July 28, 2008

Sun Belt inks provisional deals with three bowls

If your conference can fill all of its bowl slots, there's a pretty good chance that a Sun Belt Conference team might swoop in and drink your milkshake, accoding to CBS Sportsline.

The Sun Belt Conference announced Tuesday that it has signed agreements with the St. Petersburg Bowl, the Papajohns.com Bowl and the PetroSun Independence Bowl.

The new agreements will take effect immediately, covering both the 2008 and 2009 football season.

Bowl-eligible teams from the Sun Belt Conference will be the first available teams in these bowls if a conference is unable to fill its slot, under the terms of the new agreement. In the past, the bowls have had to solicit teams on an at-large basis to fill in when teams did not become bowl eligible.

It's an interesting angle. Perhaps both sides are kinda taking a flyer on this one. The Sun Belt doesn't get much out of it on first blush.

The conference champion for the Sun Belt is still slotted to the R+L Carriers Bowl, but... with a glut of college bowl games, there's a better than zero chance that a Sun Belt team that wouldn't have gotten a bid may now end up in these games over another at-large mid-major team. In that regard, it could end up being a big push for the Sun Belt.

Posted by Kevin Donahue

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Sun Belt inks provisional deals with three bowls
If your conference can fill all of its bowl slots, there's a pretty good chance that a Sun Belt Conference team might swoop in and drink your milkshake, accoding to CBS Sportsline.
The Sun Belt Conference announced Tuesday that it has signed agreements with the St. Petersburg Bowl, the Papajohns.com Bowl and the PetroSun Independence Bowl.
The new agreements will take effect immediately, covering both the 2008 and 2009 football season. Bowl-eligible teams from the Sun Belt Conference will be the first available teams in these bowls if a conference is unable to fill its slot, under the terms of the new agreement. In the past, the bowls have had to solicit teams on an at-large basis to fill in when teams did not become bowl eligible. It's an interesting angle. Perhaps both sides are kinda taking a flyer on this one. The Sun Belt doesn't get much out of it on first blush. The conference champion for the Sun Belt is still slotted to the R+L Carriers Bowl, but... with a glut of college bowl games, there's a better than zero chance that a Sun Belt team that wouldn't have gotten a bid may now end up in these games over another at-large mid-major team. In that regard, it could end up being a big push for the Sun Belt.