So...what bowl games are likely to have an unexpected opening?
- Thread starter drboobay
- Start date
I don't think anyone will know until the negotiations start. The B-12 has 8 tie-ins and will have a maximum of 7 bowl eligible teams, and that requires Texas to beat TCU next week. I haven't looked at the rest of the conferences.
Right now the Big XII has 5 bowl eligible teams, and coins have 6 with Texas but I think that team will phone it in as well. Rumor is Baylor is more likely to not accept a bowl bid leaving 4 Big XII teams. B1G has not filled their tie-ins and I don't think the SEC has either. There have also been a lot of G5 wins over P5s which has really thrown things out of whack for bowl tie-ins.
I don't know why Memphis would want to go to a bowl in their own stadium. what kind of reward is that? Right now 62 teams have 6 wins and 18 more have 5 wins.
Tommy West, Memphis' former coach, lobbied actively for the Liberty Bowl to take Memphis over us in 2005 after we had won the C-USA championship. I believe the C-USA commissioner made sure the Liberty Bowl was contractually obligated to take the conference champion and the invite was part of the trophy presentation in Orlando.
The AAC has secondary affiliations with the Independence, Liberty and Poinsettia Bowls. Those will most likely be filled first if they have openings.
Theoretically, yes, but there are negotiations between the bowls and the conferences. The AAC didn't fill all of their contracted spots last year and sent TU to the independence.
