Bowl game as home game?

[Terry in Crapchester]

I realize this possibility is always there, and it does happen every now and then. But it seems this year, more than ever, that we have a number of teams playing de facto home games in the bowls, or otherwise extremely close to campus.

The following schools either played an actual home game, played in a different venue in the same city where their campus is located, or had to travel less than an hour by automobile to their bowl game site (note: I used mapquest for my figures, so sue me):

USC (Rose Bowl)
Georgia Tech (Chik-fil-a Bowl)
Vandy (Music City Bowl)
Rice (Texas Bowl)
Cal (Emerald Bowl)
Hawai'i (Hawai'i Bowl)
South Florida (St. Petersburg Bowl)
Navy (Eagle Bank Bowl)

In addition, the following schools played more than a one hour drive away from campus, but less than a 200-mile drive from campus (yeah, I know that the 200-mile cutoff is somewhat arbitrary, but you have to cut it off somewhere, and 200 miles is about the limit you can drive for a game without having to make an overnight stop):

Louisiana Tech (Independence Bowl -- 69 miles)
Buffalo (International Bowl -- 99 miles)
Southern Mississippi (New Orleans Bowl -- 111 miles)
North Carolina (Meineke Bowl -- 142 miles)
Central Michigan (Motor City Bowl -- 158 miles)

And if you want to extend the outer limit to 300 miles, add the following schools:

Florida State (Champs Sports Bowl -- 257 miles)
Houston (Armed Services Bowl -- 262 miles)
Alabama (Sugar Bowl -- 291 miles)

Louisiana Tech is particularly interesting in this regard, given that they qualified for the Independence Bowl only as an at-large selection.

Like I said, this is always a possibility, especially given that many of the bowls have one or both conference tie-ins with a regionally close conference. At the same time, of course, most conferences cover a fairly significant geographic area, so there's not necessarily a guarantee of a team going to your bowl game in relatively close proximity to the bowl game. And while I could be wrong about this, this seems to be a more common phenomenon this year than in most years.

I'm pretty sure the Rose Bowl doesn't need USC or UCLA every year to survive, but with 34 bowls, maybe some of the lesser bowls need to have a team close by to make it in the long term? In this regard, perhaps the MAC bowls are instructive. Buffalo won the MAC, but went to the International Bowl and Central Michigan went to the Motor City Bowl. In both cases, the bowl game got the closer team, even though conference results would have dictated a different result otherwise.

Just interested in everyone's thoughts. Are we seeing the start of a trend here, or is this just a one-year aberration?

[Screw_Michigan]

Yes, of course it's a trend, Terry. With so many bowls, the lesser ones need the immediate draw to be viable. The Congressional Bowl doesn't exist without the Naval Academy participating. Unless it can increase its stature to draw UVA or MD, without Navy committing once it is bowl eligible, only 10k fans attend the game and it is kaput.

[Terry in Crapchester]

Yes, of course it's a trend, Terry. With so many bowls, the lesser ones need the immediate draw to be viable. The Congressional Bowl doesn't exist without the Naval Academy participating. Unless it can increase its stature to draw UVA or MD, without Navy committing once it is bowl eligible, only 10k fans attend the game and it is kaput.

In fairness, the Congressional Bowl (now called the Eagle Bank Bowl) has its second spot reserved for an ACC team, assuming the ACC has enough bowl-eligible teams. So Virginia or Maryland is definitely a possibility for this bowl.

As a matter of fact, I figured this year that Maryland would wind up in the Eagle Bank Bowl. I thought the Humanitarian Bowl (which survived its early years due to Boise State) would take Wake Forest and leave Maryland for the Eagle Bank Bowl, due to the following reasons: (a) avoid a regular-season rematch between Navy and Wake Forest; (b) add Maryland and some additional regional interest to the mix in the inaugural Eagle Bank Bowl game; and (c) neither Wake nor Maryland was going to travel particularly well to Boise. I'm still somewhat surprised they didn't do this, out of comity to another bowl if nothing else.

[Screw_Michigan]

Terry, I'm pretty sure there was no way MD was going to the local bowl. They were going to either Boise or somewhere else cold.

[PISC]

In regards to The Rose Bowl:
When did Penn State show up?

Think they were here in plenty of time to eat the ribs for the Lawry's contest.
These teams have weeks to prepare and arrive in plenty of time.

Uh and anyone care to look at an stadium shot of The Rose Bowl before calling this an SC home game?
Yea, SC sure wears a lot of white Ts in January I guess.

[King Crimson]

the Rose Bowl is what it is: 90% of the time the Pac 10 and the Big 10.

but, i think Terry is right to acknowledge the go-with-the-regional trend. we saw it in the Big XII in the late 90's and early 00's when (IMO) some north teams got passed over/slotted lower in the Cotton or Alamo Bowl over one of the Texas teams....because i guess the fear was that a CU (who has a rep for it) wouldn't travel as well as capitalizing on a homestate Aggie alumni base in San Antonio or Dallas.

also, as a corollary, i'd point to the "pod system" in the NCAA hoops tournament which was entirely smuggled in by the NCAA under the guise of being a response to 9/11 travel fears...but, is all about the money and full arenas.

[Shoalzie]

The SEC seems to have a pretty cushy travel situation with bowl games...every game except the Cotton Bowl is played in "SEC country".

[Cornhusker]

The SEC seems to have a pretty cushy travel situation with bowl games...every game except the Cotton Bowl is played in "SEC country".

Tough to get those butts in the seats on the frozen tundra

[Screw_Michigan]

I know, those fair-weather southern pussies wouldn't show up if the national title game was contested in Chicago. It's too fucking cold there. What a bunch of cock snorkeling faggots.

[Shoalzie]

I'm talking about just traveling West. Unless the title game is being played in Glendale, no SEC has to go far from home during the bowls.

[Dinsdale]

Cal (Emerald Bowl)

I ain't from there, nor have I ever lived there, but...

Most days, I think you're pretty happy if you get from Berkeley to the stadium in SF in under an hour.


But in all seriousness...

Duh U called...

They said to tell TiC that playing bowl games at home is blasphemous.

[Dinsdale]

I'm talking about just traveling West. Unless the title game is being played in Glendale, no SEC has to go far from home during the bowls.

Crazy talk...

You mean the Bowls, where they try to attract tourists from across the country to come and spend their disposable income...


are played in warm-weather places in December and January?


Just crazy talk.


I'm booking my flight to next year's Antarctica Bowl.