I think the Independence Bowl is the only non ‘ESPN Event’ bowl that Conference USA is affiliated with
I hope early Bowl Projections are wrong.
- Thread starter johns1124
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A lot of deals will be made and MU will play in the best bowl that maximizes our recruiting. That's all Doc wants. jmo
The Herd will play wherever CUSA and ESPN want them. They will take them where they believe that will be the best fan friendly site for Marshall. There is no doubt that Marshall will always take more fans to a bowl than any other CUSA team, The exception is of course a UNT in Dallas or a USM or La Tech in New Orleans
See this story about the lack of choice that Charlotte had in going to Nassau.
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/college/charlotte-49ers/article238067084.html
The only way a game can change the outcome of the season, or the direction of a program, is if you beat a blue-blood on national TV... Everyone remembers Appalachian State for one game against Michigan.
No one remembers what they did the rest of that season, or that they have also beaten other lesser P5 teams since then.
I can't speak for Michigan... But living in Western North Carolina, and having gone to App games since the Michigan victory, it definitely changed their program. Did it rocket them into Top-10 territory with Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma? - Of course not. But it gave them a level of recognition/notoriety that they did not have previously and got them seriously talking about the jump to FBS (which their board ultimately elected to do in February of 2013).
Outside of beating one of about 10 teams (Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Clemson, Texas, USC) when those teams are good (beating Texas now doesn't mean as much as say 10 years ago) there are no seismic wins out there... Whether we beat Wake Forest or Western Michigan in a bowl game will be forgotten nationally in a few days, so try to negotiate the best bowl game based on location, time and player benefits.
Unless Marshall gets invited to the bowl games in D.C. or Charlotte, I don't see many making a trip to the Dallas area, Albuquerque, or South Florida. How many traveled to Albuquerque two years ago? Or Tampa last year?
Marshall will get more consideration than most of the league teams because our fans travel better than anyone in the league. That and that alone will get us a better bowl and match up. Gotta sell tickets and we do it better than any school in the league.
Look how well they traveled to Huntington last week.
That's how this stuff works - small school gets a taste of national recognition and they get hooked. Start spending money they don't have and sticking it to their student body to keep chasing the high, trying to catch that dragon. Wind up under a bridge passed out with a needle sticking out from between your toes.
Correct. And your list of “seismic win teams” is good as well. Nobody follows the minor bowls other than people that prefer football to the other sports in play right now (NBA, NHL, college basketball), fans of the two teams, and gamblers.
Location is first, preferably Florida for weather, the presence of the Appalachian diaspora, recruiting, and player homecomings. Then look for a good time slot, hopefully not one of the bowls played in the day on workdays, and a place where the unpaid players can get a nice time and a good swag bag. The cold weather bowls seem more like just regular season games and should be avoided. Who we play is the least important factor.
Is it though? If fans (for whatever reason) didn’t attend a home game on senior day, will they spend a decent sum of money around Christmas to travel to an away bowl game? Die hard’s sure/maybe but that’s a small number in grand scheme of ticket sales.
We're not gonna have 10K or so fans travel - those days are gone. But FL or NOLA in December when it's sunny in the 60's-70's; or in the dome beats sitting in 44 degree weather and a steady rain. jmho
Absolutely agree but what I was saying is right now MU won’t have the same “following” as the pst thus lower ticket sales.
It's hard to argue against the weather and it may be the variable that gets more fans to travel. Then again, I remember hearing and reading plenty of comments of fans complaining about a bowl game being too close to Christmas and not going because of that. So who knows.
The companies which run the bowls (I'm talking the bowls that aren't special) don't really care about tickets sold.
They know 2 schools from a mid-major conference won't bring fans. Look at most of those games. You could consolidate everyone into one section typically. They make money on ad revenue, otherwise there wouldn't be so many bowls.
They know 2 schools from a mid-major conference won't bring fans. Look at most of those games. You could consolidate everyone into one section typically. They make money on ad revenue, otherwise there wouldn't be so many bowls.
ESPN owns most of the insignificant bowls that CUSA teams play in. You are correct. ESPN wants programming so they can sell advertising.
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