And Elton Alexander of the Plain Dealer's reporting that if the Sun Belt Conf. can't produce a team, either Temple or Ohio could be facing Toledo in the Little Caeser's Pizza Bowl. I hope he's wrong!!!

Elton has a long tradition of being wrong lets hope he continues it.

Ohio can't play in the New Mexico because Army is taking the Ft. Worth Bowl this season and sending a MWC team (likely BYU) to the New Mexico. Honestly I think its down to the Sun or the Las Vegas and I'm sure our fans will collectively say boo-hoo (for once not!). 

With the bigger payout and CBS-TV, I find it hard to believe we (or any MAC team) will end up in the Sun Bowl.  I think OUr best hope is for the las Vegas game.  If not, we'll be out in the cold!

I will say this, the MAC is probably willing to protect and help out the Bowl eligible and deserving (8-4) teams get to a bowl.  So, if Toledo goes to Detroit (and since we've played them once), I think it will be Temple there and then Ohio sorta backs into the Sun Bowl...maybe? 

MTSU game becomes very important to us...next Saturday things will be perfectly clear.

Actually I think the Sun is the most likely destination at this point for Ohio. There are only 3 at-large openings, the Sun, the Las Vegas, and the Little Ceasars. There are 4 available at-large teams, Louisville, Ohio, Temple, and Western Michigan. As a bowl backup the payout to the MAC for earning a spot in the Sun or Las Vegas is minimal while a Big East school will demand more money. Louisville is also 6-6 and has a young program under a new coach that desperately needs a bowl win. For Ohio the Sun Bowl would be like a Frank Solich career achievement award as the dean of MAC coaches which he is now with the most senority and most wins. Its an opportunity that won't happen for Frank again.

It makes a lot of sense because Frank has the most established MAC program with 2 divisional titles in 6 years. That is better than Golden with 0 titles in 5 years or Beckman with 2 years and 1 winning season. Bowls like to see a coach take a school to a few lessor games before moving up in class and Frank has done that.

I am completely amazed by this optimism. However, we must put away this Kool Aid. I hope that we have the opportunity to play in the Sun Bowl vs. Miami, but it won't happen under the Louisville vs. Ohio scenario listed above. Sorry...this is the real world.

The fact of the matter is we just played on a traditional day off of work (last Friday after Thanksgiving) 4 hours from our campus and directly within our alumni base (Kent) and can't pack half of a smallish Div I stadium! Plus, in said game @ Kent, we looked pathetic...worse than pathetic.

Louisville is 6-6, in the Big East, a few years removed from a great season, a win over the probable Big East Champion (UConn), and they average more butts in the bathroom during halftime than we have at one home game.

Bowls want to be guaranteed the best match-up in terms of at least the following:
1. Butts in the seats. Louisville>than other 3 combined
2. Faces in front of the TV for their sponsors. Louisville>than other 3 combined.

Again, I applaud the optimism, but this ain't gonna happen. Las Vegas seems more likely, but I still say they ignore our win over Temple and select the Owls and we are left out in the cold.

Utah has officially accepted an invitation to the Maaco bowl in Las Vegas.

Imagine the following is your job:
-Go to your Div I, Big East member, bowl eligible team...players and coaches.
-Tell them they're not going to accept the pay out for a mid-level bowl game on standard TV (CBS).
-Protect yourself as it's released that the reason is because the basketball team is playing its in-state, but understandable bitter rival in a regular season/mid season game.

-Tell the same to your football season ticket holders who may be holding out for a trip or whatnot.

Try to comfort the coaching staff as they panic in the midst of recruiting that football is relevant at our Big East school.

Yeah, right.

Our fan support for two previous bowls has been a joke. That's what the bowls care about. We will be the last bowl participant selected, and you can take that to the bank.

Have to agree about the GMAC Bowl with Mark.  You have to count all the Ohio fans there, not just the number of tickets sold through our athletic dept.  Our showing fan wise wasn't all that bad considering all the factors.

Having said that, our fan showing last year for the Pizza Bowl in Detroit was less impressive considering all the factors. 

You can't discount the CACHE that we had in Mobile b/c of our crazy-long bowl drought. Once that CACHE wore off, you saw what happened when we were placed in a bad bowl with a bad opponent.

You just don't realize how much the opponent matters, and how it translates to dollars, but I'll keep saying it till I'm blue in the face.

I've got CACHE baby.