Why not the Gator if we win?

[RHBullsFan]

If we win this weekend, we still finsih in 2nd place in the Big East, right? After the BCS, the Gator Bowl in Jax is arguably the most enticing bowl game to the Big East conference. So why would they get to "select" their participant, Lousiville, when we would finish ahead of them? What is the point of playing a conference schedule if final schedules have no bearing on your bowl selection? Is only the conference winner obligated to go to a particular bowl? If we finish higher than Louisville we should get to go to a better bowl than them.

[bull2saintleo]

I agree that we should go to the Gator based on statistics, but bowls are powered by the almighty dollar, and Louisville fans will visit Jacksonville for a longer period of time around the bowl thanan in-state team would.  If I were to go to Jax. for the Gator Bowl (if we went there), I would arrive the day before the game and leave night after game or the next day.  Out of state fans would stay much longer in the area and generate more revenue for Jax.

[BigEastBeasts]

Unfortuantely its all based off of what the bowl wants.

After the Conference Champion and whatever BCS bowl they are selected to, no bowl is obligated to select a particular team based on where they finished in the conference. Its all up to them and they're going to select what they view as the best match-up for their bowl.

The Gator Bowl has first BE option after the BCS berth, and they also have the option of Notre Dame if they do not qualify for the BCS, which is very fortunate for us that they are, because if not we probably wouldn't even be getting into one of the 4 BE  bowls.

[Knight_Light]

Bowl selections have nothing to do with what place you finish and are based on how many fans will you bring, how many nights in hotels will you stay, and are you attractive for a National TV Audience.

Louisville has had a bowl "history" of bringing 20,000 plus fans to recent Bowl Games in Memphis...and most at the Gator bowl think they can bring that easily if they play Miami.

USF and UCF have ZERO Bowl travel history...and Bowls will use that against us until the schools can prove otherwise.

So yeah, even though USF killed Louisville...Gator Bowl folks think UL fans will travel in big numbers, and be a very attractive team for a national tv audience.

KL

[BULLfreak]

this and if the game is in JVille most USF fans are in driving distance from the game and will most likely stay for one night maybe two  

[Matt]

not too mention that Miami is most likely already going to be in the Gator bowl and we all know how bowls hate t he replay regular season matchups

[RHBullsFan]

Don't a majority of bowl games boast that they will host say #3  SEC vs #2 ACC or some crap along those lines? Are all bowl games outside the BCS up to a popularity contest?

[BigEastBeasts]

Don't a majority of bowl games boast that they will host say #3  SEC vs #2 ACC or some crap along those lines?

In those cases thats the choice that they have, and with most conferences that's how they will end up getting picked because they can count on those teams bringing in fans and ratings.

Are all bowl games outside the BCS up to a popularity contest?

That's about right. After the BCS Bowls, its basically the equivellant to picking captains and choosing sides for a pick-up game on Thanksgiving morning.