Liberty part of official Big East bowl lineup

[Mama_Bull]

Liberty part of official Big East bowl lineup

April, 27, 2010 Apr 27

1:21PM ET

By Brian Bennett

The Big East has officially completed its bowl lineup for the 2010-13 seasons, and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl has joined the party.

The league could send a team to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis instead of the Papajohns.com Bowl. The Big East would play either the Conference USA champion or an SEC opponent in the Liberty.

"The objective is to put teams in a pool to create the best matchups," Big East associate commissioner Nick Carparelli said.

Carparelli said the agreement should allow the Big East to appear in the Liberty Bowl at least once during that four-year span.

The conference previously announced agreements with the Champs Sports, Meineke Car Care and New Era Pinstripe bowls. Today, it officially extended its partnerships with the Papajohns.com and Beef 'O' Brady's (formerly the St. Petersburg Bowl) games.

The 2010 Beef 'O'Brady's Bowl will be played Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. on ESPN. The Liberty Bowl will be held Dec. 31 at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN, and the Papajohns.com game is Jan. 8, 2011, at noon on ESPN.

The complete lineup and pecking order now looks like this:

BCS Bowl -- Big East champion

Champs Sports Bowl -- Big East vs. ACC

Meineke Car Care Bowl -- Big East vs. ACC

New Era Pinstripe Bowl -- Big East vs. Big 12

Papajohns.com Bowl/AutoZone Liberty Bowl -- Big East vs. SEC or C-USA

Beef 'O’ Brady’s Bowl -- Big East vs. C-USA

"We think it's the best bowl lineup we've ever had in the history of this conference," Carparelli said.

The league had stated its goals as trying to get games in attractive locales convenient to fans and to have high-caliber opponents. The postseason now includes stops in Orlando, Charlotte, New York City, Birmingham, Memphis and St. Petersburg, with the possibility of BCS opponents in every game except the No. 6 slot.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/9340/liberty-part-of-official-big-east-bowl-lineup

[usf97]

Well although about a 4 hours further away by car, Memphis is still a better destination than B'ham. The question is, would you prefer Memphis if the Oppenent ends up being the C-USA champ instead of a .500 SEC team?

[The Great 8]

Isn't this bowl the best tie-in that C-USA has? If we're playing an SEC opponent that means C-USA isn't bowling?

Major loss for C-USA if I understand this correctly, decent gain for us an SEC opponent is always nice. Beating the C-USA champion isn't worth too much though.

[cmhatter]

good lineup

much better than previous years

[Greg Auman]

I think if the Big East took the Liberty (and this is 1-2 times in four-year period), the C-USA champ would play in Birmingham against SEC. Haven't gotten that confirmed, but that's my understanding ... I think the intent is to avoid same team in Memphis every year, as ECU has done last two times ...

[Mama_Bull]

I think if the Big East took the Liberty (and this is 1-2 times in four-year period), the C-USA champ would play in Birmingham against SEC. Haven't gotten that confirmed, but that's my understanding ... I think the intent is to avoid same team in Memphis every year, as ECU has done last two times ...

OK. That makes sense.

[BullsFanInTX]

The Liberty and PPJ will work together on their picks to make the best matchups.  Think of the PPJ/Liberty as another Gator/Sun hybrid.  We will send a team to one or the other but not both, just like the old Gator/sun deal (minus Notre Dame of course).  The difference is that it doesn't have to get split up evenly (both games do not have to get a BE team twice, it can be 3X to PPJ and once to Liberty, etc.)  Also about the CUSA champ to PPJ, that's not necessarily the case, the BE can play either the SEC or CUSA champ in Liberty.  It's all about matchups.  These 2 bowls will work together to determine best ones. 

[Cow Pie]

This means that the Big East is planning on adding Memphis to replace one of the raided teams... the University of Memphis and the City of Memphis owns this bowl and they have been dangling it in front of the Big East for years in the hopes of getting an invite card.

[South_Florida_Flip]

Memphis is awesome

[USF_Grouper]

Memphis is awesome

BBQ aint bad, locals aren't a lot of fun