Right and the fill out the brackets with Ohio along side in their minds with Eastern Washington and Oakland, quickly forgotten after first glance. Then the first round games are played simultaneously with only 20 minutes of coverage in the local viewing area. I would rather have a football team that wins 8-10 games a year that was regularly in the top 40 an occassionally in the top 25 than a basketball program going 22-12 with an appearance in the NCAAs every 6 or 7 years. The bowl system is what it is; a national TV appearance and 15 or so extra practices to help keep the program well oiled. The football program has been and looks capable of playing 4-5 times on ESPN every year which is more than some BCS programs and a high percentage of its total games played. The basketball program picks up like 1 game on ESPNU a year and I don't see that changing. That is the kind of coverage most low major schools get and its definitely not the level of coverage found at real basketball schools like Gonzaga, Xavier or a Memphis. The public pays attention to those programs, Ohio they do not, In football Ohio is not yet a name non-BCS school like an Air Force or Fresno State but is moving toward that level quickly with every winning season.

We really want the Humanitarian Bowl as it provides the best opportunity not to totally lose our ass.

Huh?  Won't the Humanitarian Bowl probably feature a tougher opponent and cost us a lot more money?  That would be a worst possible scenario, as far as I can tell.

Interesting, I didn't realize that the Humanitarian covered travel costs.  That would make sense, then, assuming that they'll do the same this year.  I don't really understand why they'd offer that up from their perspective, though, as there will undoubtedly be some team desperate enough to go bowling each year that they would accept a bid without their travel costs being covered.

Very interesting.  Boise is a damn tough place to get to and even tougher as winter sets in.  They are a football crazy (obviously). I wonder what their local ticket sales are like?  Unlike other bowls (e.g., the bowl here in Charlotte), in Boise my guess is the locals tend come out to support the game (to a degree) regardless of who is playing.

I will go to any bowl except in Detroit, the timing stinks for me and other people who can't drive because you can't easily get tickets-often at any price-on 3 weeks notice to a December 26th game.  Right now, tickets other than on December 25 and 26th are high price or gone.  Give it until December 5th to know that you're going to Detroit makes it a non-starter for me.  Anyway, while the Little Caesars has first choice, (as I understand it), I would guess they would not take us if we finished as champs anyway.  Either we would negotiate for another bowl or they would want someone else-like say-Northern who would likely draw much better than we would if we went back there. 

Troys got destroyed by #19 USC yesterday.  I think it was 56-7 with about 12 minutes to go in the 3rd qtr.

Here are some possible teams we could play in a bowl game and my rankings of who I would like to see us play from worst to best. I realize some are long shots. Fun to think about though.

10) Florida International/LA Monroe - Absolute worst case
9) Troy - Probably most likely
8) UTEP
7) Fresno St
6) Nevada
5) BYU
4) Illinois
3) Georgia - Toughest matchup
2) TCU
1) Michigan - Pipe dream matchup in LCPB