They have us playing Georgia Southern in the Cure Bowl in Orlando. Not a bad bowl destination!
They also have Northwestern (w a projected 5-7 record but filling a spot due to APR) playing James Madison (likely to be undefeated and expected to also fill a slot due to not enough teams having a 6-6 record) in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. Sure would like to see us playing JMU in Myrtle if that could be worked out.
I know I know…just a bunch of uneducated guesses at this juncture. But once we clinch the MAC East, there could be the beginning of discussions of slotting Toledo and us.
What is the “best” bowl that we could achieve? I’m guessing the Cure Bowl. It’s very hard to decipher and further complicated that the MAC doesn’t prioritize eligible teams. Does anyone have better insight?
A few years back there was a prioritization on the MACC participants, but that was due in part to having much fewer bowl games. Now, I have no idea how the conference goes about it.
P.S. since it’s inception in 2017, no MAC team has played in the Cure Bowl.
Bahamas Bowl vs Conference USA
Camellia Bowl vs American Athletic or Sun Belt
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl vs Mountain West
LendingTree Bowl vs Sun Belt
Barstool Arizona Bowl vs Mountain West
Quick Lane Bowl vs Big Ten
Plus two of the following:
Duluth Trading Co. Cure Bowl vs Group of Five
Frisco Bowl vs Group of Five
Myrtle Beach Bowl vs American Athletic or Sun Belt
New Mexico Bowl vs Conference USA RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl vs Group of Five
Best is relative. None of them are particularly prestigious, so it’s down to which location/opponent/date&time/tv channel you prefer.
There’s also a lot of flexibility for ESPN who owns almost all the bowls to rearrange things to get better matchups.
I should have been more clear. What is the collective’s opinion as to which bowl is the best that we could possibly receive an invite to at 11-2? Is that the Cure Bowl? Would it be a matchup against JMU? Would it be a Quick Lane matchup against a Nebraska, Maryland or Wisconsin?
I don’t think the MAC has a direct/guarantee tie to the LendingTree (now called 68 Ventures) bowl anymore. Only Bahamas, AZ, Idaho, Quicklane are guaranteed each year, with the others being “pool” options that ESPN decides.
Correct, but as I understand it, if there aren’t enough bowl eligible teams (6-6 or better), JMU can then be picked. Projections currently are that we’ll end up short of bowl elgible teams by 4-5 spots.
Dusty and Danny had a piece around Colorado a few weeks ago where they talked about bowl committee preferences. They said that the committees value sex appeal over parody. The bowls like teams with a story, a 500 yd offense, a 3,500 yd QB, a 1,500 yd RB over a competitive matchup. I think JMU’s record will find them a bowl spot. There is too much viewership to lose which will cause the bowls / ESPN to join the appeal. In addition, I assume they would travel very well.
I think that’s right actually, though different sites say the MAC but may just be out of date.
Yes, since they’re in their second year and over .500, they must be picked before picking any 5-7 teams by APR; but would be after any 6-7 teams (which could be Hawaii if they won it I think)
MAC Bowl eligibility: Toledo, Miami and Ohio have clinched. Only five teams still have a shot at the final three MAC guaranteed slots. BG is 5-4 and probably clinches tonight at Kent.
Central has five wins but has the bumpiest path to getting the sixth win, as they play at Ohio and home vs Toledo. We have many, many reasons to root for Central in Athens next week.
The other three are 4-6 and need two wins.
Can Eastern, Western or NIU realistically get to that sixth win platform? If so, who takes the final two slots? If not, this might be the first year in quite a while the MAC hadn’t been able to fill all six slots. NIU and Buffalo severely hampered their chances by losing their FCS games. Winning that game is pretty much critical for a MAC team.
We have 3 teams that have been pretty dominant this season. In recent seasons we have not had many dominant teams. Since the other teams are not getting wins against those 3 teams, there are going to be fewer bowl eligible MAC teams than in recent season.
OU played in it (I think) last year. Family on the team so I watched it. Took a while to figure out it was an on-line broadcast only. About the same gunk from the tv crew as the clip here. Like a bunch of guys chugging away at the bar watching the game. Virtually no filter at all. Yuk!