[NU Sports] Bowl Talk

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

I know it's not official, but the folks around here seem to think the Fiesta is out of this new SEC/Lil' XII deal ... so I say we swoop in ASAP. Arizona is a great destination in January and they love Big Ten teams around here with lots of midwestern snowbirds here in town. A Pac 12 partner would be a great bonus, but not necessary -- I'm sure the Fiesta folks would take us with or without Pac 12 ties.

As for the other bowls, I would love to see the Big Ten use this shuffle (and chaos along the path to a playoff) to reorganize. On the wish-list ...

- CA: Pasadena obviously needs to be our top destination always :) ... and adding San Diego would be awesome, not just for another Pac 12 tie, but the location -- Bay Area wouldn't be bad either if San Diego is out
- AZ: The Fiesta would be a great addition, and they would love to have us with OSU/PSU/UNL among their faves in the past decade plus ... Pac 12 tie would be a bonus, and if we can keep the Insight as well, that would be two great destinations in winter plus Arizona's growing as a football recruiting spot
- FL: Good to keep two there for recruiting reasons, but three seems a bit much, especially with the deck stacked against us in matchups every year -- Tampa seems to be the best destination by list consensus, but Orlando has the tradition and bigger game ... Jacksonville can drop out, and Miami's probably a bit of a reach (I see them drooling over SEC and/or Lil' XII ties) ... so just keep two, probably Orlando/Tampa
- TX: Another good place to keep two for recruiting reasons ... I loved San Antonio, but Houston/Dallas work as well
- NY: The Detroit bowl gets a bad rap, but it really is a no-win spot for the league -- so if we can replace that with NYC for the "cold weather" bowl, that would be a definite trade up

Two each in CA, AZ, FL, TX and one in NYC would be an ideal lineup for the league. The breakup of the B(C)S automatic qualifiers should be a big boost to the Big Ten and SEC (and the demise of the B(C)S along the path to a playoff should be great delight for many of us to watch :) ) -- so if the Big Ten is smart (and aside from naming divisions, they are), they'll start grabbing up some of these new spots in the shuffle. If the Pac 12 is smart (and their new commish appears to be), they'll hitch their star to the Big Ten even more than they're already doing and sign up one or two other bowls besides the Rose to be Big Ten/Pac 12 showcase games (Fiesta and Holiday would be the obvious choices).


It will be interesting to see how the poor Evil Empire fares in this latest shakeup ... I'm sure they'll always have the preferential B(C)S status -- but if the Big Least loses AQ status and some of their other big tie-ins in the shuffle, where will the Irish go if they don't make the title game (i.e. every year)? The SEC, Big Ten, Pac 12 and Lil' XII will be locking up the spots in Pasadena, Glendale, Jerryworld, New Orleans and Miami as soon as they can sign the paper, and that might leave Detroit or Boise as the only spots left for an eruption of Mt. Kelley in late December.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT
 
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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!