Well, the Meineke is out...

[Educabull]

Looks like Navy already accepted a bid and will play an ACC opponent.  One less bowl for the Big East. @#$%& >

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2651769

[Joe]

This was a foregone conclusion when they signed the deal in June, if Navy won 6 they were in the MCCB

[Don Toro]

I hope less than 3K Navy fans show up, and hopefully they will all be locals that will show up at kickoff and leave right after.

[Knight_Light]

I hope less than 3K Navy fans show up, and hopefully they will all be locals that will show up at kickoff and leave right after.

Probably a very safe bet that Navy will sell more tix than USF sold last year.

Plus, add in the fact that Navy hasn't played in a Bowl Game on the East Coast since 1980 (defunct Garden State Bowl in NJ).

That's why Meineke/Charlotte wanted Navy so bad...they will sell tix.

KL

[WoolyBully]

I don't know....

There's a difference between service academy vs service academy

and Navy playing in an also-ran bowl.  Then again...the odds of Navy

being in anything other than an also-ran bowl ever again are slim to

none, so if you're from the academy, this might be your chance to see

the old alma mater.

Besides...the military is hip these days. 8-)

[Joe]

Navy has caused dramatic increases in attendance at their last three bowl games, which is the reason for teh exclusivity contract. They shouldn't have a problem getting 15,000+ people there, as they have done that at their last 3 bowl games.

[Economics_Nerd82]

*Sigh* Well, guys, I guess this means we'll just have to settle for the sugar bowl. lol

:GoBulls

[namuh-bull]

Navy will draw a huge crowd to Charlotte.  

[WoolyBully]

this is from 2005, but you get the idea...

College football's postseason bowl games start Tuesday night and run for the next two weeks. But in one important sense, the winners and losers have already been decided.

Give victories to Navy, Virginia Tech and BYU.

Put a checkmark in the loss column next to Missouri, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Those are the outcomes of the bowl travel games.

When bowl bids are given out every year, a team's win-loss record is important, of course. But it isn't the only factor. The selection committees look long and hard at the size of a school's alumni base and the team's fan representation at previous bowl games, too. That's especially true for non-BCS games and bowls that can select an at-large team.

That's why Navy is already in the win column, even though the Midshipmen don't play until Thursday night in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

More than 20,000 Navy fans will cheer on the Midshipmen at the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego.Because it is an independent, Navy doesn't have a guaranteed bowl tie-in. But in recent years, the Middies' ability to sell tickets has made them an attractive selection whenever they are bowl-eligible. In 2003, Navy fans purchased 25,000 tickets for an EV1.net Houston Bowl matchup against Texas Tech. Last year, 18,000 Navy fans traveled to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco to see the Midshipmen take on New Mexico. And more than 20,000 will see Navy play a 6-5 Colorado State team in San Diego this year.

"Navy is the darling of the college bowl season," said Gary Cavalli, executive director of the Emerald Bowl, which sold 59 percent of its tickets through the Naval Academy last year.

With a capacity of 34,000, Navy's routinely sold-out home stadium (Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis) holds less than a third of the 107,501 fans who can cram into Ann Arbor's Michigan Stadium. But the number of Navy fans who bought tickets for the Poinsettia Bowl is four times greater than the number of Michigan fans who have purchased tickets for the Wolverines' MasterCard Alamo Bowl meeting with Nebraska in San Antonio.

In fact, Navy has proved to be such a great partner that the Poinsettia Bowl already has extended guaranteed invitations to the Middies to play in its game in 2008, 2009 and 2010, assuming they are eligible.

"We're one of the top travel teams in the country," said Navy's sports information director Scott Strasemeier. "These bowls are like our little BCS championships."

based on that, I would expect Navy to sell more tickets than USF.

And here's this from Annapolis...

Football: Season ticket sales reach an all-time high

By BILL WAGNER, Staff Writer

Success on the field and a renovated stadium have helped Navy reach a new threshold for football ticket sales.

Capitalizing on consecutive winning seasons and back-to-back bowl game appearances, Navy has established a school record by selling 17,000 season tickets.

That shatters the previous standard of 12,000 season tickets, set last season. Prior to the arrival of athletic director Chet Gladchuk and head coach Paul Johnson in 2001, the academy was holding steady at 9,000 season ticket- holders.

"I would directly correlate this dramatic increase to Chet and Paul coming," said Matt Munnelly, Navy's assistant athletic director in charge of ticket operations. "Chet's vision for improving the stadium and Paul's success in turning around the program have excitement for Navy football at an all-time high."

Gladchuk has overseen a $40 million project that has given Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium a dramatic facelift. Johnson has taken a team that went 3-30 from 2000-2002 and led it to 18 victories the past two seasons.

Navy is coming off its first 10-win season in 99 years. The Midshipmen have won eight straight games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Innovative marketing strategies have also helped Navy promote its Saturday afternoon game experience. Munnelly and the marketing staff have moved boldly to take advantage of the buzz surrounding the program.

Navy initially began selling season ticket packages only last month. Fans who wanted to attend the opener with Maryland at M&T Bank Stadium, the home opener against Stanford or the rivalry contest versus Air Force had to buy the full plan.

"Certainly the fact we are playing Maryland for the first time in 40 years and that Air Force is coming to Annapolis for the first time since 1997 is a bonus," Munnelly admitted. "That put us in a good position. If fans wanted to guarantee good seats for those games, they needed to buy the season ticket package."

As further leverage, fans were reminded that regular season ticket holders will get first crack at tickets for the Navy-Notre Dame games being held in Baltimore in 2006 and 2008 along with the Army-Navy game in Baltimore in 2007.

Navy began selling single-game tickets this week and Munnelly said the phones have been ringing off the hook.

"We had five people answering calls and we never had less than six fans on hold the entire day," he said.

Navy has sold 28,000 of its 32,000 tickets for the Maryland game. Munnelly expects the remaining 4,000 seats to be gone by the end of this week.

Academy athletic officials are also expecting the Stanford and Air Force home games to be sellouts. Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium has a seating capacity of 34,000 with standing room only tickets increasing that figure by about 2,000.

"That we have reached this level of season tickets holders is a testament to the turnaround of Navy football and an indication the community is really embracing the program," Gladchuk said.

"We are very pleased, but we will not be satisfied until we have sold every seat for every game every season."

The interesting thing being that their season ticket base is about what ours is.

Then again, a lot of the DD-214 crowd feels some sort of allegience to the academy,

so they would probably draw, much like Army, no matter where they played.

[80mins]

I wonder if Meineke would go for a Murlin battle (Navy vs. College Park) in their bowl game. Terps, after all, travel fairly well, particularly to NC (shoulda seen the ACC tourney here in Greensboro) and it gives an angle to work with. On the other hand, they both played each other last season in the regular season at Naptown and other possible candidates include Wake and Clemson from right at home in the Carolinas. Miami and Florida State are also possibilities... wonder how they'd love to be going to a bowl that the Bulls were in last year. Who'da thought those two would be getting our sloppy seconds?  ;D