Bowling!

The MAC announced its 5 or 6 bowl affiliations today.  To begin with, this is some really nice work by the MAC office in the face of the 6-6 rule switch.  We are protecting our position.  I certainly have criticized the conference when I thought they have not gotten results, but I do believe that this is something they deserve credit for.

We continue to have three automatic bids...the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl, GMAC Bowl and Roady's Humanitarian Bowl. The Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl will have the MAC's No. 1 selection in 2010 and 2012, with the GMAC Bowl having the No. 1 selection in 2011 and 2013. The Roady's Humanitarian Bowl will own the MAC's third selection of bowl eligible teams all four years.

Of course, Roady's replaces the International Bowl that is done.

The MAC has 2 or 3 secondary bowl agreements, all of which have good chances to coming to fruition in any given year.

From the MAC release:

The secondary agreement with the Papajohns.com Bowl, located in Birmingham, Ala., will see the MAC serve as the back-up to both the Southeastern Conference (SEC) No. 8/9 and Big East No. 5/6 selections. The MAC will serve as the second back-up in the Dallas Football Classic in 2010 and 2012, a new bowl game played in the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, Texas. The Dallas Football Classic's primary agreements are Big Ten No. 7 vs. Big 12 No. 8.

So, for Papajohns, I think that it is very possible in a given year that EITHER the SEC or Big East will not have those teams available. The Dallas Classic is equally probable, though we are second backup and it isn't every year.

Finally....

The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl/Poinsettia Bowl/New Mexico Bowl secondary agreement for 2011 and 2013 is as follows: the MAC will back-up Army in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (2011) and Poinsettia Bowl (2013) with the understanding that if Army is not bowl eligible, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) will vacate the New Mexico Bowl and provide a team to the Kraft Fight Hunger and Poinsettia Bowl. The MAC will then provide a team to the New Mexico Bowl against a team from the Mountain West Conference (MWC).

This one, as well, is an excellent opportunity. (How often is Army bowl eligible?).

So, it may not be that we get 5 every year. That has only happened twice anyway. But, I believe that the MAC has a shot at 4 bowl bids every year, and 5 is very possible, even with the rule change designed to keep us out of at-large slots. This is good news...