Topic: Most current bowl projections (as of 10-19)

[_sturt_]

"New Years' Six" (ie, access bowls)
Sporting News: Peach (vs. Georgia)
NFL.com Huguenin: Peach (vs. Ole Miss)
Phil Steele: Cotton (vs. Auburn)

Others
ESPN Schlabach: Bahamas (vs. Northern Illinois)
Orlando Sentinel Parsons: Bahamas (vs. Bowling Green)
College Sports Madness: Bahamas (vs. Bowling Green)
SB Nation Kirk: Bahamas (vs. Toledo)
CBS Palm: Heart of Dallas (vs. Iowa)
ESPN McMurphy: Boca Raton (vs. Central Michigan)
USA Today Smith: Hawaii (vs. Nevada)
College Football News: New Mexico (vs. Utah State)

[herdinphilly]

There's some ugly match ups under the Other category.

[herdfan429]

There's some ugly match ups under the Other category.

Yeah we have got to get that access bowl slot. Our bowl tie in SUCK DONKEY BALLS!!! It's a slap in the face if this team has to play another Mac school.

[MrRobertPruett]

Do we have to rehash this every week? The likelihood that we play a MAC team if we are 13-0 & conference champs is pretty slim. If we lose, well that's different. If we do not get the Peach or Fiesta then the most logical spot is Dallas vs Big 10 or Big 12. Not a horrible conciliation prize at all.

[BipolarFan]

Don't know why, but after reading this an old Chuck Landon article that I read popped into my head about how we were so lucky to have Kayo as our AD for 88K per year.

[_sturt_]

Have to agree that it's pretty surprising how only one projects us to the HoD Bowl. Makes me think most of these guys are just assuming that the West Division champ will end up there, without thinking about the larger picture.

Here's who's ticketed for HoD by the "others" who don't put us in a New Year's Six game.

ESPN Schlabach: La Tech vs. Michigan
ESPN McMurphy: North Texas vx. Rutgers
Orlando Sentinel Parsons: Rice vs. Northwestern
College Sports Madness: Rice vs. Louisiana-Monroe (assumes neither Big 12 or 10 can fill the opening)
SB Nation Kirk: UTEP vs. Northwestern
CBS Palm: Marshall vs. Iowa
USA Today Smith: Washington (not a typo) vs. Northwestern
College Football News: Rice vs. Northwestern

[CharlestonHerdGuy]

I still think if we win out, we'll get that access bowl spot.  The computers have us ahead of ECU right now even after factoring in SOS.  Also, I think ECU will drop at least one, and even if they don't I have a feeling they'll suffer one or more close calls where they barely beat some so-so teams.

[CJHerdgrad]

"New Years' Six" (ie, access bowls)
Sporting News: Peach (vs. Georgia)
NFL.com Huguenin: Peach (vs. Ole Miss)
Phil Steele: Cotton (vs. Auburn)

Others
ESPN Schlabach: Bahamas (vs. Northern Illinois)
Orlando Sentinel Parsons: Bahamas (vs. Bowling Green)
College Sports Madness: Bahamas (vs. Bowling Green)
SB Nation Kirk: Bahamas (vs. Toledo)
CBS Palm: Heart of Dallas (vs. Iowa)
ESPN McMurphy: Boca Raton (vs. Central Michigan)
USA Today Smith: Hawaii (vs. Nevada)
College Football News: New Mexico (vs. Utah State)

Iowa or Utah State are the only tolerable ones in the "other" category.  Nevada might be OK, but I think we'd ring up 50+ on them and people would be changing the channel by midway through the 3rd quarter.

[_sturt_]

I think there's a real possibility that the Duck Commander Independence Bowl will have an opening--SEC and ACC both just have so many other bowl slots available to them. Independence Bowl has a secondary agreement with CUSA for 2014. If not a New Year's Six bowl, that could leave us with a choice of either a date versus a Big Ten/Big 12 (HoD) or one versus an ACC/SEC.

Then again, it may very well turn out that the actual best opponent available could be from the MWC... and if our choices are, say, Maryland in the HoD or Va Tech in the Independence or Boise in the New Mexico, I figure many of us would vote Albuquerque.

[goherd24]

I still say a matchup vs WVU would be amazing in HoD or whatever other bowl that would be possible

[_sturt_]

Kentucky also might figure into that Independence Bowl conversation.

[herdfan429]

I think there's a real possibility that the Duck Commander Independence Bowl will have an opening--SEC and ACC both just have so many other bowl slots available to them. Independence Bowl has a secondary agreement with CUSA for 2014. If not a New Year's Six bowl, that could leave us with a choice of either a date versus a Big Ten/Big 12 (HoD) or one versus an ACC/SEC.

Then again, it may very well turn out that the actual best opponent available could be from the MWC... and if our choices are, say, Maryland in the HoD or Va Tech in the Independence or Boise in the New Mexico, I figure many of us would vote Albuquerque.

Umm no many of us would not be voting Albuquerque

[Herd-nficent]

It's way to early to get excited about "who do we play in a bowl."  Just relax and enjoy the ride for now. 

[_sturt_]

I don't think it's so much who do we play as much as it is where we will play, and more precisely will we get to play an opponent of some national regard.

And 429, I don't know what you call "many," and you're entitled to your opinion, but there are some potential contract conference opponents who... many... of us would consider to be a lesser choice as an opponent than Boise.

[bbcard1]

A couple things to remember:

Last year we were a nine win team that just lost badly in our conference game and we still got Maryland in a bowl.  They are not going to match us up against a MAC team…just not going to happen. That is not to say that there are not some decent MAC teams, it's just that these people are in this game for money and to waste the potential viewership and revenue of a top 25 undefeated team on an early bowl simply makes not sense.

Should we somehow get matched up with a lower tier opponent, they will run into a meat grinder.  As good of a man as Doc seems to be there would be a concerted effort by an angry team to make a statement. As big as many of our wins have been this year, we've left a lot of powder unused.

Just win and it will all work out.

[_sturt_]

...decent MAC teams...

This year more than ever before, it seems a stretch to use the word "decent" as an adjective for the MAC.

Just win and it will all work out.

I agree that it seems almost incomprehensible that we could end up playing a MAC school, and I understand the attempt to limit premature frustration, but otoh, I think we have some history of disappointment when it comes to bowl match-ups that is hard to ignore. So while I can't fathom being paired with Bowling Green in the Bahamas, it's not that hard for me to fathom us ending up with a team that gets a collective "meh," at best, nationally... some of them from contract conferences, and everyone but Boise from the MWC.

I think the bigger take-away for me as I scan the various bowl projections is that we still aren't getting much regard as the lead dog in the NY6 bowl chase. Yeah, I predicted that that would happen, but even I'm surprised given how well we've played and how lackluster ECU is proving to be.

[bbcard1]

So far as decent MAC teams, I was talking about historically, not specifically this year.

I still think people are doing bowl projections mostly by the numbers and slotting, not really considering the various horse trading that will go down when it comes cutting time.

[_sturt_]

I agree with all of that.

[Apollo]

Whether or not Boise is a great team, perception is reality and pasting Boise would not look as good on the "eye test" as pasting Iowa. So I'm with 429.

[_sturt_]

I realize why you specified Iowa, but I wasn't necessarily specifying Iowa.

But then again...

Given Iowa's disappearance from any real national regard since the Hayden Fry days, I think even if I had specified Iowa, I'd personally think pasting Boise would be more worthwhile--ie, the public perception of the significance of our win would be greater. And I think there are several contract conference teams that fall in that category.

In fact, I think the storyline would be after the game that Marshall picked up the baton from Boise, and is about to take Boise's place as the pinnacle program of Go5 for the next decade.

To my larger point... there are contract conference teams I think would be less appealing than Boise, though we can haggle over which ones of them would be on that list.

[_sturt_]

It's way to early to get excited about "who do we play in a bowl."  Just relax and enjoy the ride for now. 

Part of enjoying the ride is anticipation that you're going to get to your beach... a destination where you want to get to. Beating up on former Sun Belt and FCS schools to get to play in a third-tier bowl is just not that exciting a ride if that's all we're actually accomplishing. Hopefully it isn't, and that's why this is all worthy of our attention in October.

[Apollo]

I realize why you specified Iowa, but I wasn't necessarily specifying Iowa.

But then again...

Given Iowa's disappearance from any real national regard since the Hayden Fry days, I think even if I had specified Iowa, I'd personally think pasting Boise would be more worthwhile--ie, the public perception of the significance of our win would be greater. And I think there are several contract conference teams that fall in that category.

In fact, I think the storyline would be after the game that Marshall picked up the baton from Boise, and is about to take Boise's place as the pinnacle program of Go5 for the next decade.

To my larger point... there are contract conference teams I think would be less appealing than Boise, though we can haggle over which ones of them would be on that list.

I just picked Iowa because it was one of the projected outcomes, it could be pretty much any mid-tier contract team and it would still look better than Boise. I'm sorry, but I think you're wrong on that one and we'll have to agree to disagree big time. The whole argument all year long is how we haven't had a contract team on our schedule to give a real indication of how good this team is and Boise wouldn't provide that. If we pasted Boise, the response would be oh well Boise must be really bad this year and if we barely beat them it would be wow they weren't as good as people were saying. The storyline for a Boise game would be "Isn't Missouri playing Arizona on ESPN? flip the channel over there".

It needs to be an Iowa, Texas Tech, Oregon State or Florida type contract school or higher so a solid comparison of our performance versus other "big boys" can be made. And yes teams like Colorado or Vandy would be less appealing than Boise but they won't be bowl eligible anyway so your point is moot on that front.

[_sturt_]

And yes teams like Colorado or Vandy would be less appealing than Boise but they won't be bowl eligible anyway so your point is moot on that front.

Well, no, actually, in saying that, you agree with my fundamental point... I said we could haggle over who qualifies, but my larger point was that there are contract schools that would be less appealing than playing Boise.

But for the sake of discussion... given that they're the team most often tied to the HoD Bowl in these projections... how about Northwestern? Aren't they kind-of the Big 10's version of Vandy?

[Apollo]

Well, no, actually, in saying that, you agree with my fundamental point... I said we could haggle over who qualifies, but my larger point was that there are contract schools that would be less appealing than playing Boise.

But for the sake of discussion... given that they're the team most often tied to the HoD Bowl in these projections... how about Northwestern? Aren't they kind-of the Big 10's version of Vandy?

Well, no, actually, I don't agree and you missed my point entirely. Any contract team less appealing than Boise wouldn't qualify so thats why its pointless to make a statement like that. It's not hard to understand. And no, a bowl eligible Northwestern team wouldn't be the equivalent of a 2-10 Vandy team. Your logic sometimes defies all reason and rationale. Good luck with that though. It'll be interesting to see how things end up if we run the table and continue to take teams behind the woodshed.

[_sturt_]

My bad. Vandy and Colorado are often considered the dregs of their respective conferences anyhow, and since neither is actually eliminated yet, it didn't even occur to me that you were speaking in terms of their actual 2014 performance.

I'd just add that, as you well know, reputation and the degree to which there is national regard for a program isn't really a year-to-year thing... Vandy is one of those schools that can be good, but like Wake Forest or like Northwestern, beating them even in a year when they're decent certainly doesn't distinguish one's program to any great degree. So, yeah, we'll just have to agree to disagree--I wouldn't automatically dismiss Boise for a date with Northwestern.