Bowl game in St Pete?

[ProudBull]

link: http://www.tbo.com/sports/bulls/MGBN1L9A94F.html

How cool would that be.  If nothing else, it would keep us from playing in the international bowl.  The trop stinks but at least it would be a bowl game near home

[Sunil]

It's extremely early in discussions, but the idea could have some possibilities. There are enough Big East transplants in this area to ensure a built in audience... Right now the 6th/7th place SEC school goes to the Liberty Bowl to play CUSA. I realize that location is favorable for their conference...but if St.Pete gets a suitable sponsor...target an SEC (#6) vs. Big East (#3 or #4) matchup to start. Last year it would have been a South Carolina vs. USF/Rutgers matchup....

[Joe]

The SEC gets a great deal from the liberty bowl and further they could probably snag any bowl they want because every team in that conference travels well. I think, your looking at an ACC matchup at best, startup bowls these days don't exactly get the pick of the litter when it comes to teams.

[CoolBull1]

Would be my last choice for bowl selection (assuming Birmingham was out of the mix).  I like to travel!

[ProudBull]

Again I like it better than Toronto.  The way traffic is from tampa to st. pete, it would take the same amount of time to get to Birmingham than to the trop

[RankBull]

I think a bowl game in St. Pete has a great chance of happening. What better place to be in Decemeber than sunny/warm Florida. It would be a great fit for our conference and the ACC or SEC. I would think that any team in th BE would rather come to Florida than go to Toronto or Birmingham.

Go Bulls!!

[Sunil]

The SEC gets a great deal from the liberty bowl and further they could probably snag any bowl they want because every team in that conference travels well. I think, your looking at an ACC matchup at best, startup bowls these days don't exactly get the pick of the litter when it comes to teams.

You're absolutely correct that startups don't get the pick of the litter....but that's why I was saying alot depends on the sponsor as well as when current bowl contracts run out. It's a shot in the dark...but perhaps the SEC could be sold on a Big East matchup over CUSA....

[Guest]

The SEC gets a great deal from the liberty bowl and further they could probably snag any bowl they want because every team in that conference travels well. I think, your looking at an ACC matchup at best, startup bowls these days don't exactly get the pick of the litter when it comes to teams.

I don't know if the ACC would agree to a THIRD matchup with the Big East (Gator, Meineke) ... except they might be willing to replace the MPC Computers game -- none of their teams travel well to Boise.

I could see a Big East vs C-USA/MAC/Sun Belt... but if the Big East is able to get a better deal with the Texas and PapaJohns.com Bowls, we may not have enough teams for a 7^th bowl game.

The Big East/C-USA would allow USF or UCF (not both) to play in the game ... giving them a decent chance of selling out... a number of bowls are like that... Hawaii, Boise, Ft Worth, Meineke, Texas, New Orleans... heck, even a 2nd Sun Belt game would provide an outlet for FAU or FIU if they can manage to win 6 games...

[crambone]

He misspelled Howard Frankland Bridge...I am going to correct him on it!

[Joe]

The SEC gets a great deal from the liberty bowl and further they could probably snag any bowl they want because every team in that conference travels well. I think, your looking at an ACC matchup at best, startup bowls these days don't exactly get the pick of the litter when it comes to teams.

I don't know if the ACC would agree to a THIRD matchup with the Big East (Gator, Meineke) ... except they might be willing to replace the MPC Computers game -- none of their teams travel well to Boise.

I could see a Big East vs C-USA/MAC/Sun Belt... but if the Big East is able to get a better deal with the Texas and PapaJohns.com Bowls, we may not have enough teams for a 7^th bowl game.

The Big East/C-USA would allow USF or UCF (not both) to play in the game ... giving them a decent chance of selling out... a number of bowls are like that... Hawaii, Boise, Ft Worth, Meineke, Texas, New Orleans... heck, even a 2nd Sun Belt game would provide an outlet for FAU or FIU if they can manage to win 6 games...

I agree Jim, I was referring to the type of matchup we'd get. The SEC and Big 10 have deals that give them pretty good bowl times and some of the better payouts, I don't foresee either taking on a new bowl game that is in a baseball stadium, especially when the SEC's lowest bowl payout is 1.1 Million (Independence) and Big 10's is 1.2M (Inight). A second bowl game run by a different organization in the Tampa area is not gonna be able to offer that at the beginning. Papa John's payout for example was 300k

I see the possibily being smart for the BE, especially since the International Bowl and Papa John's are probably going to struggle to survive. However, I really wish the BE would take some blows and try and work more favorable bowl games. We basically have lost MOST the control of the Gator Bowl, the MCCB signed an exception for Navy last year and is talking a similar exception with Army. Our best exclusive bowl game outside the BCS is the MCCB as of now, after that it's Birmingham or Toronto.