Troy Losing Out Is Actually Great For The Conference

[stebo]

Should lock in our second bowl that we have been negotiating...

http://www.beltboard.com/?p=210

It was bound to happen eventually. Just a shame it happened this year.

There are 64 spots available for teams to go to bowl games. Going into the season all 64 are covered by either the BCS agreement or a primary contract with a team or conference. Each bowl may have two primary contracts so if the team or conference contracted with doesn’t have the needed 7-5 or better record, they may go at 6-6. Additionally a few bowls have secondary contracts. The conference or team is assured a bid if there is an opening and the team is 7-5 or better.

Of the 64 spots, 63 were filled by the BCS agreement or primary contracts. The only bowl that came up short was the Texas Bowl when the Big 12 ended up short a team with the surprising selection of Kansas for a BCS bowl. The Texas Bowl though had a secondary contract with the Mountain West and it just so happened that the Mountain West had 7-5 TCU without a place to go. The contract kicked in and the Horned Frogs became #64, that is they became the last team to join the bowl fraternity leaving Troy sitting at home at 8-4.

It wasn’t a quality issue, after all Sun Belt fans will have several games of interest. Starting with the New Orleans Bowl. The game is always of interest because of the Sun Belt host team but fans of Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee will be especially interested, because while they both lost frustrating games to FAU, they both defeated FAU’s opponent, CUSA member Memphis. Nine days later ULM fans will pay special attention to the Independence Bowl just down I-20 in Shreveport because the SEC representative will be a team they beat, Alabama. The next game of interest happens the next day in Arizona where Oklahoma State, the team Troy beat on television will represent the Big 12.

Right now there are folks feeling like the Sun Belt got a raw deal. It’s not that unusual, in fact it is very common. 2001 some team in the WAC called Boise State couldn’t make a bowl at 8-4. In 2002 Northern Illinois out of the MAC beat Wake Forest finished 8-4 and stayed home because they lost their shot at the conference title by losing at home in their final game. In 2003 wins over Maryland, Alabama, and Iowa State earned Northern Illinois a 10-2 record and the opportunity to sit at home and watch the bowls. Many bowls today exist because other leagues had this same trouble earlier in their existence.

No it wasn’t about quality or what someone did or didn’t (well it was about not winning the most important game of the season) it was about money and contracts.

Most bowl games, that is basically the ones other than the BCS and those taking the top picks from the six traditional power conferences depend on financial support from the participating conferences to survive. To get into one of the existing games either the Sun Belt has to out-bid the current occupant or the bowl committee must be frustrated with one those tied to it by contract. The Sun Belt won’t win a bidding war and the other requires good luck. Instead the Sun Belt is going to have to work with one of the number of cities toying with the idea of creating a new bowl.

The NCAA has historically looked favorably on proposals for new bowl games when one of two things happen. A conference is without a bowl tie for its champion or a deserving team is left in the cold. For about half the current bowls you can flip back in time and see the situation that caused its creation, that is a conference needing a tie or a team with a nice record left at home. Once the Sun Belt finds its dance partner the case will be made easily. Finding the right city is the hard part because it means finding a good geographic fit in a city that isn’t in a state with a Confederate flag as part of the state flag, has a nice stadium preferably a smaller stadium in a community that really wants to grow and sell the event as an addition to the community. Once that part is done the Sun Belt’s case is easy to make, seven seasons in the books and four bowl eligible teams left at home while two others only secured bids due to a lack of available teams.

[KingDL1]

What is the "Confederate flag" shot?

[FirefightnRick]

What is the "Confederate flag" shot?

The South, or the SunBelt region.

Rick

[3XNTGRAD]

The NCAA won't allow pre-scheduled championship events in states that incorporate the Confederate flag in their state flag (South Carolina and Mississippi).

[GreenAlums]

The NCAA won't allow pre-scheduled championship events in states that incorporate the Confederate flag in their state flag (South Carolina and Mississippi).

Is this true?? Interesting....

[GoMeanGreen1999]

I may be in the minority here, but when you have 32 Bowl games (32) and there are teams that feel like they got "left out" then it is clear to me there is something wrong with college football. 120 D1 teams and 64 of them actually go to a bowl game - means over half of the teams go. This is why college football will never have a playoff - they just keep adding bowls.

Edited December 3, 2007 by GoMeanGreen1999

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---Bowls are so different than they were when I was in college... I doubt there were over ten and only good teams went. Now it is crazy and every town wants to have one and bring in visitors and $$$$. Even then teams were chosen for the "secondary" bowls based on what kind of crowds they would bring... This one of the reasons that North Texas was ignored duing the Hayden Fry era and also the Joe Green era... not because North Texas was not good but because we would not deliver the fans and $$$ than a team like Nebraska would.

[filmerj]

I may be in the minority here, but when you have 32 Bowl games (32) and there are teams that feel like they got "left out" then it is clear to me there is something wrong with college football. 120 D1 teams and 64 of them actually go to a bowl game - means over half of the teams go. This is why college football will never have a playoff - they just keep adding bowls.

It's like in pee wee sports... everyone wins! No Scoreboard! Why even play if everyone is going to make it to a bowl.

[UNTflyer]

Finding the right city is the hard part because it means finding a good geographic fit in a city that isn’t in a state with a Confederate flag as part of the state flag

What is the "Confederate flag" shot?

Really... does this idiot not know that Mississippi is the only state that still has the Stars and Bars as part of its flag? That's means a good goegraphic fit could be in Mobile, Pensacola, Shreveport, New Orleans, Little Rock, Memphis...

Hell, I'm from the south and I know my 50 state flags.

[UNTflyer]

The NCAA won't allow pre-scheduled championship events in states that incorporate the Confederate flag in their state flag (South Carolina and Mississippi).

South Carolina??

[PlummMeanGreen]

---Bowls are so different than they were when I was in college... I doubt there were over ten and only good teams went. Now it is crazy and every town wants to have one and bring in visitors and $$$$. Even then teams were chosen for the "secondary" bowls based on what kind of crowds they would bring... This one of the reasons that North Texas was ignored duing the Hayden Fry era and also the Joe Green era... not because North Texas was not good but because we would not deliver the fans and $$$ than a team like Nebraska would.

According to one of our older nestors who kept up with such things back then, the Austin American-Statesmen said UNT had 19,000 Mean Green fans travel to Austin for that September of 1976 Darrell Royal/Hayden Fry matchup. (If that number is accurate, might that still be our largest travel crowd ever)?

It was the first time the Longhorns had been scheduled in our school's history. BTW, back then----it was rare for a school like ours to even dream about scheduling an in-state "The University" type of football team.

SE66, I still feel the main reason UNT did not get bowl invites back during the 1970's (or before) was that there just werent' enough of them to spread around much like today.

I do believe lack of fans following a Fry-coached Mean Green football team back then would have never been the problem based on the Mean Green fans who followed our team to UT in 1976. I also think that enormous crowd we took to Austin back then hardly went un-noticed by many other schools in the Southwest, either; it's just after Fry left for Iowa, we pulled in our sails and went back to our usual standing still float-mode--a common theme for this school just after its taken a giant step forward in our past.

Edited December 4, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[3XNTGRAD]

South Carolina??

In South Carolina's case, it isn't the state flag itself, but the prominent display of the Confederate battle flag at the state capitol.

Here is a press release from 2001:

NCAA Executive Committee Acts on Confederate Flag Issue

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Is this true?? Interesting....

It's also interesting to note that the Confederacy was defeated about 140 years ago. But, why stop perfectly good rednecks from flying the flag of defeat? I'm sure some Russians still fly the hammer and sickle.