With the Rutgers win, the Big East now has enough 7-5 teams to prevent the Sun Bowl from selecting Notre Dame. Notre Dame is considered as a member of the Big East pool for 2 bowl games - the Sun and Gator. Notre Dame can be selected by either bowl over any other Big East team UNLESS the Irish are 6-6 and a 7-5 Big East team is still available for a bowl. With Rutgers hitting 7-5 last night, Notre Dame now has no bowl tie-ins. The Irish can only go to a bowl game as an "at large" selection for a bowl game that cannot utilize their conference tie-ins.
Here are the bowls that will be unable to select teams based on their tie ins, each having at least one spot available "at large":
Hawaii Bowl (Dec 24th, Honolulu)
Poinsettia Bowl (Dec 23rd, San Francisco)
Motor City Bowl (Dec 26th, Detroit)
Independence Bowl (Dec 28th, Shreveport)
Texas Bowl (Dec 30th, Houston)
Should any or all of these bowls want Notre Dame, it will be totally up to Notre Dame to decide which offer to accept. From what I am hearing though, Notre Dame wants to avoid any bowl games that would affect exams or occur right around Christmas. [Remember, Notre Dame did not go to any bowl games from 1924 (Rose Bowl) until 1969 (Cotton Bowl), choosing to forgo bowl games and instead have students focus on their exams and the Christmas holidays.] That really only leaves two bowl options - the Independence and the Texas Bowl.
The Texas Bowl has already selected one team - the Rice Owls from Conference USA. As the Big 12 will not have enough eligible teams to fill the other side of the bowl slot (due to 2 teams being in the BCS), the Texas bowl has an at large spot and has been "actively recruiting" Notre Dame, according to the president of the Texas Bowl. Negatives: Playing Rice in Houston, playing a solid offense like Rice. Major downside is that this game will be shown on TV on NFL Network, which is not available to everyone. It will be Tuesday evening game as well, albeit the only college bowl game on at that time. Positives: Playing in an NFL Stadium (Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans). Rice does not have a particularly strong defense.
The Independence Bowl is much more wide open. Since both the Big 12 and SEC will fail to provide a team through their tie ins (largely due to both conferences sending 2 teams to BCS bowls), the Independence Bowl has two spots available. One interesting note - last year the game featured Alabama versus Colorado. As to who the two teams will be, its anyone's guess. La Tech, Memphis, Notre Dame, Arkansas St., Western Michigan, and a few others. Negatives: Not a marquee opponent, Shreveport is pretty boring. Positives: A Sunday night ESPN game national spot, a winnable game, and its a relatively close drive for yours truly.
One major positive from either of these bowls is the opportunity to break the bowl game winning streak. But with an easier opponent than traditional Irish bowl matchup, the potential embarrassment factor also is in play.
If I had to predict the bowl destination, I would say 70% chance of the Texas Bowl against Rice, 30% chance of the Independence Bowl against La-Tech. I personally am rooting for the Independence Bowl due to location, but the Texas Bowl probably sounds like a better fit. Houston is a big Texas city that Notre Dame would like to recruit more in. The stadium is Super Bowl caliber NFL stadium. Rice is a solid and beatable team. Official destination will be known on Sunday at 4pm. More to come then . . .
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