IBOWL ? for Ragin Pagin

[BlueDawg]

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you gents. Congrats on NO Bowl Victory! This might've been covered in the past but word is UL was offered the Indy Bowl but turned it down to play in New Orleans. Is this accurate? I realize New Orleans is absolutely THE BEST city to have a bowl game in...but I don't understand why a school would turn down a bowl (that's within driving distance) with much higher payout & better opponent....

[CajunJack55]

No one turned down a Bowl...please see the hundreds of other threads from December regarding this.

[CajunRage]

Many conflicting reports on this. I also heard that the ACC called and said no sunbelt teams. We accepted before the Indy was able to even decide on a team due to the SEC championship. IMO we were not offered.

[RaginDave]

As said before, I do believe we were in the discussion, but I believe we were option 2 or 3. Not option 1, we were option 1 in New Orleans and I think we did not want to TECH ourselves out of a bowl like you guys did last year.

There is a good chance we could have gone to the Indy Bowl, but there was a 100% chance of going to the NOB.

[Zeebart21]

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you gents. Congrats on NO Bowl Victory! This might've been covered in the past but word is UL was offered the Indy Bowl but turned it down to play in New Orleans. Is this accurate? I realize New Orleans is absolutely THE BEST city to have a bowl game in...but I don't understand why a school would turn down a bowl (that's within driving distance) with much higher payout & better opponent....

Happy New Year! There are a multitude of theories on this subject. Some know the correct answer most don't have a clue. We have members of the Ibowl board, The Shreveport Times and other "trusted" sources saying one thing, then we have our people saying another.

The truth is somewhere out there. Me? I don't know...

Z

[STEVEAUX UL 78]

2 Birds in a bush

[Lexhead]

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you gents. Congrats on NO Bowl Victory! This might've been covered in the past but word is UL was offered the Indy Bowl but turned it down to play in New Orleans. Is this accurate? I realize New Orleans is absolutely THE BEST city to have a bowl game in...but I don't understand why a school would turn down a bowl (that's within driving distance) with much higher payout & better opponent....

The New Orleans Bowl is a fantastic Bowl. While we might have drawn better opposition in another bowl, the NOLA Bowl is stuck with C-USA, which is loaded with really bad teams. We were in demand, but the NOLA Bowl still made the best financial sense for our program. PLUS it was infinitely better than sitting at home. How did that work out for you guys?

[CajunT]

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you gents. Congrats on NO Bowl Victory! This might've been covered in the past but word is UL was offered the Indy Bowl but turned it down to play in New Orleans. Is this accurate? I realize New Orleans is absolutely THE BEST city to have a bowl game in...but I don't understand why a school would turn down a bowl (that's within driving distance) with much higher payout & better opponent....

The Indy Bowl made it clear Notre Dame was its primary target and UL was secondary to them. The Sun Belt Conference By-Laws does not mandate that it's champion has to be placed in any bowl. UL wasn't protected, so they took the New Orleans Bowl invitation. No one knows for sure if the New Orleans Bowl would have waited on UL's decision after receiving the invitation from R&L Carriers. So the truth of the matter is UL declined to wait on Notre Dame to make its decision.

[RedBug58]

The Indy Bowl made it clear Notre Dame was its primary target and UL was secondary to them. The Sun Belt Conference By-Laws does not mandate that it's champion has to be placed in any bowl. UL wasn't protected, so they took the New Orleans Bowl invitation. No one knows for sure if the New Orleans Bowl would have waited on UL's decision after receiving the invitation from R&L Carriers. So the truth of the matter is UL declined to wait on Notre Dame to make its decision.

Who is playing in the Advocare Bowl anyway? (soumds like a nursing home bowl)

[Turbine]

Congrats on NO Bowl Victory! This might've been covered in the past but word is UL was offered the Indy Bowl but turned it down to play in New Orleans. Is this accurate? I realize New Orleans is absolutely THE BEST city to have a bowl game in...but I don't understand why a school would turn down a bowl (that's within driving distance) with much higher payout & better opponent....

Like you they would have wanted UL to wait till their other options had expired.

There was no guaranteed invite.

[Ned Clampett]

.but I don't understand why a school would turn down a bowl

The hell you say!

Merry Christmas to you too Blue!

[Hammer58]

The Indy Bowl made it clear Notre Dame was its primary target and UL was secondary to them. The Sun Belt Conference By-Laws does not mandate that it's champion has to be placed in any bowl. UL wasn't protected, so they took the New Orleans Bowl invitation. No one knows for sure if the New Orleans Bowl would have waited on UL's decision after receiving the invitation from R&L Carriers. So the truth of the matter is UL declined to wait on Notre Dame to make its decision.

Just another in a long line of reasons to get out of this ____hole of a conference. No other conference fails to protect its champion.

[BlueDawg]

Who is playing in the Advocare Bowl anyway? (soumds like a nursing home bowl)

Boston College/ Arizona. Actually 2 best running backs in the nation will face off against each other. I would much rather see a more regional team (like UL) play Boston College.

[Zeebart21]

So would I. That being said, its all history.

3 bowl games in 3 years is remarkable. We'll get to do it again next year. With any luck, we'll get a shot at a BCS team somewhere else.

[CajunT]

Just another in a long line of reasons to get out of this ____hole of a conference. No other conference fails to protect its champion.

Sadly, ASU had to threaten Benson just to get him to release the current By-Laws. They were password protected on the Sun Belt web site right after the season ended so no one could downloard them. Benson did say in our interview with him, the Sun Belt will not protect the champion with the new bowl agreements either.