Football Follies

[cactuswatcher]

The biggest upset in college football yesterday was not West Virginia losing to Pitt. It was the upset stomachs the Orange Bowl committee members got when seeing all the empty seats at the ACC Championship game. I'm sure the half-empty stadium meant the game between two escapees from the Big East lost money. It was suggested by the media that if Missouri and West Virginia both lost, West Virginia would go to the Orange bowl. I would imagine the Orange Bowl committee is lobbying hard with the other BCS bowls to see that does not happen. As I mentioned awhile ago WVa is notorious as being the major team that brings the fewest fans to bowl games. If the Orange Bowl is stuck with either West Virginia or even Hawaii, the game will probably lose a large amount of money.

West Virginia went from darling to leper in three hours. Two weeks ago, it looked like the Big 12 would certainly get two BCS berths. That doesn't look nearly so likely now. There has been talk of Oklahoma playing Kansas in the Fiesta Bowl. But if Arizona State doesn't go to the Rose Bowl (with USC going to the Championship game) there will be a lot of hard feelings locally if the Fiesta Bowl doesn't pick the Sun Devils. I don't know the order the bowls choose their at-large teams in, but I've heard the Rose Bowl picks first this year. There was talk of the Rose Bowl picking Illinois. That might be a good match for the Rose Bowl, but it might not work out for the other bowl committees. Get enough lost money and anger among the committees and the BCS could suddenly disintegrate before next season with appropriate hair pulling and law suits. At the very least, the cry would become very loud to take away the Big East's champion's free pass to a BCS game.

To avoid all that the BCS Bowl committees may try to work out the Dollar Bowl amongst themselves, before things go terribly wrong.

Bowl games that could be bad news financially:
Orange Bowl; Virginia Tech vs UWVa or Hawaii
Sugar Bowl; Georgia vs Hawaii (I think Georgia vs UWVa would do okay)

USC could play anyone in the Rose Bowl and fill the place. Oklahoma travels very well. LSU can easily fill the Sugar Bowl. The Rose Bowl probably wants no part of Hawaii. LSU vs Hawaii sounds pretty bad for the ego of the Sugar Bowl, if not the pocket book. The Fiesta Bowl on the other hand has said Hawaii would be okay with them. So the first step in the Dollar Bowl is

Oklahoma vs Hawaii in the Fiesta Bowl

which would allow

UWVa vs an SEC team in the Sugar Bowl

which would allow

Virginia Tech vs Kansas, Missouri or Arizona State in the Orange Bowl.

and then the Rose Bowl could still create hard feelings by picking Illinois. ;o)

Oh, well. We'll know for sure this afternoon.

Comments

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Barring VaTech going into the title game, they'll do WVU-VaTech. That game was an old border/conference rivalry and should draw okay.

Also, the Sugar Bowl has the last pick, so I think people assume they'll be the ones who wind up with Hawaii. Here's my guess:

Title: Ohio State vs. LSU
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Arizona State
Orange: WVU vs. VaTech
Rose: USC vs. Georgia
Sugar: Kansas vs. Hawaii

or

Rose: USC vs. Illinois
Sugar: Georgia vs. Hawaii

Which is to say, I think it's down between Kansas and Illinois for that last BCS Slot.