[NU Sports] Temple - no Bowl bid

[Jonathan Hodges]

Regarding the 6-6 rule: the rule that was formerly in place stated that
within a conference's affiliated bids, all teams with winning records must
be placed before teams with 6-6 records could be placed (this is why both NU
and Iowa stayed home in 2007 when all others, with 7-5 or better records,
went bowling).  ALSO there was a stricter rule that for at-large bids, all
teams with winning records must be placed before 6-6 teams.  A proposal was
made and accepted before this season (by a vote of the NCAA) to get rid of
these rules.

This year, there were essentially 5 at-large spots available, which were
taken by: 8-4 Ohio, 6-5 Army (pending this Saturday's regular season
Army/Navy game), 7-5 Notre Dame, 7-5 Boston College, and 6-6 Florida
International.  So, essentially, FIU got its first ever bowl bid at the
expense of Temple (although FIU is headed to the Pizza Bowl in Detroit that
has a secondary/backup deal with the Sun Belt, FIU's conference, in case the
Big Ten doesn't send a team - but under the previous rule described in the
first paragraph that rule took precedence over any secondary/backup bowl
affiliations).

Also note that the WAC and C-USA did some back room deals to get Boise State
into the Las Vegas Bowl (a Pac-10 spot that they were unable to fill) to
face Utah, so although UTEP (C-USA) and Boise St (WAC) appear to be at-large
fill-ins, they would have had a spot affiliated with their conference if not
for the dealing.

'Cats fans should definitely be happy that the Big Ten signed up for what is
now the TicketCity Bowl this season (otherwise it would be a return to
Detroit), although the lack of the "6-6 rule" could definitely hurt NU going
forward, especially if all but one or two Big Ten teams are bowl eligible in
a given season.

Jonathan

On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 1:41 PM, Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com> wrote:

> I feel sorry for Temple, but I don't see any good way to address it unless
> the NCAA mandates that a 6-6 team can't be chosed to go to a bowl game
> (even one with conference tie-ins) unless all bowl-eligible teams with
> better records have aleady been selected.  And that sounds messier than
> the BcS.
>
> I could see such a rule hurting Northwestern in the future, too, since
> the Big Ten will have one more team next season and, as far as I know,
> isn't adding another bowl committment.
>
> I also feel a bit for Arizona State, which finished the year 6-6 after
> a big win over their rated rival Arizona, but isn't bowl eligible because
> they didn't have enough FBS opponents due to one of their scheduled
> opponents cancelling the game on fairly short notice.
>
> I also agree with Stephen that there aren't a lot of really compelling
> bowl games again this year.  I'll watch 'em, because even unexciting
> college football matchups are still better than NO college football, but
> they sure could have done better.
>
> And if any of you believe the Insight Bowl's claims that they weren't
> 'encouraged' by the Big XII to pick Missouri over Nebraska, I've got a
> used bridge I'll sell you!
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
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