Way too early bowl predictions
- Thread starter mubaseballking
- Start date
No way. They never send a good travel fan base over there. We will be in Florida
Updated projections Oct. 23...
USA Today - Marshall vs. Akron in the Bahamas Bowl
ESPN Hale - Marshall vs. San Diego State in the New Mexico Bowl
ESPN Bonagura - Marshall vs. Army in the Armed Forces Bowl
Sporting News - Marshall vs. Ohio in the Bahamas Bowl
Sports Illustrated - Marshall vs. South Florida in St. Petersburg Bowl
Bleacher Report - Marshall vs. Kansas State in Heart of Dallas Bowl
USA Today - Marshall vs. Akron in the Bahamas Bowl
ESPN Hale - Marshall vs. San Diego State in the New Mexico Bowl
ESPN Bonagura - Marshall vs. Army in the Armed Forces Bowl
Sporting News - Marshall vs. Ohio in the Bahamas Bowl
Sports Illustrated - Marshall vs. South Florida in St. Petersburg Bowl
Bleacher Report - Marshall vs. Kansas State in Heart of Dallas Bowl
Getting sent to the Bahamas to play a likely 6-6 Akron team that is going to be the MAC's fifth or sixth best team seems unlikely at this point... Maybe if we lose out, but I doubt it... My guess would be that MTSU gets Stockstill back at QB and beats UTEP, ODU and Charlotte to get bowl eligible at 6-6 and they get sent to the Bahamas.
I would say our two most likely destinations are St. Petersburg to play either USF/UCF or Fort Worth to play Army... Boca is going to want either FAU/FIU and CUSA will give them one of the two.
On a side note, so far the only teams eliminated from Bowl Season in CUSA are UTEP and Charlotte, with Rice likely to be nixed this week. It is conceivable that CUSA could end up with 8 bowl eligible teams, meaning that if other conferences cant fill their bowl slots some unlikely destinations may be up for grabs.
I'll take KSU or Army.
I also think Bill Snyder would be open to playing us because he's not an arrogant jackass either.
Army would give us a very large audience though.
Some of the bowl predictions after week 8, as of October 24th. (Two of the sites don't update until Tuesday)
SI - vs Northern Illinois - Bahamas
SB Nation - vs Ohio - Bahamas
Sporting News. - vs Ohio - Bahamas
CBS Sports. - vs Western Michigan - Bahamas
College Football News - vs USF - St. Petersburg
ESPN - (Bonagura) - vs Army - Armed Forces Bowl
ESPN - (Hale) - vs San Diego State - New Mexico Bowl
then if you add the others from RhinoD:
USA Today - vs Akron - Bahamas
Bleacher Report - vs Kansas State - Heart of Dallas Bowl
IF those are the choices, I'd say K-State, USF, SDSU, in that order of ranking.
SI - vs Northern Illinois - Bahamas
SB Nation - vs Ohio - Bahamas
Sporting News. - vs Ohio - Bahamas
CBS Sports. - vs Western Michigan - Bahamas
College Football News - vs USF - St. Petersburg
ESPN - (Bonagura) - vs Army - Armed Forces Bowl
ESPN - (Hale) - vs San Diego State - New Mexico Bowl
then if you add the others from RhinoD:
USA Today - vs Akron - Bahamas
Bleacher Report - vs Kansas State - Heart of Dallas Bowl
IF those are the choices, I'd say K-State, USF, SDSU, in that order of ranking.
IMHO,
- Way too much smoke from knowledgeable people about Bahamas for there not to be some fire there. Maybe it is our year to take one for the league. It is what it is.
- USF in St. Pete is just saying that the author thinks UCF will win the "war on I-4". Loser goes to one of the local bowls. Really uninterested in playing either, neither team has played anybody.
- No way we are sent to New Mexico, this year or any year, unless it is some weird year where the East is super strong and the West has only one or two teams with 6 wins. I like New Mexico as a place to visit, but we could not deliver 250 tickets sold . They want a Texas team.
- Playing Army would be cool.
- Kansas State has 3 wins currently, a I-AA, 0-12 bound Baylor and 1-11 (beat UAB, whop te do) bound UNCC. Obviously they (or 20 guys rounded up at random at any truck stop) beat Kansas, but tell me the other two wins they get.
- Way too much smoke from knowledgeable people about Bahamas for there not to be some fire there. Maybe it is our year to take one for the league. It is what it is.
- USF in St. Pete is just saying that the author thinks UCF will win the "war on I-4". Loser goes to one of the local bowls. Really uninterested in playing either, neither team has played anybody.
- No way we are sent to New Mexico, this year or any year, unless it is some weird year where the East is super strong and the West has only one or two teams with 6 wins. I like New Mexico as a place to visit, but we could not deliver 250 tickets sold . They want a Texas team.
- Playing Army would be cool.
- Kansas State has 3 wins currently, a I-AA, 0-12 bound Baylor and 1-11 (beat UAB, whop te do) bound UNCC. Obviously they (or 20 guys rounded up at random at any truck stop) beat Kansas, but tell me the other two wins they get.
Kansas State has been in every game this year except TCU (lost 26-6)... Lost by 7 to Vandy, 7 to Oklahoma and 6 to Texas... They will beat Kansas, Texas Tech and very possibly one of Iowa State/WVU... I think they have a decent shot to get to 6-6.
Also, good point about the Bahamas... We need to win the conference to make sure we dont have to go there. Having FIU and FAU likely getting bowl eligible makes them attractive to the Florida bowl games.
Playing Army would be cool... I think we all have some sort of affiliation, either personal or via family to the military, and thus have a soft spot for the academies. We have Navy on the schedule in a few years, would love to play Army in a bowl.
Also, good point about the Bahamas... We need to win the conference to make sure we dont have to go there. Having FIU and FAU likely getting bowl eligible makes them attractive to the Florida bowl games.
Playing Army would be cool... I think we all have some sort of affiliation, either personal or via family to the military, and thus have a soft spot for the academies. We have Navy on the schedule in a few years, would love to play Army in a bowl.
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I wonder how much ESPN controls the bowl placement strings? If I'm not mistaken they own the Bahamas Bowl, It's scheduled for the Friday before Christmas, December 22nd at 12:30pm. Most people are going to be traveling or last minute shopping... So in desperation to get some kind of ratings pulse, you place a team with a national brand and a big turnaround story, in a bowl that needs help! Hench Marshall's your pawn.
I say no way we go to the Bahamas. It doesn't matter who they put in that bowl, people won't travel to watch it in person or tune-in on TV. I agree that we just need to win the conference so that we don't have to worry about it but I still think we tell the conference to find someone else to make that trip. In all honesty, the last CUSA team to become bowl eligible should be sent to that game.
Given that a couple of conferences won't have enough bowl eligible teams, I think we try to leverage our national brand to land a better bowl game and match-up.
Given that a couple of conferences won't have enough bowl eligible teams, I think we try to leverage our national brand to land a better bowl game and match-up.
I couldn't agree with you more, I just hope we don't get gut punched. I remember everyone thought we were going to host the CUSA championship game against Rice a few years ago, that is except those in power in the conference HQ's in Dallas.
I remember that...and the pathetic fan support from them was just the epitome of the conference orgranization.
They really believed people in Texas gave a crap about Rice.
I keep thinking the same will be true regarding FAU and FIU being bowl eligible and keeping them in Florida to be in the St. Pete and Boca Bowls. How well will they actually draw if they are in those games?
Going back to the Bahamas Bowl, I've always wondered why ESPN decided to put a bowl game on that island. Is it just a reward to some of the staff to send them to the Bahamas in December? Obviously they're other cities and stadiums, in warmer locales within the USA, that could host a game.
Going back to the Bahamas Bowl, I've always wondered why ESPN decided to put a bowl game on that island. Is it just a reward to some of the staff to send them to the Bahamas in December? Obviously they're other cities and stadiums, in warmer locales within the USA, that could host a game.
The Bahamas is an awesome trip for the team/coaches/staff... It just sucks for the fans and inevitably features a garbage MAC team.
Hope they have their passports. I recall many didn't have them just in case we went.
Every since CUSA has had a Bahamas bowl connection, all Herd players get passports in August.
I assume that, just like all these early season basketball deals all over, the local tourism agency or the Atlantis casino pays substantial. Really, if it comes to that, I would hope we could find enough people to one of those quick in and out air deals, but I doubt it would work.
Ive been to the Bahamas twice... Its a really nice place to visit.
The best way to get there from an expense standpoint is via cruise, but finding a perfectly timed cruise that would allow for game watching is unlikely. And no matter how you get there it isnt going to be cheap.
The best way to get there from an expense standpoint is via cruise, but finding a perfectly timed cruise that would allow for game watching is unlikely. And no matter how you get there it isnt going to be cheap.
The only problem with this assumption is that we actually travel more fans than those two schools combined and have as large of a fanbase in FL as they do.
After last season, I'm just happy to be talking bowl games after 7 games.
I miss the military bowl . Saw a report saying we could play navy in some horse trading scenario.
We won't be sent to the Bahamas, if things hold true since the inception of that bowl, they tend to send schools that lack a fan following. MTSU, WKU, ODU all have small bases (no one knows how much support ODU really has due to small stadium with new kid on the block syndrome). The MAC teams that were sent were also small fanbase schools, sans Ohio. Just my take on that one. Where we end up is up to us in one way, but also up to who is bowl eligible in the conference if we don't win it all.
You are absolutely correct. They never send teams with traveling fan bases out of their area. Seldom would you see an eastern CUSA team in the west.
I know we have to project a sense of superiority and all... But last year we drew approximately 24k per game in home attendance (and we benefitted from playing Louisville at home). Being third in CUSA attendance doesn't exactly make us Bama.
At the end of the day, if you don't win the conference you go where CUSA tells you to go, and based on the fact that we haven't been sent to the Bahamas yet, it would lead me to believe "out turn" is coming eventually. That said, if we win our division (and have 10+ wins) CUSA will likely want us in the most attractive bowl matchup against a bigger school.
The Bahamas would be the worst bowl we could play in from all our tie ins. Played in a soccer stadium and no crowd. Too expensive for 95% of our fans. I would refuse to play there if I were MH.
We're having too good a year to be punished by going there. jmo
We're having too good a year to be punished by going there. jmo
I don't disagree with you BUT that was not the norm for us, one season doesn't define fan support or program prestige. We will never be a bama, but we also aren't 90% of our conference while having a terrible season either. This year is going to be more of an average year with no P5 or name team at home to play. Not playing a P5 after 3 games, we average 24,201. Not great, not what we expect but for some reason, last season soured ALOT of fans, even though they lived through the Snyder era and kept attending games, but then again that's when CUSA was still CUSA with names people know. We will go where CUSA says to go, along where ESPN wants us to go, highly doubt its the Bahamas against another MAC opponent (unless the put Toledo there, then I could maybe see that happening).
Given that neither draw very well (no thinking person buys into their claimed attendance, as the Miami paper has outlined several times) in the regular season, where tickets are far less expensive, and students get in free, what do you think?
That is the issue with all four of the directional Floridas, our two and that other co-equal conference's two. In the regular season, you can tell kids in that recruiting rich area that they will get a game before their family, etc. every year, and tell all your kids they get a week in the sunshine every year (and yet more so in basketball, where a trip to Florida is a nice perk in February).. That is nice. The flip side of that is, they all have very limited fanbases and very limited student involvement, and, well, their fans already live there in the first place. Part of the idea of a bowl game is a nice trip to a warm place for the schools' fans and part of it is to pump up the local economy with an influx of visitors. The directional Floridas offer neither and that hurts the league.
We also had a record of 3-9 and looked like an 0-12 team...tell me anyone who will draw 24K in the G-5 with that kind of record.
Not many, if any.
Also, they know we draw well within certain limits, I highly doubt they'll just tell us where to go over us getting a say in. C-USA champ gets 1st pick then its down the totem pole from there.
You're clueless. UCF gets good attendance (which continues to grow under Frost) and has an engaged student turnout.
Your obsession with AAC schools makes you look dumber than usual.
Frost will be the future HC at Nebraska or Florida this winter
There is zero chance we would ever turn down/refuse to play a bowl game... of any kind. Universities don't turn down an opportunity to get their name on national TV hundreds of times over the course of four hours. It doesnt matter if the game is played in New Zealand at 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
Mubasebalk is correct in his order of games! But spoiler alert, Doc and Mike will ALWAYS chose a Florida bowl regardless of opponent for two reasons: 1) Exposure/ Recruting and 2) Fla. parents get to see their sons play. I disagree totally. Power 5 game first no matter where the Bowl is (national exposure), then Armed Forces Bowl (easy travel/ huge fan exposure), and last, Mountain West (best of the rest). We should never, ever, ever play a MAC school. "You are who you play"
It has happened before. Notre Dame has turned down bowls. LA tech has turned down the Independence Bowl in their back door. Missouri a couple of years ago.
The Bahamas Bowl is a joke.There may be a worse bowl but it has to be one of the worst ever.
Marshall bowl preference will always be
1. P5
2. Highest Ranked G5 possible
3. Champion vs Champion match up.
4. Florida Bowls
5. Military Bowls
6. Whatever is left
If we win CUSA and finish 11-1 and have a shot at the Independence Bowl against a P5, you take it. Plus we are recruiting much more in the Mid-South and Louisiana.
Second any combination of 2, 3, and 4 is the next best scenario for Marshall. If all 3 can line up that would be almost as perfect as playing a P5.
1. P5
2. Highest Ranked G5 possible
3. Champion vs Champion match up.
4. Florida Bowls
5. Military Bowls
6. Whatever is left
If we win CUSA and finish 11-1 and have a shot at the Independence Bowl against a P5, you take it. Plus we are recruiting much more in the Mid-South and Louisiana.
Second any combination of 2, 3, and 4 is the next best scenario for Marshall. If all 3 can line up that would be almost as perfect as playing a P5.
No. Three years ago, Marshall was a coward and chose to not play a Big 10 in order to play NIU.
You mean the Big 10 team who was second ranked in their State and got smashed by CUSA runner up?
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If CUSA didn't help with the costs, I'd say there is a chance we would. I'm all for exposure, but the ROI may not be there for this bowl.
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