American Bowl Hype

[Brad]

FOOTBALL FRIDAY
The first year of The American's new bowl lineup produced some great moments. Wait until you see what's in store for 2015.
 
Even for the optimists among us, the outcome of the Armed Forces Bowl last season didn't look promising for the American Athletic Conference, and more specifically, the Houston Cougars.
 
In fact, Houston fans could be forgiven if they might have made an early exit from Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth to make the four-hour drive back to the Bayou City. After all, the Cougars were looking at a 31-6 deficit in the fourth quarter against Pittsburgh. Tom Herman, who had been recently announced as Houston's new head coach, was still wrapping up the matter of winning the College Football Playoff as Ohio State's offensive coordinator. It was easy to surmise that Houston was merely playing out the string and content to settle for a 7-6 season.
 
But a funny thing happened in the final four minutes of the game – actually, quite a few funny things. The Cougars scored three touchdowns – all on passes by Greg Ward Jr. – recovered two onside kicks and got the go-ahead two-point conversion in a span of 2:40 to steal a 35-34 win and register one of the highlights of the 2014 college football postseason.
 
The American's other bowl win in 2014 came in almost equally dramatic fashion as Memphis rallied past Brigham Young in double overtime of the first Miami Beach Bowl.
 
The win capped Memphis' best season in four decades, putting an exclamation point on a championship year  and giving the Tigers a seven-game winning streak to take into 2015. Memphis forced overtime on Paxton Lynch's 5-yard touchdown pass with 45 seconds left in regulation and the Tigers won it on DeShaughn Terry's interception on BYU's possession in the second OT. Lynch finished the day with four touchdown passes and three touchdown runs.
 
That was Year 1 of The American's new bowl cycle, by the way.
 
The 2015 season should feature more of the same excitement when it comes to postseason play. For starters, the conference's new 12-team lineup allows for the playing of the first American Athletic Conference Football Championship, which will be Dec. 5 on the campus of the division champion with the best conference record.
 
The winner of The American Championship will have a chance to play in a New Year's Bowl – either the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl or the Vizio Fiesta Bowl if that team is ranked higher than the champions of the Mountain West, Mid-American, Sun Belt and Conference USA.
 
Aside from the opportunity with the New Year's Bowls, teams from The American will have contracted slots with seven bowl games in 2015. The formula for the conference when setting these matchups is to create as many quality matchups as possible and to do so in desirable locations that are easily accessible for fans.
 
With that in mind, The American will face opponents from the SEC, ACC, Mountain West, Conference USA, MAC and Sun Belt in the 2015 postseason. And the games will be played in such locales as Honolulu, Boca Raton, Miami, Orlando and St. Petersburg, among others. OK, Hawaii, doesn't quite fit into the "easily accessible" category, but do we really need to be sold on a trip to Honolulu in late December?
 
Gone are the days in which bowl directors would select the participants in their respective games in an order that was predetermined by contracts. Beginning with 2014, the 10 FBS conferences have the primary responsibilities of filling the postseason slots. If the first go-around is any indication, it's a day that could end up challenging Selection Sunday in NCAA basketball in terms of intrigue.
 
The first step comes with the announcement of the four teams that are playing in the College Football Playoff. Even for those conferences without a team in the playoff, the pairings for the national semifinals have to be announced so the conferences know which teams are available for the remaining bowls. The Big 12 notably did not have a team in the playoff last year, but if things had shaken out just a shade differently, that league would have possibly had two of the four semifinalists.
 
Once the CFP semifinalists are announced, the remaining New Year's Bowls set the matchups for their games. In some cases, it's a matter of fulfilling existing contracts – think of the Rose Bowl's connection with the Big Ten and Pac-12, for example. For others, it's finding the appropriate place and matchup for the top-ranked conference champion of the group of conferences that includes The American.
 
After that, conferences are then free to fill their remaining bowl spots. While there is no set formula for deciding which teams go to which bowls, there are a number of factors that come into play. Conferences will take the schools' and bowls' preferences into consideration, but the conference also tries to create the best top-to-bottom lineup of games while working to avoid things like regular-season rematches or potentially sending the same team to the same bowl in consecutive years.
 
For The American in 2015, that means that the conference will work with its schools and bowl partners to assign teams to these seven destinations:
 
The Birmingham Bowl takes place at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala., in one of the most passionate college football communities in the nation. The American Athletic Conference will face an opponent from the Southeastern Conference during each year of the current bowl cycle. If the SEC is unable to send a team to the game, the Atlantic Coast Conference would provide a team to oppose The American representative.
 
The St. Petersburg Bowl is played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. The American Athletic Conference will supply a team to the bowl during each year of the current six-year cycle. Conference USA will provide the opposing team in 2015.
 
The Hawaii Bowl will be played on Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium on the campus of the University of Hawaii. The American Athletic Conference will participate in the bowl in 2015, 2017 and 2019, where it will face an opponent from the Mountain West Conference, with Conference USA as a secondary affiliation.
 
The Miami Beach Bowl will be played for the second time in 2015 at state-of-the-art Marlins Park in Miami, which sits on the site of the historic Orange Bowl stadium. An American Athletic Conference team will play in the bowl each year, facing an opponent from Conference USA in 2015.
 
The Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman takes place at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md., while the events and activities surrounding the game will be based in Washington, D.C. The American Athletic Conference will face an opponent from the Atlantic Coast Conference in all six years of the current cycle.
 
The Boca Raton Bowl is a pre-Christmas game that will feature an American Athletic Conference team three times during the six-year cycle at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla. The American representative will face a team from the Mid-American Conference in in 2015 and 2019 and a Conference USA opponent in 2016 and 2017.
 
The AutoNation Cure Bowl will be played for the first time in 2015 as a third bowl game takes place at the newly renovated Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium. The American representative will face a team from the Sun Belt Conference in the first edition of the game. Proceeds from the Cure Bowl will go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
 
And if we have learned anything from Houston's postseason trip last year, it's to make sure we stay in our seats until the final gun sounds.

 

 

http://theamerican.org/news/2015/7/3/FB_0703152541.aspx

[slick1ru2]

It looks better then it did 2 years ago when everyone was dropping the conference for P5 conferences have to hand it to Aresco for getting a lineup of bowl games out of nothing.

[BDYZR]

"The 2015 season should feature more of the same excitement when it comes to postseason play. For starters, the conference's new 12-team lineup allows for the playing of the first American Athletic Conference Football Championship, which will be Dec. 5 on the campus of the division champion with the best conference record."

 

Guess that leaves USF out...  

[smazza]

cant wait for the season to start