I’m sure there has been lots of arguing, angsting and general discontent between bowls, schools and conferences. But it sure seems that this yar it is a lot more public.
The Big 12 is trying to help Mizzou which has finished 8-4. Apparently the Tigers don’t have the best reputation for traveling in the conference (gee, that seems familiar). So that means the Tigers appear poised to fall to the Texas Bowl and being skipped by the Independence and Insight Bowls for 6-6 Texas A&M and Iowa State.
“This isn’t over,” Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe said Wednesday afternoon in a telephone interview with The Kansas City Star.
“I know (Missouri athletic director) Mike Alden and the Missouri folks have made a tremendous case to all the bowls they might be selected to,” Beebe said. “I don’t know that Missouri could do a better job than they are doing.”
And, Beebe added, he shares the concern of MU officials that the Tigers might be passed over for the Insight Bowl bid by a 6-6 Iowa State team.
“I am concerned about a bowl that would select a team that has two less wins and was beaten by that team head to head.”
Unfortunately, that is just the scenario Missouri officials have come to fear.
Of course, that is nothing compared to the boiled over frustration between the Gator Bowl and the ACC. We all know that this is the last year for the Gator Bowl and the Big East and ACC. The Gator has been stymied in multiple years at landing Notre Dame. Now they want FSU for Bowden’s last game. This in no small part because FSU went around the ACC offices and contacted the Gator directly about it. The ACC would rather send FSU to Orlando for the Champs Bowl.
Here’s where it gets problematic. Like most conferences the ACC has the pecking order where bowls can’t take a team that is more than 2 wins better than a higher team in the conference records. The Gator gets 3d pick. The Orange Bowl obviously takes the winner of the ACC Championship. The Chik-Fil-A picks next and likely will take Virginia Tech (6-2). So, for the Gator to take FSU (4-4), it would appear that they need GT (7-1) to beat Clemson (6-2) to be able to snag FSU. Otherwise GT would have to be taken.
Except that the Gator Bowl claims they have a different contract that allows them more flexibility to skip taking the loser of the ACC Championship. And since the Gator doesn’t have to play nice any longer they are threatening legal action.
“We have sat back so many times and taken it from the ACC,” [Gator Bowl executive director Rick] Catlett said, ” To have [ACC Commissioner John Swofford] trying to go around a contract is unacceptable.”
Of course, Swofford has to answer to the rest of the ACC and considering how many times he’s bent over in so many positions to take it from FSU for football, the rest of the members are probably not going to let him waive the rules to accommodate the Bowden farewell (and give FSU more money and exposure) at other members’ expenses.
Not sure who I want to fail more. The ACC of course, raided the Big East in no small part to benefit FSU. The ACC commish is a duplicitous dick so seeing him and his schools screwed once more would be nice.
On the other hand, the Gator Bowl people suck. They have acted like being associated with the Big East is a chore from the beginning, and made no secret that they would have screwed the conference this year to take a 7-5 ND team — if the Irish had won 1 of their final 2 games. They seem determined to take WVU regardless of tomorrow’s games. And Pitt could very well end up going to Birmingham.
Add in the sense of entitlement from FSU and Bowden, and it almost tips things in favor of the ACC.
I don’t know. I guess I’m hoping that it ends up in a lawsuit and costs both some extra money, time, and bad publicity.
Cold, but thankfully not a lot of wind…
But we probably shouldn’t dwell on that. Sugar or Orange Bowl here we come! Hail to Pitt!
Given the recent goings on with FSU, and their wish to play WVU in the Gator Bowl, plus the Gator Bowl’s willingness to pass over teams that were actually GOOD (and get into a legal mess) to put FSU into their bowl game this year, I don’t think it would’ve made a difference if we beat WVU.
Look, you can argue about nostalgia for Bowden, or that a 6-6 team should NOT be playing on New Year’s day (I agree btw), but here’s where things get REALLY shady from a purely ethical standpoint.
Not only does FSU stand to get what they feel is a proper sendoff for Bowden by being in the Gator Bowl (almost can’t blame them), but the payoff for the Gator Bowl is substantially larger than for the other bowls.
So is it about a little bit more than just sending Bowden off proper?
I think there should be an agreement that if FSU goes, VERY undeservedly, to the Gator Bowl, that they should have to give a large cut of that money to one or more of the ACC schools that actually deserved to be there.
It’s the only semi-solution to this shady situation.
Does anyone know how the Big East splits up it’s bowl money…I heard at one time it was split evenly but is that really true? How much of a hit does the AD department take if Pitt misses out on the BCS game and say ends up in Toronto..though my guess would be right now it is either Sugar or Birmingham…which from a travel standpoint is good …Jan 1st or 2nd…most people are already off those days….The NC bowl is day after Xmas..who wants to be a bowl on Xmas day or get up the day after Xmas to travel.
Bowl bids to the undeserved is not a recent or BCS phenomenom. Heck, pitt was was robbed of a probable national title in 1980 when the Sugar Bowl gave the bid to a lower rated Notre Dame to play No. 1 Georgia. Speaking of ND, I remember 3 times this decade when they were embarrassed in bowl games that they did not deserve to be in.
UNH shot 12 for 51 from field … hope that we are just playing down to the competition
i always look at the box score before i read the recap, and that box score blew my mind. i thought it must not have been updated since the half or something…
Tell FSU to invite WVU down to Doak Campbell on January 1st to play their Bowden Bowl and let someone deserving get the Gator payout.
On a related note, if you want to see some funny stuff, check out @INSIDEtheBCS on Twitter. The brain-child of former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer’s PR firm is taking a brutal beating from the Twitter community. It’s comical to see them stoically soldier on in the face of reason. Most misguided use of Twitter I’ve seen. Reminds me of Timothy Treadwill, the bear activist, who was mauled to death by the very beasts with which he was trying to connect.
link to twitter.com
link to twitter.com