Only 3 of 13 members are west of Mississippi so 2-3 sounds like too many.

One Texas bowl should be enough.

Three west of the Mississippi. Two actually ON the Mississippi. So, 5 schools are easy drives to western bowls.

Here in New Orleans, any Tulane fan would rather go to a bowl in Florida than to a bowl in Little Rock, because there's nothing in Little Rock. Really, the only bowl that is out of reach from a Tulane POV is the military bowl way up in Annapolis. That bowl is a big geographical outlier and is always going to feature UConn, Navy, Temple, Cincy, or ECU anyway.

One bowl in Texas is really enough. We already have the Armed Forces bowl in Dallas in 3 of 6 years. Get one more bowl in Texas for the other 3 years so that we always have one bowl in Texas for Tulsa, SMU, or Houston to go to and that gets it done.

We don't really have "western" and "eastern" schools. We have northern and southern schools. Those schools that are being called "west" are really southern schools. Travel from any part of the south to any other part isn't a very big deal and everyone likes Florida. So no need to accommodate Houston/SMU/Tulsa.

Might actually make more sense to do something for the northern schools rather than add Texas and Little Rock Bowls. We really do have 4 northern schools - Navy, Temple, UConn, and Cincy. And ECU is pretty far north too.

Delete Little Rock, and add another bowl in say Washington or Philly so that the four northern schools and ECU have better travel.

(04-06-2015 12:09 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-06-2015 10:04 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(04-06-2015 09:53 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-05-2015 08:35 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  It is a bottom wrung bowl, for bottom wrung bowl eligible west teams to go to. I don't know why anyone in east AAC cares period, pro or con. We wont be going.
I think we are jumping the shark a bit #s wise, but who cares. We need 6 or 7 bowls, locked up. 2 or 3 of those should be west of the Miss river.

Only 3 of 13 members are west of Mississippi so 2-3 sounds like too many.

One Texas bowl should be enough.

Three west of the Mississippi. Two actually ON the Mississippi. So, 5 schools are easy drives to western bowls.

Here in New Orleans, any Tulane fan would rather go to a bowl in Florida than to a bowl in Little Rock, because there's nothing in Little Rock. Really, the only bowl that is out of reach from a Tulane POV is the military bowl way up in Annapolis. That bowl is a big geographical outlier and is always going to feature UConn, Navy, Temple, Cincy, or ECU anyway.

One bowl in Texas is really enough. We already have the Armed Forces bowl in Dallas in 3 of 6 years. Get one more bowl in Texas for the other 3 years so that we always have one bowl in Texas for Tulsa, SMU, or Houston to go to and that gets it done.

We don't really have "western" and "eastern" schools. We have northern and southern schools. Those schools that are being called "west" are really southern schools. Travel from any part of the south to any other part isn't a very big deal and everyone likes Florida. So no need to accommodate Houston/SMU/Tulsa.

Might actually make more sense to do something for the northern schools rather than add Texas and Little Rock Bowls. We really do have 4 northern schools - Navy, Temple, UConn, and Cincy. And ECU is pretty far north too.

Delete Little Rock, and add another bowl in say Washington or Philly so that the four northern schools and ECU have better travel.

we need to put the bowl in a football crazed town so people come ,gillette might be good but its cold, but theres' a lot to do in that part of new england..

(04-06-2015 12:09 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-06-2015 10:04 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(04-06-2015 09:53 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-05-2015 08:35 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  It is a bottom wrung bowl, for bottom wrung bowl eligible west teams to go to. I don't know why anyone in east AAC cares period, pro or con. We wont be going.
I think we are jumping the shark a bit #s wise, but who cares. We need 6 or 7 bowls, locked up. 2 or 3 of those should be west of the Miss river.

Only 3 of 13 members are west of Mississippi so 2-3 sounds like too many.

One Texas bowl should be enough.

Three west of the Mississippi. Two actually ON the Mississippi. So, 5 schools are easy drives to western bowls.

Here in New Orleans, any Tulane fan would rather go to a bowl in Florida than to a bowl in Little Rock, because there's nothing in Little Rock. Really, the only bowl that is out of reach from a Tulane POV is the military bowl way up in Annapolis. That bowl is a big geographical outlier and is always going to feature UConn, Navy, Temple, Cincy, or ECU anyway.

One bowl in Texas is really enough. We already have the Armed Forces bowl in Dallas in 3 of 6 years. Get one more bowl in Texas for the other 3 years so that we always have one bowl in Texas for Tulsa, SMU, or Houston to go to and that gets it done.

We don't really have "western" and "eastern" schools. We have northern and southern schools. Those schools that are being called "west" are really southern schools. Travel from any part of the south to any other part isn't a very big deal and everyone likes Florida. So no need to accommodate Houston/SMU/Tulsa.

Might actually make more sense to do something for the northern schools rather than add Texas and Little Rock Bowls. We really do have 4 northern schools - Navy, Temple, UConn, and Cincy. And ECU is pretty far north too.

Delete Little Rock, and add another bowl in say Washington or Philly so that the four northern schools and ECU have better travel.

You of all people should know G5 fan bases don't travel well. Every extra hour of driving closer decreases the number of people likely to travel. Add in an unattractive opponent, and there is even less reason to pay bloated ticket prices and fly at peak rates during travel season (or drive 10+ hours to Orlando). Little Rock is a couple of hours closer to play the same Sun Belt team. These low end G5 bowls are all about convenience. It is what it is. Truth be know, we should have never said "no" to the Nola Bowl in the first place---as it was a perfect option. That said, the current situation is the best solution for the situation we found ourselves in.

Your idea to have Houston, SMU, and Tulsa drive 16 hours to McBowls in Orlando or farther is simply hair brained--fortunately, the conference leadership and membership see the obvious flaws in your logic. The eastern teams will never see Little Rock or Austin and the western teams will never have to travel 1000 miles to play a mid-pack Sunbelt team. It works for everyone. Not really seeing your issue with it.

Here is our reality. We are going to guarantee that every AAC school that finishes with 6 wins will get a bowl. Obviously---they are not going to be the Sugar Bowl as we get near the bottom of the list. Thus, a nearby location that is reasonably enjoyable and can do a good job of hosting will work fine. If Little Rock doesn't do a very good job, we likely drop the bowl and move elsewhere. My preference has always to been to pick up the Nola Bowl, but Im willing to see how Little Rock works out.