[NU Sports] Bowl eligibility

[sjtruog at jorsm.com]

Well, I'm pleased to know that we at least requested the waiver ... I
think Murphy made a good point in that unlike other teams in past years,
we weren't using the twelfth game to become bowl eligible. And with our
conference record, I think we had a good case ... they allow an exception
to the I-AA win to count every four years or so ... and they could have
here.

And if the plethora of bowls have to keep accepting a flurry of MAC teams,
that rule may change soon. I'd wonder how this is working out for the MAC,
too -- do they have a money-sharing rule in the league like the Big Ten?
The reason I ask is because they have more teams than the Big Ten and the
bowls that they got in this year are all the lowest tier of payouts. They
don't have the attendance bases of the Big Ten and may have to eat costs
on ticket allotment ... I wonder if the league will come out ahead on
these extra bowl bids or if the travel costs, ticket buybacks and
conference sharing will put them in the red.

> Did I miss any posts describing exactly where the refs were from?  Also,
> does anyone know if the same refs "officiated" at the next game where MSU
> got jobbed worse than we did?

I originally thought the refs were Big Ten officials ... but I guess they
were local folk. It was certainly odd to see both MSU and NU play almost
identical games on the island ... big early leads, exceptionally large
penalty totals and a late collapse. In our game, I know the certainly
missed a sideline call on a TD pass and that last pick ... most of our
penalties seemed legit (some a bit ticky tack), but there were some
big-time Hawaii holds on Loren and Luis that were uncalled all day.

But it's over now ... it doesn't sting as much and I can appreciate the
season as a whole better now. I am glad to hear that we at least asked for
the NCAA exception though, because I think we had a good case and I'd have
hated to have not tried all avenues to get Noah, Luis and the other
seniors an extra game to shine.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT