CougarCorner

BOWL INVITATIONS
Navy (3-7)
Army (9-2) AutoZone Liberty Bowl vs West Virginia (5-4), LOST 21-24
Troy (5-6)
Louisiana Tech (5-4) R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl vs Georgia Southern (7-5), LOST 3-38
UTSA (7-4) SERVPRO First Responder Bowl vs #19 Louisiana (9-1), LOST 24-31
Houston (3-4) New Mexico Bowl vs Hawaii (4-4), LOST 14-28
Texas State (2-10)
Western Kentucky (5-6) LendingTree Bowl vs Georgia State (5-4), LOST 21-39
Boise State (5-2)
#12 Coastal Carolina (11-0) FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl vs Liberty (9-1), LOST 34-37 in OT
San Diego State (4-4)
UCF (6-3) vs #16 BYU (10-1) RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl, LOST 23-49

I think we need to get rid of the bowl system just based on their names alone.

ESPN+
College football bowls best bets: Take BYU in Boca Raton

Boise not to play in bowl game?
https://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/c ... 87715.html
I'm sorry, but I'm not understanding this option that many college teams are taking to not play in a bowl game. I understand it not typical bowl mania in that the players aren't going to be doing a lot of the activities of a regular bowl season, but...I don't know. I don't understand it.

SDSU also rejects playing in a bowl game. These excuses bewilder me. I still think it has a lot to do with money and since most bowl games of SDSU's caliber might possibly only cover expenses, they are opting not to go because they don't have enough money to go. I don't know. Our major rivals: Utah, USU, BSU and SDSU all have opted out. Very surprising.

How dumb is it to listen to Jeff Monken (Army Head Coach) giving the impassioned "we deserve to be playing" and "if you call us on Dec 29 and say we have a game on Dec 31 we'll fly our kids there on Dec 30". They sure didn't give BYU the time of day on rescheduling those two weeks that both BYU and Army were sitting at home doing nothing. NOW they are an "any time any place" team now that the bowl organizers couldn't find anyone willing to play Army in a bowl game.

Oh--and they also padded their 9-2 record with 3 FCS games (Abilene Christian, The Citadel, Mercer).

EM_Puma wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 12:53 am Boise not to play in bowl game?
https://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/c ... 87715.html
I'm sorry, but I'm not understanding this option that many college teams are taking to not play in a bowl game. I understand it not typical bowl mania in that the players aren't going to be doing a lot of the activities of a regular bowl season, but...I don't know. I don't understand it.

BSU got owned by SJSU. Their star running back is still out. They are a demoralized lot....

Most non-NY6 bowls pay out just enough to cover expenses in a good year. Payouts are getting cut this year, and BYU is lucky to have landed in one of the few bowls that (a) pays enough for a frugal team to turn a profit (payout to BYU is $900K), and (b) is not cutting payouts based on no-in-person-attendance rules (well, they dropped it from $1MM to $900K). That's where the BYU/ESPN relationship paid off this bowl season--BYU is actually getting paid.

The situation is worse for conference affiliated teams--take UCF for example. Their $900K check for tonight's game doesn't go to UCF. That check goes to the conference, and most conferences will reimburse the team that played for its expenses, then any left-over funds get split among the conference's teams.

Between the added expense of playing football in 2020 (e.g., COVID-testing, isolation and sanitation protocols) and the drop in payouts, many bowl games cannot offer a team a profitable game, and when athletic departments are hemorhaghing money this year, few if any programs want to put up with the headache of scheduling and planning for a money-losing game that might not happen if the wrong person/people get exposed.

BoiseBYU wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 2:46 pm

EM_Puma wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 12:53 am Boise not to play in bowl game?
https://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/c ... 87715.html
I'm sorry, but I'm not understanding this option that many college teams are taking to not play in a bowl game. I understand it not typical bowl mania in that the players aren't going to be doing a lot of the activities of a regular bowl season, but...I don't know. I don't understand it.

BSU got owned by SJSU. Their star running back is still out. They are a demoralized lot....

Right, but as a prospect, I can't imagine not taking into consideration that BSU opted out of a bowl game for no good reason.

Updated bowl schedule, scores