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Louisiana Tech is going to be left out of a bowl with a 9-3 record. I realize it is sort of their fault, but it's still bullshit.
Best team staying home for the bowl season? Try 9-3 La. Tech. The Bulldogs have the nation's No. 1 offense, but they will get no postseason bowl game.
The reason why is where things get a bit murky.
It was reported by Yahoo! Sports that Tech turned down a chance to play in a bowl game because it didn't want to face rival Louisiana-Monroe, but La. Tech AD Bruce Van De Velde told CBSSports.com that's not accurate.
"We asked the Independence Bowl to let the games play out because we were told by the Heart of Dallas Bowl and the Liberty Bowls that they were very interested in us," said Van De Velde Sunday night. "They (the Independence Bowl reps) called us on Saturday and put a deadline on us. We thought there would be a spot open for us in one of those other bowls. We asked them to wait so we could vet out these other options, but they wouldn't."
Van De Velde says the Bulldogs got squeezed by a trickle down factor because NIU was going to the Orange Bowl, meaning Oklahoma got knocked out of a BCS Bowl and then the Big 12 was going to be able to fill more bowl slots. And, in the end, the Liberty Bowl selected 6-6 Iowa State over 9-3 La. Tech, he says.
"It wasn't not only a failure of the bowl system but it's also because our league, the WAC, has disintergreated," he says. "It's very much like being an independent. We thought we were in good position but it didn't turn out that way when they took Northern Illinois and it just filtered all the way down."
Asked about the report that Tech didn't want to face ULM being at the root of the Bulldogs ultimately staying home, Van De Velde said "that was not a factor at all. We would've like to be in a bowl."
Even if it meant playing ULM?
"Absolutely."
In hindsight, would the AD have told the Independence Bowl to wait had he known this might happen and his team could miss out on a bowl opportunity, he says he still would've done the same thing again. Van De Velde says because the program had played in the Independence Bowl in 2008 and then the Poinsettia Bowl last year, one of those bigger bowls seemed like the progression. "I think we still would've waited because we felt like that's what was best for our university."
Van De Velde says he doesn't expect La. Tech to be in a similar predicament in the future since the school is moving on to Conference-USA, where it has five bowl tie-ins.Comment
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It's a pretty good year to be FTComment
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FSU vs NIU
FSU is in a no-win situation in this game.
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Three of the four BCS bowl games are borderline unwatchable.
Great sport, though. All the games matter.
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I love how these ESPN analysts are trashing NIU but fail to trash the Big East and Big Ten for having lower ranked AQ teams.... the real failure here is the BCS. They just need to do away with automatic bids.Comment
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lol at this game on NEW YEARS that is on ESPNU
Heart of Dallas - Oklahoma State vs Purdue 1/1/13 12:00pm ESPN-UComment
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Things I learned on Facebook last night:
-NIU is a "cinderella story" and was taken by the Orange Bowl because of money.
-NIU will "travel well to the Orange Bowl"...................... despite their own fan base not traveling well to Dekalb. (Their Orange Bowl ticket allotment is more than their average home attendance.)
-If Notre Dame loses to Alabama it should immediately make them ineligible to play in the National Title next season if it's them and 'Bama again because we "saw that game last year".
-Until Notre Dame joins a conference they should be treated as an FCS school.Comment
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Would have loved to see their reaction to the next 30 minutes of ESPN shitting all over them.Comment
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