PreGame 2011 New Orleans Bowl - Walking To New Orleans

[Hammer58]

I will buy mine as soon as they are available through UL. For those that have already put their deposits down, is it general admission or can you buy a specific seat?

The deposit just reserved a ticket. We will begin to get to select seats when they start calling people today to finalize the sale.

[Hammer58]

How 'bout a poll Turbine??!

Food Network featured both on one of their shows and a panel picked Domilise's over Parkway.

[CajunRed]

What else do you expect from Donna Shalala.

[Turbine]

Every school that has pulled this move has suffered a few (more) years of below average results.

By that I mean the pride move led to years where they couldn't go bowling if they wanted to.

[gatadotcom]

Turbine- check your PMs.

[cajunhawk]

So let's say CUSA has 6 bowl eligible teams.

Southern Miss
Winner of ECU/Marshall game
Houston
Tulsa
UTEP(only if they beat UCF in their finale)

CUSA has six bowl tie ins.

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Beef O' Brady's St Petersburg Bowl (WTF is Beef O' Brady's)
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
Autozone Liberty Bowl
Ticketcity Bowl


I can see SMU and Tulsa both trying for either the Armed Forces or Ticketcity Bowls. Both are in Dallas. One is at SMU's stadium other at Cotton Bowl.

Houston if they keep winning will get a BCS game. I expect Houston to win on the road against Tulsa. That would make the CUSA championship game Houston vs. Southern Miss. Houston wins...BCS game Southern Miss still goes to Liberty Bowl, Southern Miss wins they go to Liberty Bowl and Houston hopefully looks towards New Orleans. So if Houston beats Tulsa, Southern Miss is going to the Liberty Bowl come hell or high water.

The winner of the ECU/Marshall game will be scraping the walls to get to the Beef O' friggin Brady's bowl thing since they are the only two eastern teams and that is really the only eastern bowl they have.

If UTEP wins the game against UCF I think they get shipped to Hawaii. if UTEP doesn't win and Houston wins and goes to a BCS bowl....Hawaii will be without a CUSA team.


I'm going to predict only 5 bowl eligible teams for CUSA. I don't see Houston losing to anyone until the BCS game so that only leaves 4 CUSA teams for 6 bowl slots. I see Hawaii and New Orleans wide open.

That means...mystery opponent!!!!

Big East has 6 bowl tie ins(5 regular and a BCS bowl) and 4 eligible as of today with 3 more possible. Pitt has 2 games to win one...WVU this Friday and Syracuse in two weeks. I expect them to get eligible. That's 5. Next up UCONN...they have 2 games to get two wins...I do no expect them to become bowl eligible. South Florida has two games to get one win. I think they can get that one win. That makes 6. That leaves Syracuse who has two games to win one. I think they can do it. That makes 7. Hell there is a scenario where every Big East team goes bowling. Pitt beats West Virginia but loses to Syracuse. Both Pitt and Syracuse are bowl eligible. South Florida beats Louisville and they are eligible. If UCONN beats Rutgers and Cincinnati...all 8 Big East teams are bowl eligible. There is a good chance that the Big East sends someone to New Orleans if there is an opening.

Big Ten has 8 bowl tie ins(7 regular and a BCS). If Michigan beats Ohio State there is a good chance they will be a second at large BCS bid for the Big Ten. That really makes 9 tie ins. The Big Ten as of right now has 9 eligible teams and Purdue at 5-6 with only Indiana to play. Purdue will be bowl eligible. That makes 10. That's 2 teams that the Big Ten has that can be hole stuffers for bowls that aren't filled. There is a good chance a Big Ten team can be sent to New Orleans to fill a hole.

Best scenario for the Cajuns...Tulsa upsets Houston or Houston beats Tulsa and loses to Southern Miss in CUSA Championship game...Houston beats Southern Miss in CUSA Championship game and Houston occupies the Liberty spot. That leaves Southern Miss with open arms coming for New Orleans. That's what we want. The dome packed to the rafters...and no black and gold in sight. Tee hee.

[anhil8tor]

http://mahonyspoboys.com/

http://www.mothersrestaurant.net/

http://www.cafedumonde.com/

Three I plan on hitting.....

[Lafitte the Pirate]

Guys I did my homework here so this is what I came up with:

The most likely team we will play is East Carolina. We are supposed to be matched up against the #5 team from CUSA and that team is ECU. ECU still needs to beat Marshell to get bowl eligible but if they fail then Marshell becomes bowl eligible, then Marshell becomes the 2nd most likely team that the Cajuns will face. One other team from CUSA that can still get eligible is UTEP but they have to win their last game and it is on the road at Central Florida which will be tough. So again my guess is ECU, then Marshell, then UTEP.

Houston may get a chance to go to the Sugar Bowl if they win out which they will be favored. This will leave the CUSA bowl tie-ins short by at least 1 and likely 2 if UTEP loses to UCF on the road. So since the N.O. Bowl is not one of the higher rated CUSA bowls, so it could very well be left open for an at- large team.

Next in line my guess is a team from the Big East as they will have more teams bowl eligible then bowl tie-ins. The most likely team here is South Florida but they must either beat Louisville or West Virgina. If they fail in both games than other teams from the Big East that may fill an at-large spot could be Syracuse, UConn, or Pitt. I don't think these other Big East teams will be sent here because of geographic location and they all have work to do to get eligible.

Big XII has 8 bowl eligible teams right now with just 7 bowl tie-ins. The the 8th team is Iowa St. With that big win over Ok St. this past week I bet a bowl committee will be looking to take them and since they are in the Big XII (a Southern conference) they seem like a likely candidate. One other team from the Big XII that can get bowl eligible with a win next week at home is Texas Tech, but they face Baylor. In an upset win here Texas Tech may get the nod over Iowa St. and a better geographic fit being from the south and just 1 state over.

Another possibility is a team from the ACC. Two teams here are Wake Forest or North Carolina St. Both teams are already eligibe and the ACC has 9 teams eligible right now and they have just 8 bowl tie-ins.

Not done yet. The Big X has 9 bowl eligible teams and if Purdue can beat Indiana next week the conference will have 10 bowl eligible teams, so because of the rich Big X tradition and good following they will be looking to place as many teams as possible. Teams that may fall our way are Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue, or Illinois.

My guess is if CUSA does not place a team in the N.O. bowl, the N.O. bowl will be a fall back bowl to one of these other teams and will likely be a late announcement.

North Carolina State is not bowl eligible yet. It has two wins over a 1-AA school and would need one more win to be eligible.

[Lafitte the Pirate]

Neither is Eastern Michigan. It also has two wins over 1-AA schools and would need one more win to be eligible!!

[USLJim]

Hooray, I agree, don't accommodate those guys, let them wait next year when they come to Cajun Field and play us, don't need to help them with any prestige. Looks like they will have a bowl anyway to go to. Hey they won but their fans can travel, can't they.

GEAUX CAJUNS

[cajun_civil]

Hooray, I agree, don't accommodate those guys, let them wait next year when they come to Cajun Field and play us, don't need to help them with any prestige. Looks like they will have a bowl anyway to go to. Hey they won but their fans can travel, can't they.

GEAUX CAJUNS

Nechster in boise=seperation!

[billbeck451]

cbs bowl projections have smu highlighted on the bowl in Dallas, so I guess they are out of the formula, and with UH and USM almost definitly going to different bowls that starts to make the cusa options pretty thin