Bobby Bowden Shafts UNC One More Time
by T.H. on Dec 1, 2009 7:55 PM EST
in Football
12 comments
I didn't really blink when I first saw the headlines today announcing that Bobby Bowden's retirement at Florida State was official. I've seen enough comments in the Tomahawk Nation Twitter feed this season to know that Seminoles' fans wanted this. A coaching legend retires, everyone breaks out their valedictory speeches, and I yawn and move on to see what wacky shenanigans Tiger Woods is up to now. Everybody's happy.
But then I saw this at the end of the story:
Gator Bowl President Rick Catlett on 1010XL radio in Jacksonville this morning said that if Bobby agrees to coach the bowl game, FSU will be playing WVU on January 1st. There may be some issues with ACC bowl rules, however, and at this time it is not known if those will be worked out.
The official quote from Catlett is, ""We want Florida State. We want Bobby Bowden to end his career in the Gator Bowl." He thinks he can do it, too despite the rule saying you can't pass over an ACC team who has more than one conference win than the team you want. No matter who wins the ACC championship, and if Virginia Tech is selected for the Peach, that will leave either Georgia Tech (7-1) or Clemson (6-2) available for a Gator Bowl bid ahead of FSU (4-4).
Catlett's logic is insane, arguing that because of another rule saying the Gator must take the loser of the ACC Championship game once every four years – the burden! – and they did that in '06, they're in the clear. I think that's a complete crock, but sense has never been a part of the football postseason. I'm sure FSU will get their New Year's Day game.
Make no mistake about it, FSU is the worst bowl team the ACC is putting forth this season. They're 6-6 when everyone else is 8-4 or better,and lost to four of the five other bowl teams they played in conference. But hey, a nice guy is retiring, so go ahead and bump them to the front of the line. Awesome.
This may or may not bump the Heels down from their likely spot in the Music City. With FSU in the Gator, the Champs probably will take the Clemson/Georgia Tech loser. If they choice is Clemson and they're fully wedded to Miami, Clemson falls to the Nashville slot. Otherwise, it could be the Hurricanes. That means Carolina falls to Charlotte, who may choose to pass and relegate the Heels to the Emerald in San Francisco. Which would be a much more entertaining location, but an incredibly dull game.
Even if the Music City is infatuated with a UNC-Kentucky matchup enough to keep the Heels, somebody among Clemson, Miami, or Georgia Tech is getting screwed. (Boston College, of course, is always getting screwed. It's in their charter.) All to put Bobby Bowden on the field in Jacksonville for what will surely be a horrible football game. Welcome to the college football, where the entire season forty-four year career is one long, byzantine playoff.
On the other hand, can we extend this bonus-wins-for-retiring-plan to other sports? And retroactively? Because I'm thnking Dean Smith: 1997 NCAA Championship coach. Lute can get his when he retires.
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sucks bro
The college football season is so fragile. It's like a glass ball being pushed around from stadium to stadium by a rhinoceros.
by Winfield Featherston on Dec 1, 2009 8:14 PM EST reply actions
BC is in the Emerald. Mark it down.
The funny part is … that’s probably the best game of the Car Care / Music City / Nut Bowls. BC will likely play a ranked Cal or Stanford team. The Music City Bowl will end up with a 3-5 SEC team, and the Car Care Bowl will get a meh Big East team.
Also, completely agree. FSU is – going away – THE worst ACC bowl team and this move would be ridiculous. Why should the ACC cater to the Gator Bowl? The league owes them NOTHING. All they ever did was bitch about ACC Championship Game attendance and try every which way to get around ACC bowl selection rules. Not to mention the fact that this is the last year the Gator Bowl is tied in with the ACC.
I say let the door hit the Gator Bowl on the way out. The ACC doesn’t owe them anything. Let the bowl selection process run it’s course and have the Car Care or Music City Bowl get the needed boost to attendance for Bowden’s last game.
The bowl selection process isn’t fair to begin with, but FSU jumping a much more deserving Clemson or Georgia Tech team is extremely unfair to those players.
The Only Way That Doesn't Happen
Is if UNC falls to the Meineke, and they somehow decide that have Carolina two years running isn’t going to pull in the money. But I agree, not only is SF a better destination for a fan than Nashville or Charlotte, it’ll be a better game.
The ACC will completely cave to the Gator, though. They’ll get more money because of it, and to put up a fuss will be viewed as an insult to Bowden. And that’s even before you get into the Bowden-WVU connection. FSU will get crushed and no one will stop to think if it was fair to the players who got skipped over.
I think this is an embarassment to the ACC
No one asked Florida State to fire Bowden without any fanfare …
No one made the Seminoles go 6-6 …
Again, this is absurd.
This sounds like a done deal. You would think the ACC would go to bat for the bowls that are sticking with them over the next four years. Not kowtow to the Gator Bowl Association and Jacksonville, who care more about a meaningless mid-season UF-UGA game than the ACC Championship and the Gator Bowl.
Bowden should be ashamed for putting his selfish interests above the rest of the conference. Swofford should be ashamed too.
woah
First off while I do agree that FSU is screwing people the ACC isn’t doing them a favor they’re actually killing the bowl as a whole. Yes FSU will probably sell it out but the hotel, restaurant (ie the numbers J-Ville as a whole needs) will be significantly lower than a Clemson, GT or Miami visit.
Secondly perhaps the Music City needs a Bowden boost but the Meineke Car Care bowl certainly won’t be bouyed by Bowden. If anything the Charlotte Sports Committee has a mega hard-on right now because they can get the Tar Heels back and, if Pitt loses, have a UNC-Pitt for a second sellout in a row.
ItsFELDER
by MichaelFelder on Dec 3, 2009 5:52 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Rivals.com Prediction
This week’s rivals.com predictions are out today (Wed), and they have taken into account the Bowden announcement with the Gator predicting FSU-WVU in Jax for New Year’s Day. (The other weekly prediction sites came out yesterday before Bowden’s bombshell about wanting to play in a FL Bowl.)
The funny thing is that they also shifted the ACC bowl predictions in a way that shows a potential benefit for Carolina. Rivals.com predicts that Clemson drops all the way down to Music City, Miami goes to Charlotte (to face Pitt) and UNC gets Orlando (vs. Northwestern). This would be great for Carolina, but I don’t see how / why UNC gets picked ahead of Miami and Clemson (much as I’d like for that to happen). I can’t imagine that the folks at rivals.com don’t have some inside info, but this really doesn’t make sense.
I know that the bowls want to pit Miami against a Big East former rival, so maybe that is part of the backroom deal getting worked out. Perhaps Champs Sports in Orlando wouldn’t want Clemson, but I’d really think they’d want Miami (except that they are obligated to the Big Ten rather than the Big East for the opposing team).
I’m not holding my breath, but Orlando would be much better than Nashville or Charlotte . . . and, while San Francisco is nice, and a game vs. Cal or Stanford would be interesting . . . it’s just too far for a football game the day after Christmas. Does anyone else see any other predictions like this (from reliable sources)?
Is there that big of a rivalry left between Miami and the, what, three teams left in the Big East from their time there? I don’t know any WVU or Pitt fans with a grudge against the Hurricanes, but my sample size is limited.
I see no way Orlando takes the Heels ahead of Clemson. Yeah, Clemson would be coming off two straight losses, but they travel well and had a six game winning streak going into the USC game.
And of course, if this is an accurate reading of the NCAA guidelines, everything is in disarray. You can work backwards putting BC in Charlotte, UNC in Nashville, etc…
UNC's Bowls
Brian’s right, we’re most likely Charlotte bound. If I had to put a number to it I’d say 70% Charlotte, 20% Nashville and 10% Orlando right now.
I don’t understand why people are saying Orlando is better than Nashville unless you’re talking exclusively money-wise. Weather is your #1 bowl factor? To me a match up with Pitt in Charlotte or any SEC team in Nashville is more intriguing than a Big 10 squad.
Charlotte for 2 years in a row wouldn’t be great for our guys in terms of moral but for the fanbase and attendance the bowl would be looking at, at least 60,000+, week long event attendance and the communtiy would enjoy the influx.
I live here in Charlotte, I’m rooting for Nashville but we’ll see.
ItsFELDER
by MichaelFelder on Dec 3, 2009 6:03 AM EST via mobile reply actions
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