DMN Carlton: SMU good enough for bowl, but nothing is given

[The PonyGrad]

Chuck Carlton answered your Big 12 and college football questions in a chat Tuesday. Here are some highlights.

Michael asks ... What should SMU expect for the remainder of the season due to the loss to Houston. Have their conference championship hopes gone out the window?

CARLTON: That was a stunner. Great effort but a loss at Navy. And then a major letdown in a game for the division lead against Houston. SMU has enough talent and June Jones is a good enough coach to get the Mustangs to seven wins this season and a bowl game. Right now, nothing is a given now and three of the final four games are on the road.

http://collegesportsblog.dallasnews.com ... um=twitter

[Nacho]

that guy is such a beatdown.

[Charleston Pony]

speaks the truth...we need those 7 wins, starting this Saturday

[Junior]

speaks the truth...we need those 7 wins, starting this Saturday

given the last few weeks, 7 wins is definitely the goal.

[Roach]

He's exactly right.

[ponyscott]

If SMU were to lose 3 in a row by losing this weekend, we are out of the Bowl race. UTEP at home is too strong and E Carolina at their place is a beating...we have to win 7, or no go.
All this talk about Hawaii again is a fools errand as the other teams in CUSA were not happy with JJ campaigning last year and announcing the game before it happened. There will be major unheaval from other teams in CUSA that will prevent another Hawaii trip for SMU, and besides ESPN won't want that game either.
The Armed Services Bowl is the back in bowl if we don't make the Liberty Bowl.

[Mestengo]

If SMU were to lose 3 in a row by losing this weekend, we are out of the Bowl race. UTEP at home is too strong and E Carolina at their place is a beating...we have to win 7, or no go.
All this talk about Hawaii again is a fools errand as the other teams in CUSA were not happy with JJ campaigning last year and announcing the game before it happened. There will be major unheaval from other teams in CUSA that will prevent another Hawaii trip for SMU, and besides ESPN won't want that game either.
The Armed Services Bowl is the back in bowl if we don't make the Liberty Bowl.

I wonder if the blvd would be open if we do end up there. I'm thinking yes. I dont see anything on their web site about it.

http://www.armedforcesbowl.com/

[Stallion]

I have read all pregame entertainment, receptions and team hotel accomodations will remain in Ft. Worth

[mrydel]

I declare if we are in the game it will be open. So let it be said.....so let it be done.

[ponyscott]

Yeah its all SUPPOSED to be in Ft Worth, but we WILL be on the BLVD if that is the ordained Bowl game for SMU.

[CalallenStang]

If SMU were to lose 3 in a row by losing this weekend, we are out of the Bowl race. UTEP at home is too strong and E Carolina at their place is a beating...we have to win 7, or no go.
All this talk about Hawaii again is a fools errand as the other teams in CUSA were not happy with JJ campaigning last year and announcing the game before it happened. There will be major unheaval from other teams in CUSA that will prevent another Hawaii trip for SMU, and besides ESPN won't want that game either.
The Armed Services Bowl is the back in bowl if we don't make the Liberty Bowl.

Wrong on many levels.

First, CUSA won't keep SMU out of the Hawaii Bowl, they will try to keep us out of the Liberty Bowl as that is the bowl that JJ insulted with his campaigning. Now I don't think we go to the Hawaii Bowl again for a variety of reasons, but what you brought up isn't one of them.

Second, CUSA has 6 bowl tie-ins this year (with a possible 7th at the Dallas Classic). Here are the CUSA teams that stand a good chance to win 7+ games (this assumes we win 2 games - Tulane and Marshall - through the rest of the season).

East Carolina
UCF
Southern Miss
UTEP (4 conference losses)

With these teams standing at 6 wins: Houston (3 CUSA losses / win tiebreak), Tulsa (3 CUSA losses / lose tiebreak), SMU (3 CUSA losses / lose tiebreak)

You will end up with ECU or UCF (most likely) vs. Houston in the CUSA championship. If Houston loses they go to 6-7 and can only go to a bowl on an extra special exemption (TU and SMU take the final two spots, and CUSA cannot fill Dallas Classic unless exemption for Houston is made).

If Houston wins (not likely) they go 7-6 and we've got 5 7+ win teams and two 6 win teams (TU and SMU) for one to two bowl slots. With one bowl at Ford Stadium and another potential bowl just down the street, SMU is a more likely choice to be selected at 6-6 than TU.

[sbsmith]

Wrong on many levels.

First, CUSA won't keep SMU out of the Hawaii Bowl, they will try to keep us out of the Liberty Bowl as that is the bowl that JJ insulted with his campaigning. Now I don't think we go to the Hawaii Bowl again for a variety of reasons, but what you brought up isn't one of them.

Second, CUSA has 6 bowl tie-ins this year (with a possible 7th at the Dallas Classic). Here are the CUSA teams that stand a good chance to win 7+ games (this assumes we win 2 games - Tulane and Marshall - through the rest of the season).

East Carolina
UCF
Southern Miss
UTEP (4 conference losses)

With these teams standing at 6 wins: Houston (3 CUSA losses / win tiebreak), Tulsa (3 CUSA losses / lose tiebreak), SMU (3 CUSA losses / lose tiebreak)

You will end up with ECU or UCF (most likely) vs. Houston in the CUSA championship. If Houston loses they go to 6-7 and can only go to a bowl on an extra special exemption (TU and SMU take the final two spots, and CUSA cannot fill Dallas Classic unless exemption for Houston is made).

If Houston wins (not likely) they go 7-6 and we've got 5 7+ win teams and two 6 win teams (TU and SMU) for one to two bowl slots. With one bowl at Ford Stadium and another potential bowl just down the street, SMU is a more likely choice to be selected at 6-6 than TU.

Why do you think we won't go to the Hawaii Bowl again if eligible?

[Mestengo]

Play-Offs ????

[ponyscott]

Good points Callenstang and duly noted. I don't have time to go view all the articles, but below is one of several articles about the Hawaii Bowl and who is going or not...in addition ESPN has the rights to both the Hawaii and Armed Services Bowl games I understand, and they also have some major input on invitations. The backlash again from other CUSA Bowl eligible schools if SMU were to go to the Hawaii Bowl again would be too great. Trying to keep SMU out of the Liberty Bowl is only done by SMU not winning the West and eventually winning the CUSA, which won't happen this year unfortunatly. The CUSA politics are there and can't be avoided on a Bowl invitation basis. Liberty Bowl isnt an invitation, but a right.
The stands will be full if SMU were to play at Ford and the stands will be full in Hawaii, whoever they play, which is good publicity and revenues for both ESPN viewing and CUSA.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/columnist ... _hula.html


Conference USA teams fight for their right ... to hula
By Ferd Lewis


POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Oct 26, 2010

It appears the battle is on in Conference USA.

The one for the C-USA football championship?

Well, there is that one, too, of course.

But, at the moment, we're talking about grabbing an inside lane for a berth in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl and a shot at the University of Hawaii on Christmas Eve.

As teams close in on bowl eligibility -- and C-USA has four of them one game away already -- an appearance in the Hawaii Bowl is something to shoot for in a lot of places. And be assured the jockeying has already started behind closed doors. Elbows are next.

I mean, what says r-e-w-a-r-d better come December, an all-expenses-paid week here or in, say, Dallas?

Exactly.

At this point, UH isn't saying what -- or whom -- it wants, partly, you suspect, out of respect for the "bachi" factor. But what the Warriors should seek, especially if they continue to take care of business in the win column, is the highest-ranked opponent that can be begged, cajoled, borrowed or Shanghaied from ESPN Regional TV's vast inventory.

UH can secure its earliest Hawaii Bowl bid with a win Saturday against Idaho and, when that is locked up, it is never too early to make its Christmas wishes known to Bowl Santa, aka ESPN Regional TV, the Charlotte, N.C.-based marketing, syndication, event-management and production company that owns and operates this and five other bowls.

The Hawaii Bowl has agreements with the WAC and C-USA to provide representatives. What that means is as long as UH is bowl eligible and not Bowl Championship Series bound, the Warriors play in their backyard. And C-USA, which earmarks its champion to the Liberty Bowl, sends a runner-up or a mutually acceptable team here.

Last year the drama was in whether UH would rally from a 2-6 start and become bowl eligible. It didn't. This year, with the rampaging Warriors 6-2 and one victory -- Saturday's homecoming game -- away from becoming bowl eligible with five games remaining, the intrigue shifts to whom the Warriors would play come Dec. 24 at Aloha Stadium.

You get the feeling the bowl would like to bring back June Jones and Southern Methodist to play UH in an overdue run-and-shoot showdown. Call it a settling of some unfinished business, especially with the prospect of the game's first sellout.

But there are several potential obstacles beyond whether SMU, currently 4-4 with four games remaining, becomes bowl eligible. For one, SMU's Gerald J. Ford Stadium is hosting the 2010 Armed Forces Bowl since the usual home, Texas Christian's Carter Stadium, is scheduled to undergo a $105 million renovation at the close of the regular season next month. And the bowl's owner, ESPN Regional TV, and its partner, C-USA, would have a sellout there with the Mustangs at home, something another team might not deliver.

All along some SMU alums had wanted the Mustangs to play closer to home last year when they achieved their breakthrough first bowl appearance in a quarter century. Two in a row in Hawaii might be a tough sell, even for the persuasive Jones.

Then, there is the matter of the other schools, having heard the raves of previous visitors, wanting their turn. "The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl offers a team from C-USA a great experience, and one of these years, Southern Miss would be excited to make the trip," said Richard Giannini, athletic director of Southern Mississippi, which is 5-2.

And, there are some who think two years is long enough to wait for a return, too.

"We had a very successful trip culminating in a huge victory over a top-flight program (Boise State in 2007), so the Pirate Nation would be excited about an invitation to return," East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland said in an e-mail. The defending C-USA champions are 5-2.

Wrote an SMU staffer in an e-mail, "If my wife is in charge of where we'd go, I know her vote would be for Hawaii!"

Meanwhile, UH should also make its "vote" soon