If the projections are correct for USM, they are off to Hawai for the holidays . Not a bad gig, but this is college football, not a family vacation. This is the worst case scenario, yet a comical one, in regard to USM fans. They have been shooting off about how great they are and some were delusional enough to beleive they would get a BCS bowl after beating the biggest joke of a top 10 team in recent memory. The VAST majority of their fans will have to watch the finale of the greatest season in school history from their living room or a sports bar somewhere. USM will be matched with a WAC team, coincidentally, another mid major conference without a BCS autmatic bid. Also, they get a 750,000 per team payout whichis tied for the third LOWEST payout of all the bowls. So what does winning a conference championship in conference USA get you this year.... a bottom tier bowl that will not allow 90-95% of the fans to attend and will be watched by a small handfull of people at 7:00 Christmas Eve night.
MSU is headed to the Music City Bowl traditionally given to the 7-8 place finisher in the conference. It will be played on Dec. 30 at 5:45 in the evening. It will be packed with state fans and the Bulldogs face an ACC opponent (automatic BCS qualifying conference). The MCB payout is 1.6 million per team. Wow, more pay yet we are not a conference champion.... odd.... I could keep going, but will stop.
Bottom line, all this bowls down to conference as we all know. USM should celebrate a magical season, but do it realistically and within reason. There is a reason the CUSA champ plays the bottom qualifiers from the SEC. SEC also rans are comparable to CUSA champs. It really can't be argued. Again, congrats to USM, I'm honestly happy for them and have no problem with them. Let's all just keep our wits about ourselves and understand there is a difference between apples and oranges in today's college football world. This isn't college football from the 70s and 80's. Things are simply different. Arena league football IS football, but you can't make comparisons between it and the NFL. Both are indeed football, but the attention/notoriety one gets is much different than the other... and it doesn't matter if you finish as champs in arena or last in the NFL.
MSU is headed to the Music City Bowl traditionally given to the 7-8 place finisher in the conference. It will be played on Dec. 30 at 5:45 in the evening. It will be packed with state fans and the Bulldogs face an ACC opponent (automatic BCS qualifying conference). The MCB payout is 1.6 million per team. Wow, more pay yet we are not a conference champion.... odd.... I could keep going, but will stop.
Bottom line, all this bowls down to conference as we all know. USM should celebrate a magical season, but do it realistically and within reason. There is a reason the CUSA champ plays the bottom qualifiers from the SEC. SEC also rans are comparable to CUSA champs. It really can't be argued. Again, congrats to USM, I'm honestly happy for them and have no problem with them. Let's all just keep our wits about ourselves and understand there is a difference between apples and oranges in today's college football world. This isn't college football from the 70s and 80's. Things are simply different. Arena league football IS football, but you can't make comparisons between it and the NFL. Both are indeed football, but the attention/notoriety one gets is much different than the other... and it doesn't matter if you finish as champs in arena or last in the NFL.