1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Running 2011 Bowl Season Thread- Match-ups on Page 1

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Armchair_QB, Dec 4, 2011.

Page 18 of 90
  1. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    So the key to BCS success is to be in an automatic qualifying conference and have students and alumni who drink a lot. If it wasn't for that requirement about winning SOME football games, Boston College would be in the Orange or Sugar Bowl every year.
     
    Michael_ Gee, Dec 5, 2011
    #205
  2. FreddiePatek

    FreddiePatek Active Member

    Without a playoff system, it really doesn't matter who plays where, does it? Sure, in a perfectly ideal universe, maybe Arkansas and Kansas State are playing in the Sugar instead of Cotton. The BCS is there to give us 1 vs, 2. It did that. The non-playoff bowl system gave us everything that followed. Until there is a playoff, bowls will do what they must to pay their own bills.
     
    FreddiePatek, Dec 5, 2011
    #206
  3. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    If BC really drank that much, they'd take long mid-winter trips to southern locales to drink their faces off, much like Tech fans do in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Miami. Anyone can stay at home and drink.
     
    Flying Headbutt, Dec 5, 2011
    #207
  4. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    We've finally stumbled upon a missing but essential fourth component of the BCS formula: the party-school rankings.
     
    Johnny Dangerously, Dec 5, 2011
    #208
  5. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    It's not just the party school aspect. New Orleans is a fun destination at New Year's, drinking or no drinking, and it's a change of pace from Miami Gardens. Not that South Beach isn't a great time, but damn, the Orange Bowl is played like 40 miles north of South Beach. Tech fans travel anywhere, but they go crazy for NOLA. BC fans don't travel anywhere. That's why they routinely get shipped to places like Boise and Nashville.
     
    Cosmo, Dec 5, 2011
    #209
  6. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    I hear ya. Just being silly. I checked the rules. It's allowed.

    :)
     
    Johnny Dangerously, Dec 5, 2011
    #210
  7. NickMordo

    NickMordo Active Member

    I don't think anyone is debating how well Va Tech and Michigan travel. People are flabbergasted because Va Tech had zero wins over Top 25 teams and just got lambasted by Clemson only two days ago by 28 points, and Michigan wasn't in their own conference championship. This game in itself is the living proof that bowls are all about the cash, but we already knew that. Well, most of us know that.
     
    NickMordo, Dec 5, 2011
    #211
  8. TrooperBari

    TrooperBari Well-Known Member

    Re: Running 2011 Bowl Season Thread

    The under in that game might be one of the safest bets of the bowl season.
     
    TrooperBari, Dec 5, 2011
    #212
  9. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Boston College isn't in those games because they don't buy tickets (classic example: First ACC championship for BC in Jacksonville, 2007, which also was the first chance BC had to win a conference championship in football ... 3,000 tickets sold. The Gator Bowl Association and the city lost a mil on that game). Bowl games are not in the charity business. They're under no obligation, save for a few loose rules (one-loss rule, rules protecting how far a conference championship game loser can fall) to invite a team to make them feel warm and fuzzy about themselves, and lose money. No one expects a Boston College to buy 20,000 tickets to a bowl game. But somewhere between 3,000 and 2000 would be nice. If BC and Syracuse and Pitt and Northwestern and other teams that don't sell very many bowl tickets want to sit at the big-boy table in football, then their alumni and fan base needs to pony up when they do make a bowl.
     
    hondo, Dec 5, 2011
    #213
  10. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    I remember VT's last trip to the Sugar Bowl well. I usually took my family on bowl trips as a Christmas present/reward for their putting up with me being gone so much. So we load up and head to New Orleans. My son was in school at VT at the time. I sprung for a second room so he'd have a place to crash and ralph with his friends without disturbing us (though we were awakened one night when the four of them brought a female friend back and had what sounded like QUITE a party).

    The Queen buys guidebooks and is planning a tour of the gardens and all that jank. She is emphatic. "I am NOT going on Bourbon Street. It sounds disgusting."

    Yeah, right. Those who know The Queen will be SHOCKED at how this turned out.

    We were there seven days and she spent a good chunk of all of them on Bourbon. We took a stroll, just a couple of blocks I swore to her, on our first night. She saw one of those Hurricane windows ("You can drink them on the street?!?) and it was ballgame over. I still have a picture of a very buzzed Queen somewhere. She'd go hang out with the kids while I worked and tell me, "Just come find us when you're done."

    One night, I get down there and she (and my daughter) are loaded up with beads. I mean, LOADED up. I didn't ask. Didn't want to know.

    She had a blast. My kids had a blast. Everyone had a blast. NO is a great, fun city. And, yeah, VT travels HUGE and that does count for something. BCS worthy? You'd think not. But as I noted before, it is a business and VT will bring in the cash.

    I ushered in 2000 on the waterfront in NO, in VT's previous appearance in the Sugar - against FSU for the national championship.
     
    Moderator1, Dec 5, 2011
    #214
  11. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    The reasons BC doesn't travel are a) fans don't care about the ACC, b) fans sure don't care about the offbrand bowls BC gets with its traditional 8-4, 7-5 seasons.
    In fairness to BC fans, the 40 plus of them who were arrested in the LOBBY of the Loew's Anatole in Dallas on New Year's Eve before that 1985 Cotton Bowl has to be some kind of record. Forty arrests before they even went out for the evening! Well done!!!
     
    Michael_ Gee, Dec 5, 2011
    #215
  12. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Michael -- how many BC alums are there? Just on pure percentage it seems like it would be a lot harder for them than a state school to sell 40,000 tickets. Stanford runs into the same problem.
     
    LongTimeListener, Dec 5, 2011
    #216
Page 18 of 90
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page