4 teams, UL Monroe (6-6), Miami, Ohio (6-6), Wyoming (6-6), and Southern Miss (6-5) became bowl eligible this year but unfortunately were left out since there were only 78 bowl births but 82 bowl eligible teams.
So my question is, do they still get the extra practices? I would really hope so since bowl bids are basically popularity contests and I'd feel really bad if certain teams are left out just because they "don't have the tv draw as other schools" when they're on the field performance should've earned them the extra practice time
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I say this only because we did in fact get invited.
That's really unfortunate for those kids especially the seniors, they all thought they'd have one more game and for a few of these teams a 6 win season is may actually be an improvement and something to be proud of.
They should host an impromptu bowl game against each other. Or a playoff of left outs.
They're thinking about it.
Oh so Wyoming can head to So Miss and all the nonbowlers can go someplace warm this winter.
I like the playoff for left outs idea. I can see some sponsors jumping at that.
Tupperware!!!
You know, for the leftovers.
There is a trophy ready to go:
hahahahaha. As hokie fireman pointed out earlier this week, southern miss told us to pound sand rather than be our 12 game
because they had already sewed up bowl eligibility.I take great joy in thinking that, in some way, we may have taken their bowl slot (or caused a cascade effect that took theirs).I'm pretty sure they announced they weren't going to seek a 12th game before they got to six wins.
You're right, my bad.
Right because they thought just getting to 6 wins would be enough, it wasn't. If they had played Tech close in a 12th game maybe more eyeballs would have meant a bowl spot.
When did they decide they were against a 12th game?
In the last week of October it looked unlikely they'd get six wins. They were 3-4 and on their schedule they had 5-2 Marshall, 7-1 UAB, 6-2 LaTech, 0-8 UTEP. That's pretty optimistic to hope for 3/4 of those. Even then, you have to be thinking you're most likely the first team out with the C-USA bowl bids unless you can win out and everyone else goes to trash. You had MTSU and Marshall with 5 wins, FIU and LaTech with 6, both NT and UAB have 7. Each of them also had a couple of cupcake games left.
I guess retrospect is 20-20, but looks pretty obvious that they'd be left out unless they could get 7 wins. If they could, they would've been in over LaTech. That's still the case even if they're 7-5 with a loss to VT.
In their defense, they were just a win away and they took UAB to OT. But still, they could've just taken the payday anyway.
ECU shafted us. Then we reach out to Southern Miss who shafted us. Then the SoMiss AD goes to ECU. Pretty sure that completes that circle of ECU hatred.
Eh, I'm against that feeling because why risk injury when they have nothing to play for. The same of course could be said for Marshall, but as it's been stated we have a strong history with them and I'm sure of them feel like they did us a favor. So sometime in the future they'll expect us to pay it back.
If I'm southern Miss, why risk injury/another loss for a school I have no strong feelings for or against
But then again, karma is as karma does or however that saying goes.
Well, Marshall had about 1.4 million reasons to agree to the game with us. Part of their insurance policy for the cancelled game indicated that they would forfeit the payment if they were presented the opportunity to make up the game but declined.
So they could have told Whit "no thanks", but then they would have missed out on a $1.4 million check.
I'm be surprised if the approach happened in such a way to jeopardize MU's insurance policy. I'm sure the terms were agreed on before we "offered" them the opportunity. Kinda like passing a note in 6th grade
You forgot to pre-check the 'Yes' box
It's a gif. You just have to wait a while for the check mark to appear.
Trust me.
I'm sure some amount of money was offered to Southern Miss, but probably less considering it might not have been turned into a series?
Either way I still would hope the players get extra practices
Would have been a pretty big win for them if they could have pulled it off in a down year for VT.
The story with Marshall was a lot more compelling, though.
And this is different from VT only scheduling Marshall if it was needed for bowl eligibility because..... reasons?
If they can sell enough tickets to make it profitable to play among themselves, go for it.
I didn't see liberty on the bowl schedule, did they get left out too?
I think they are on some first year probation thing
https://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm?PID=36963&newsID=20457&teamID=9
They're still in transition, and two of their wins were FCS.
They're not eligible this year because they're in the last year of transition to I-A. The only way they would have become eligible is if all of the following happened:
a. there weren't enough 6-6 or better teams with wins over exactly 1 I-AA opponent
b. there weren't enough 6-6 or better teams with wins over exactly 2 I-AA opponents
c. there were no 6-7 teams that either played in conference championship games or played at Hawaii/were Hawaii
If all three of those had happened, then Liberty would have been slotted before any 5-7 teams.
Not this year
Edit: Reply to ACowne63
Well there is some irony in the fact that the teams that could benefit the most from extra practice don't get the extra practice.
The rich get richer.
Unless you're Free Shoes University