Wouldn Someone Please Lay Out the Bowl

[FordtoTolbert]

"If this , then that" possibilities?? For selfish reasons, I would like to see us play in Mobile or B'Ham..any chane(s) of that? Why the "New Orleans lock?" Give me a break down...thanks, and, oh yes..BEAT RICE!!

[SmooBoy]

And while someone lays that out, does anyone want to play Middle Tennessee State in NO? I know we will be happy with what we get after 22 years of zilcho, but I SO would prefer to play the Froggies in FW than Who? U in NO.

[FroggieFever]

"If this , then that" possibilities?? For selfish reasons, I would like to see us play in Mobile or B'Ham..any chane(s) of that? Why the "New Orleans lock?" Give me a break down...thanks, and, oh yes..BEAT RICE!!

We need to win one more game, or we ain't goin' to a bowl.

[Caballo]

Houston has 9 wins
Tulsa has 7 wins
Southern Miss has 7 wins

ECU has 6 wins, next game vs. North Carolina State in Raleigh

SMU and Rice have 6 wins, going up against each other. One team comes out with 7 wins.

Marshall has 5 wins, and will play in Hattisburg against USM. Will probably end the season at 5 wins.

UTEP is at 5 wins with a likely win at home against hapless Memphis. That will put them at 6 wins.

With 5 bowl tie in's, assuming ECU loses to NCSU, a bowl will pick between SMU-Rice loser, UTEP and ECU for a bowl. Likely they would take ECU or UTEP due to traveling fans.

The winner of SMU-Rice is in a bowl with 7 wins. The loser is likely home for the holidays.

[MustangIcon]

Houston has 9 wins
Tulsa has 7 wins
Southern Miss has 7 wins

ECU has 6 wins, next game vs. North Carolina State in Raleigh

SMU and Rice have 6 wins, going up against each other. One team comes out with 7 wins.

Marshall has 5 wins, and will play in Hattisburg against USM. Will probably end the season at 5 wins.

UTEP is at 5 wins with a likely win at home against hapless Memphis. That will put them at 6 wins.

With 5 bowl tie in's, assuming ECU loses to NCSU, a bowl will pick between SMU-Rice loser, UTEP and ECU for a bowl. Likely they would take ECU or UTEP due to traveling fans.

The winner of SMU-Rice is in a bowl with 7 wins. The loser is likely home for the holidays.

Great breakdown here EXCEPT one thing you might be overlooking. If we lose to Rice Saturday and it was SMU, ECU and UTEP with 6 wins a piece being considerd by the Fort Worth Bowl- we might still have a chance of being the team selected.

But really all we have to do is beat Rice Saturday and it becomes a wasted debate. We will be bowling with a W this weekend!

[Stallion]

You know I thought that was true but apparently if Southern Miss loses next week then ECU is East Champs no matter what happens in Raleigh against NCSU. So ECU would get an extra shot at 7 wins in the CUSA Championship and of course, if they win would likely go to the Liberty Bowl or if the Liberty Bowl took the option of picking a non-champion-which they have the right to do I would think they would probably be sent to the Birmingham Bowl. In that scenario UH, Southern Miss, Tulsa, Rice and ECU would have 7 wins and all 6 win teams including SMU would be left out in the cold. I'm hoping NO 6 win teams in the country go bowling-it repulses me.

[westexSMU]

[quote="MustangIcon"][quote="Caballo"]

But really all we have to do is beat Rice Saturday and it becomes a wasted debate. We will be bowling with a W this weekend![/quote]........................." all we have to do " ....It will not be easy as Rice has beaten conference opponents UAB,Central Florida,UTEP, Tulsa, and ECU in a row coming into our game. Obviously they are playing great and have learned how to win. They did lose their starting QB in the 3rd quarter of the ECU game but they still came back to win in the fourth anyway. Regardless of who they start at QB, we will have to play one of our best games to WIN. EXECUTE and BEAT RICE !

[MustangStealth]

You know I thought that was true but apparently if Southern Miss loses next week then ECU is East Champs no matter what happens in Raleigh against NCSU. So ECU would get an extra shot at 7 wins in the CUSA Championship .

Correct, but the additional intersting scenario this has opened up is if both Southern Miss and ECU lose. Then Tulsa, Houston, USM, and the SMU/Rice winner would be in. ECU would be 6-6 and playing in the CUSA championship. If they lose that, they would actually play themselves out of bowl eligibility at 6-7. The 6-6 teams available for the 5th spot would be UTEP, Marshall, and the SMU/Rice loser.

If ECU wins against NC State though, the teams will be set (with SMU/Rice winner being the 5th), with the only debate left as to who goes where.

[Stallion]

I believe that is correct.

[planoponyfan]

I posted this in another thread, but I'll put it here too:


There are a lot of "what if" discussions on this board about bowl possibilities, but it is really simple now for SMU: if they beat Rice, they get a bowl bid. If they lose, they don't.

Here's the specifics:

CUSA has 5 bowl tie-ins this year.

Right now there are 6 CUSA teams that are "bowl eligible" with at least 6 wins.

If Marshall and UTEP each win their last game of the season, they would both be "bowl eligible" as well - making for 8 "bowl eligible" CUSA teams.

So then we have to look at who would finish in the top 5 among this bunch of bowl eligible teams. We know Houston is there already with 9 wins. Tulsa and Southern Miss both have 7 wins.

ECU could get a 7th win if they beat NC State next week. (which seems likely)

That means that either Rice or SMU would be the 5th and final 7 win team for CUSA.

If for some reason ECU didn't beat NC State, that would put the loser of the Rice/SMU game in the awful position of trying to convine a bowl committee that they should be picked over ECU for a game. ECU has much better attendance than either Rice or SMU. It seems unlikely there's any chance Rice or SMU would beat out ECU for a bowl bid if they had the same record.

There you have it. Now, GO PONIES! Beat the Owls!

I'll also add that the folks at the Fort Worth Bowl would probably rather have a team that would bring thousands of fans to Fort Worth hotels (like ECU or even UTEP) than a team like SMU where people would just drive over from Dallas.

[mustangfan01]

For the record: Memphis played Houston to the wire yesterday...don't count them out @ UTEP.