Navy and Meineke Car Care Bowl

[Joe]

“Originally we made a deal with the Houston Bowl to take our No. 3 team,’’ Tranghese said on Tuesday. “Well, when we didn’t give our No. 3 to [the Meineke Car Care Bowl], they came back and said if we didn’t, they may go to the open market.’’

Enter Navy  right before the Big East was torpedoed by the Houston Bowl situation.

“We were blindsided by that,’’ Tranghese said

Tranghese, BLINDSIDED?!

The Houston Bowl struggled in 2003 and 2004 leading the SEC to openly state why they left the bowl game.

Openly lying about being blindsided by the Houston Bowl. He was blindsided by the MCCB and doesn't want to piss them off by putting the blame on them.

[E.T.]

And I love the arguments about how good the bowls are for college football purists  :

Bring on the playoffs!

[WoolyBully]

Here's a little something to think about....

Let's just say we wind up back in Charlotte. Do you think we'd draw +5K or -5K. I'd be tempted to say -5K as it's a repeat tour and....much to my chagrin...the way to pry us out of sunny Florida in the dead of winter...play in one of the "big four" bowl games. Because eventually...and we all know it...a couple of whacks at a non-BCS bowl and the shine is gone for good.

[Joe]

Wooly,

I agree. The thing with the bowl games is that as a fan base/school we are still in awe with the whole bowl expierence and situation. In time, the newness rubs off and people will find excuses to not go. It's not some theory I'm making up, it's what history shows.

Schools such as Ohio State, Iowa, and Nebraska are considered the best traveling schools in the country. They bring 25,000 - 30,000 to many bowl games. However they have fan bases of 100s of thousands, even millions in some cases.

We're still young and don't have close to that type of fan base.  5,000 is a MUCH bigger portion of our fan base than 25,000 of Iowa's fans.

Where it hurts is a portion of that 5,000 will start to dissipate and find reasons to not attend the bowl game, be it money, holiday, or just general lack of interest in traveling.

5,000 is probably our peak bowl attendance for an out of state bowl at this point. Giving the MCCB the chance to reject us because of how many we travel to a team OUT of our conference puts us in a crappy position of probably ending up in B'ham 2 days before Christmas. The good news is the Navy deal is a 1 year thing, however, it was said that the MCCB was shopping elsewhere. Hopefully Trangehse can go some nads and not allow it.

[BullDoug]

Bham two days b4 Christmas is equal to or even slightly better than Charlotte on NYE.  I can be home in the afternoon of the 24th if I drive or by noon if I fly.  Think Airtran has a reasonable flight betw. TPA & B'ham.

Until USF can consistly find 10K paying, traveling fans to a bowl, we will be bottom of the barrel fodder for the bowl selection committees.  AZ will  get 2.5K of us at the most at this point in time.  Same for a repeat bowl.  Do I dare to say a BCS bowl bid might get 10K of us USFr's out of Tampa to see the Bulls play punt, kick & pass?  I really is a dang shame the NY Bowl went belly up.

Jim Leavitt needs to win the BE championship and win it soon or this "bandwagon" won't be headin' west anytime soon young man.  The Tampa dollar has two many choices & is gettin' thinner by day.  BTW, how's your home owner's policy doing?  Canceled or 75% rate hike?  Get the gist.

[turkeysoup]

Have a Bowl promotion early in the season.... buy tickets (and stay for the entire game) to the McNeese St , FIU and UCF games and the Bulls will give you free admission to the Bowl Game  plus a free USF Bowl T-shirt at the game.

Seasons ticket holders who attend those 3 games get the same along with a pre-bowl game tailgate for $5.00.

[ChiTownBull]

Here's a little something to think about....

Let's just say we wind up back in Charlotte. Do you think we'd draw +5K or -5K. I'd be tempted to say -5K as it's a repeat tour and....much to my chagrin...the way to pry us out of sunny Florida in the dead of winter...play in one of the "big four" bowl games. Because eventually...and we all know it...a couple of whacks at a non-BCS bowl and the shine is gone for good.

I say less than 5k because its a repeat....come on now dead of winter  :

winter begins around dec 23rd or so....

[Guest]

Have a Bowl promotion early in the season.... buy tickets (and stay for the entire game) to the McNeese St , FIU and UCF games and the Bulls will give you free admission to the Bowl Game  plus a free USF Bowl T-shirt at the game.

Seasons ticket holders who attend those 3 games get the same along with a pre-bowl game tailgate for $5.00.

Well, looks like turkey want's USF to lose more money.

[ChiTownBull]

 The Tampa dollar has two many choices & is gettin' thinner by day.  

I hate that lame excuse!

Do you think fans for other schools that do travel well all live in BFE?

[Guest]

Here's a little something to think about....

Let's just say we wind up back in Charlotte. Do you think we'd draw +5K or -5K. I'd be tempted to say -5K as it's a repeat tour and....much to my chagrin...the way to pry us out of sunny Florida in the dead of winter...play in one of the "big four" bowl games. Because eventually...and we all know it...a couple of whacks at a non-BCS bowl and the shine is gone for good.

I would say that we would bring about the same amount. Consider that the only people who attended were either directly related to the program (family, staff, family of staff, etc), die hard fans and/or  perennial season ticket holders...

I don't think that many "casual fans" made the trip last year - so the drop off would not be that bad.

I don't think the Fiesta Bowl would draw more than 5,000 either - despite the BCS status.  Tempe may be too far to travel for the casual fans.  However, the Sugar or Gator Bowls could draw 10,000 or more.

Birmingham would probably draw the same 5,000 or so... Houston, Toronto, or Detroit would probably be 2500 or less...