I promised myself I would be stepping back from the boards to focus on some personal commitments. But I also told myself I would chime in when I saw nonsense.
The stuff about TU being left out is click bait. Though Dickson getting a late start doesn’t help.
As it has been explained to me, the AAC has oversight over the bids negotiated by the school as they contact the various bowls. In our case, based on how we finished, most of our bowl possibilities are controlled by ESPN’s bowl broadcast entity which owns those bowls. These choices are limited by our conference tie-ins with those bowls which is contractual in nature and also governed by the AAC charter. Normally, most of them must accept an available AAC team that is otherwise available. So we may not go where we want to, but at the end of the day, the AAC has the ability to step in and make sure we have a spot before they approve a bowl taking a non AAC team to appear in the bowl in place of the AAC. Which could happen, but that would be an extraordinary event, would only happen with the school’s consent, and there would be a significant monetary pay out unless the school agreed to appear in another bowl with the consent of the conference. If the conference tried to sell or transfer the right for TU to appear in a bowl with an AAC tie in without TU’s consent, that would be a violation of the conference charter as well as the tie in agreements. Depending on the facts, TU might have legal recourse against the schools that actually appeared in the bowl instead of us. For that to happen ESPN would have to go along with that, which would cause all of the other conferences and schools to immediately call into question the reliability of their tie ins. Something ESPN wouldn’t be willing to risk.
So is there a chance TU isn’t going to a bowl? It’s a small chance almost too small to measure. The Gasparilla bowl has been courting UF and Miami which could fill Tampa’s NFL stadium if two of those teams met. It’s possible the conference could sell the AAC spot (probably going to be UCF) to allow UF into the bowl. The conference would get a substantial pay day and TU would get a share of that. TU would likely have to consent to that. That’s the only plausible “No Bowl For TU” scenario I’ve seen out there but this stuff changes by the hour and Gasparilla might already be set by now who knows.
I will say that I do know from off campus reliable sources with long ties to the program that TU will obviously focus on Dallas but there’s interest from two other bowls. The league probably doesn’t want to take complaints from other schools how we get an extra game in our recruiting footprint for going 6-6.
The Myrtle Beach Bowl versus Coastal Carolina sounds tasty and something the TV people would like. I’ll go with that one. Maybe New Mexico. Maybe. This will all change several times between now and Sunday I’m sure.
