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its received little comment on this board but it is looking like a real possibilty that CUSA will lose its traditional slot in the Liberty Bowl to a BCS clash between the Big East and the SEC. The Memphis paper has apparently reported today that CUSA has averted for 2005 what would have been a devasting loss by agreeing to allow the Liberty Bowl to choose the CUSA representative, however negotiations for 2006 and beyond have not been finalized. The Liberty Bowl was concerned that, for example, with a conference championship game, a 7-4 Division Champ might beat a 10-1 Division Champ leaving the bowl with a lesser team-although officially the Conference Champs) The good news is that this is a very nice bowl paying twice as much as the NCAA minimum(1.5 million). The bad news is that schools like SMU, Rice Tulsa et al with a relatively small fan bases might-no make that almost assuredly will get shut out unless they have a particularly outstanding or high profile team. It also kinda takes some luster out of the Conference Championship. This makes it essential that CUSA finds a hub for its Western Division Champ-hopefully the Houston Bowl at Reliant or the Independence Bowl in Shreveport.

It's important for CUSA to keep it's arrangement with the Liberty Bowl and I have no problem allowing that bowl to have 1st choice of bowl eligible CUSA teams...even if that means the western division schools are not likely to ever play in that game. We are still all about 2nd tier bowls and the Liberty is the highest paying, so do whatever it takes to keep our conference's slot.

I agree the western schools should aim for Houston and remember we still have the New Orleans and Mobile bowls. We need to produce enough quality teams to keep at least 4 bowl slots...but you are right about one thing...the small fan bases of many CUSA schools ultimately kills us in negotiations with any of these bowls. I guess that takes us back to why we aren't playing with the BCS boys.