Stewart Mandel on BE Bowls

[Joe]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_blogs/football/ncaa/2006/07/big-east-getting-bowled-over.html

Echoing what I feel is happening.

[BigShoop]

WOW.

I had no idea..........  >

[E.T.]

Big East NEEDS to win their OOC games !

[USFan]

^^^ That's why we play the games.

[Jewbull]

Go Army, Beat Navy!!!

[South_Florida_Flip]

Wasn't the Gator Bowl deal done before WVU won their bowl game?

If the comferemce improves over the next four years, then it will be in a better negotiating position.

[Guest]

Wasn't the Gator Bowl deal done before WVU won their bowl game?

If the comferemce improves over the next four years, then it will be in a better negotiating position.

Yes and Amen!

[smazza]

just win baby

this is still better than playing in cusa- southwest division

[BullyPulpit]

Waaaaaaahhhhhhhh the Big East only has 6, count 'em 6 bowl tie-ins.......

But alas, we still have the most important of all....BCS baby! All other bowl games are just window dressing anyways. The games outside the Big 5 are just for the fans of those teams anyhow.

[Joe]

You would think that, but the difference of payout could he hurt. It's nice to have 6 bowl tie ins, but when they all pay 750,000 (except the Gator Bowl) and are against low level opponents it really shows that people don't trust this conference.

I'll say it again, this regular season is HUGE for the Big East, as the Big East is going into the midway point of the BCS evaluation. Earlier this year the BCS passed legislation that allows only 5 automatic conference bids and used human discretion on whether a team can stay in...

From the Legislation:

Each conference will be evaluated by the BCS commissioners over a four-year period based on the average rank of the highest ranked team. That is pretty similar to the standard that existed previously. In addition, the BCS commissioners will look at a conference's overall strength. The BCS commissioners will also be looking at every member of the conference and determining an average of the conference based on that overall strength.  

and

After the 2007 season, automatic qualification standards will be applied to all 11 Division I-A conferences to determine the number of conferences whose champion will automatically qualify for a BCS game for the next two seasons ('08 and '09). Each conference will be evaluated on each of the previous four seasons ('04, '05, '06, '07), based on membership during the '07 season. The champions of no fewer than five conferences and no more than seven conferences will have annual automatic berths in the BCS bowl games played following the 2008 and 2009 regular season.

As I mentioned earlier those BCS members know that the BE was 5-14 against BCS teams last year and they do see how other bowls are throwing provisions in against the BE. This year is VERY VERY big for the Big East.