Wanted to get a post up as the season kicks off, hopefully to beat some of the posts that I see every year. The ones that say something along the lines of:
“Well, if the Coogs can’t be the group of five representative in the big Jan 1 bowl game, I hope that the coaches/athletic dept/conference/Dr. Khator/Tillman can get them into a good bowl game!”
Look - based on the bowl tie-ins for our conference, if we do not win the conference and are the highest ranked group of 5 team, then we’re going to a crummy bowl game.
No offense to those bowls aligned with the AAC, but there isn’t much of a possibility of UH getting into one of the other “big time” bowls outside of the Fiesta Bowl - and that would require being the group of 5 representative. I believe we could fill another conference’s slot (if they don’t have enough bowl eligible teams), but don’t count on that conference giving up one of their better bowls to us.
Somebody can correct me, but I believe that these are our primary bowl options if we aren’t headed to the Fiesta Bowl:
BBVA Compass Bowl, Birmingham, Ala. – vs. SEC
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Fla. – ACC
Miami Beach Bowl, Miami, Fla. – vs. MAC
Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman, Annapolis, Md. – vs. ACC
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, Fort Worth, Texas – vs. Big 12
Bahamas Bowl, Nassau, Bahamas – vs. Conference USA
R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, New Orleans, La. – vs. Sun Belt