Here comes the Sun: Bulls off to El Paso

The Sun Bowl's selection committee voted Monday night to extend a formal invitation today to USF, which will play in the Dec. 31 game in El Paso, Texas.

"It was a heated conversation, but at the end of the day, our guys voted with their hearts and we came out with USF," said John Folmer, president of the selection committee. "A lot had to do with the way USF played early, how highly they were ranked. They're a great story, a team that beat a great Auburn team, beat a West Virginia team that's probably going to play for the national title."

USF has scheduled a 4 p.m. news conference for Tuesday afternoon. Sun Bowl officials had said they expected to choose the Big East team ranked highest in the BCS standings, and USF came in Sunday at No. 21, two spots ahead of Cincinnati. The Bearcats beat the Bulls 38-33 in Tampa, but Folmer said there were enough other factors in USF's favor to overcome that.

"That was the hardest thing," he said. "They did lose to Cincinnati, but you also have to consider the teams Cincinnati lost to."

And believe it or not, an online poll on the Sun Bowl's web site asking fans who they wanted in El Paso was discussed in the selection committee meeting. About 87 percent of 13,000-plus voters chose USF, a huge majority that Folmer called "incredible." Told of the wide margin before entering the meeting, he had to check with his "computer guy" to make sure the poll hadn't been compromised.

The Bulls will have a national CBS audience for their third bowl game, which will also feature a Pac-10 team to be determined next week, likely Oregon or UCLA. The Sun Bowl is the Big East's top bowl next to its automatic BCS berth, and USF will get a check for $1.5-million from the Big East for playing in El Paso.

Comments

[JL]

Booyah!

If we get to play Oregon, what are the chances Dixon will be ready? Is he out for the season, or could he be ready by in 5 weeks???

I hope he plays!

[Amanda]

What does the bowl payout usually go to? Is it given just to the football team or do they have to share it with the university?

[Tom]

YES! Now I can make travel arrangements.

GOOOOOOOOOO BULLS!!!

[Josh]

That's great news for USF but I hope they find a cheaper way for the fans to get to El Paso. I did some research and it looks like the tickets on Southwest, which takes you direct to El Paso, are $500 round trip per person to get there.

Dunno if my wife and I can afford that trip... but we'll throw one heck of a party here! :-) GO BULLS!

[Dave W]

JL- pretty sure Dixon is done. I thought I heard that he will have trouble at the combine, let alone the bowl.

Anyways, a 4 game BBall winning streak and the most prestigious bowl we've been to? What a good night for USF athletics! Throw in the strong season by men's soccer, and this is a good time (for the record, the BBall thing will probably end, so we should enjoy it while it lasts).

[cee]

what a pathetic bowl game.. anything short of a BCS game should be considered a shame. and who the hell wants to go to el paso of all places? this has been a year of disappointments and now we are faced with some 2nd rate bowl game in some quasi-mexican town. jesus christ. regardless of if dixon plays, we will get crushed if we play oregon. our porous defense will make ryan leaf's little brother look like peyton manning.

[Amanda]

I also figured out that with a car that has 20 miles a gallon, it would cost at least $350 in gas to go to El Paso and back. That's a lot of gas!

Hey cee did you cee oregon get shutout against a crappy ucla team.

[Rob]

Cee your grammer is horrendous! Your outlook proves that you are just a child. Please use the computer to educate yourself. Now stop calling yourself a fan and go back to writing for the Sentinel!

[JL]

You mean "grammar"

[VOR]

Was wondering if (no)cee would crawl out from under his rock this week.
Who wants this "crappy" bowl?
Well I'd say Conn,Cinn,Rut,Lou,Pitt and Syr would kill to be there.
Now shut up and go back to sucking your thumb or whatever it is you do when your not annoying folks on this blog with your played out dribble.

[Bully]

ahhh yes, cee has come back to grace us with his presence. Don't worry cee WVU will play in the Nat'l championship despite the game they lost to USF, be happy!

[Kyle]

Where will the mexican food be better? Juarez or El Paso?
Which city has more mexicans?
Juarex or El Paso?

We need to lobby to play against Oregon, they might be a slightly more competitive team than ucla even without Dixon.

[nybullsfan]

Even if you can't afford to go all the way to El Paso to attend the game in person, please buy some of the tickets that will be allocated to USF to sell, and then donate them to the Boys and Girls Clubs of El Paso.

It's important that we buy them from the school's allocation, not stubhub or ticketmaster, so we get credit for the sale, and earn a reputation as a team that travels well. (Also, even if we don't sell all the tickets we're allocated, the school has to pay the bowl anyway)

Go BULLS!

[VOR]

Just wondering, If you buy the Tix and donate them to the Boys & Girls club I would immagine it would be tax deductible?

[Ari Hinkelberger]

I just want to put out a notice that I have a bunch of friends from Texas (I know its a huge state) and I mentioned that were going to the Sun Bowl in El Paso and without hesitation all of them said "El Paso is a GREAT town, you'll have an awesome time."

They mentioned some party scene across the border and how its a pretty cool slice of the Southwest.

It was odd, I was expecting them to make some stupid comment about crappy bowls since they are all Texas Longhorn guys, but they were all in unity about how chill El Paso was. Odd.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

I think what I am going to do in El Paso is find me one of these Sun Princesses..

The Sun Queen isn't that hot, but one of these princesses gotta be 10 beer territory. I always wanted to tell the boys I bagged a Sun Queen.

http://www.sunbowl.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=106&Itemid=2

[VOR]

Just did a quick Expedia search for two (2)people for two (2) nights including flight, room and rental car starting at $507 PER PERSON add $40-$60 for game tix plus food & drink and you are set.
Here is the link:
http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=cctr

[Jtrain]

So it looks like USC is heading to the Rose Bowl, Arizona State to a BCS game as an at-large team, Oregon State to the Holiday Bowl (assuming they beat Oregon), leaving USF to play Oregon in the Sun Bowl (unless UCLA upsets USC and UCLA thus gets the Sun Bowl bid). I'm pretty sure Dennis Dixon is out for the season with a torn ACL. The Bulls will wallop Dixon-less Oregon 52-3. Even with a healthy Dixon, USF would win 41-27. USF is a top 10 caliber team that deserves to be ranked no worse than 15th right now. Hopefully, after we demolish Oregon, we'll crack the top 15 in the final rankings.

[VOR]

Lik won't work since its a bookmark but anyway it was for a 1 stop flight leaving Tampa Friday the 28th returning Sunday the 30th. Included 2 night stay in 2* hotel in El Paso and an economy car for 2 days.
Not quite as bad as I thought.

[Jtrain]

I have an uncle who lives in southeastern Arizona, 300 miles from El Paso. So I'm going to kill two birds with one stone (visit my uncle and see USF crush Oregon). I'll fly out to El Paso on December 26, rent a car for a week, drive to Sierra Vista, Arizona, spend a several days with the uncle, drive back to El Paso and get a hotel room for 2 nights, go to the game, and fly back to Tampa on January 2.

Also, instead of donating tickets to the El Paso Boys and Girls club you can donate tickets to USF students at the www.gousfbulls.com link.

[R. A.]

Congrats on the Sun Bowl invite Bulls fans. I am a UT Longhorn living in Austin, but I have to admit I really enjoyed watching USF's games this year. Enjoy your stay in Texas and good luck in your game.

Hook 'em
Rick

[JD]

Finally being a Bulls fan in Texas pays off! A football fiesta with 8,000 of my closest alumni friends sounds like the perfect end to 2007.

[Justin]

Vor, the only problem with your travel arrangments is that the game is played on the 31st so if you went to El Paso for the 28-30 I'm afraid you'd miss the game...

[GP]

Hey Greg, is the Sun Bowl the best after the BCS bid because the Gator has opted for the Big Twelve?

[Stephen Blackehart]

GP,
The Sun Bowl is the second oldest bowl there is, after the Rose Bowl Which is a mile from my house). I think the Sun's one of the best bowls around, and was surprised that they weren't included in the BCS discussion some years ago. They don't quite have the PR that the Fiesta has, though, so that's probably why.
Heck, I may even see if I can make it down to El Paso. I could crank the Marty Robbins songs the whole way...be a helluva road trip, right?

[Jtrain]

Yeah, the Gator Bowl chose Texas Tech this year because the joint Gator Bowl/Sun Bowl arrangement began with the 2006-2007 bowl season. It created a four year block where the Gator Bowl picks first each year, and over the four year time period, each bowl gets two Big East and two Big 12 teams.

Last year the Gator Bowl chose West Virginia from the Big East and the Sun Bowl got Missouri from the Big 12. So if the Gator Bowl chose USF this year, they'd be locked into having to select Big 12 teams for the Gator Bowls January 1, 2009, and January 1, 2010.

The Gator Bowl is hoping to get Notre Dame in either 2009 or 2010, which is why they're passing on USF and choosing Texas Tech. It's not like they expect Red Raider fans to travel to Jacksonville in droves.

It stinks that Notre Dame, whenever they're bowl eligible but not eligible for a BCS bowl, counts as a Big East football team for the Big East bowl tie-ins.

Fortunately, Notre Dame finished 3-9 this year. If Notre Dame was 8-4, the Gator Bowl would certainly choose Notre Dame and all the other Big East bowl eligible teams would be pushed further down the bowl ladder.

USF would be stuck in the PapaJohns.com Bowl, Cincinnati in the Meineke Car Car Bowl, Connecticut in the International Bowl, and Rutgers would be left out in the cold. It's not fair.

Notre Dame needs to either become a full-time Big East football member or the Big East needs to stop allowing Notre Dame to count as part of the Big East's slate of non-BCS bowl contenders.

It's time for the Big East to stand up to Notre Dame and stop letting them have their cake and eat it too, because it hurts the eight universities who are full-time Big East football members.

[Jtrain]

I just booked my flight and rental car on Expedia.com. The flight was $398 round trip (to El Paso on December 25 and back to Tampa on January 1) and the car rental was $226 for one week (for a Chrysler Sebring). I still need to book a hotel for the December 30 and December 31 in El Paso. All in all, it'll be a fun week for about $1,000.

[Stephen Blackehart]

I'm with you, JTrain. Sure, the Big East would kill to have ND join as a full, all-sports member, but as long as things stay like they are it's never going to happen. ND gets a special deal with the BCS and their own TV deal with NBC. They can schedule absolutely anyone they want to, and when they're eligible they can go to any bowl, anywhere (including our BE tie-ins). They have *zero* motivation to join.

I'm hoping the BCS takes that special deal away, maybe when they're forced to include a couple more conferences in a few years.

[Jtrain]

Cee, the Sun Bowl is not a bunk bowl. The Gator Bowl, Sun Bowl, Outback Bowl and Capital One bowl are equally the most prestigious of all the non-BCS bowls. This is a huge milestone for the USF football team. El Paso is a much better vacation destination than Jacksonville, especially for Floridians who aren't accustomed to breathtaking mountain and desert scenery. It will be well worth the trip for all that go. El Paso isn't known as a balmy winter locale. But it is warm enough that palm trees grow there with no problem.

[Jtrain]

This describes the overall Big East bowl situation and how Notre Dame is (unfairly) factored into the mix.

-------------------------------------

The BIG EAST Bowl Lineup

In addition to the Bowl Championship Series, the BIG EAST Conference also has agreements with a number of other postseason bowl games.

The BIG EAST and Big 12 Conferences — along with Notre Dame — forged a bowl partnership beginning in ‘06. This agreement assures both BCS Conferences’ and Notre Dame’s participation in the Konica Gator Bowl and Brut Sun Bowl over a four-year period. The Konica Gator Bowl or Brut Sun Bowl will pick a BIG EAST team after the league’s representative to the Bowl Championship Series has been determined. The Atlantic Coast Conference will provide the opposition in the Gator Bowl (CBS) and the Pac-10 Conference will participate in the Brut Sun Bowl (CBS).

The Konica Gator Bowl has the first selection at the conclusion of each season. During the four years of the deal, the BIG EAST (or Notre Dame) will send a team to both the Konica Gator Bowl and the Sun Bowl twice.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl is now in its sixth year with the BIG EAST Conference. The Meineke Car Care Bowl, which is played in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., picks after the Toyota Gator Bowl or Brut Sun Bowl.

In 2006, the BIG EAST entered into a four-year agreement to participate in the Texas Bowl versus an opponent from the Big 12 Conference. During the four-year agreement, the BIG EAST is guaranteed to play in the bowl game twice (2006 and 2008). The Texas Bowl is played at the state-of-the-art Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The BIG EAST will not have a team in the Texas Bowl in 2007.

The BIG EAST Conference also aligned itself with two new bowls beginning last season – the International Bowl in Toronto, Ontario, and the PapaJohn’s.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala. The agreements give the BIG EAST a total of six bowl deals. In the International Bowl, the BIG EAST faces a team from the Mid-American Conference. In the PapaJohn’s.com Bowl, the BIG EAST plays a team from Conference USA.

Standings Conf. Overall
West Virginia 5-1 .833 10-1 .909
UConn 5-2 .714 9-3 .750
USF 4-3 .571 9-3 .750
Cincinnati 4-3 .571 9-3 .750
Rutgers 3-3 .500 7-4 .636
Pittsburgh 2-4 .400 4-7 .400
Louisville 2-4 .333 5-6 .455
Syracuse 1-6 .143 2-10 .167

[Mike]

As cool as the Sun Bowl is for USF, it's a far cry from the top tier non-BCS bowls. I'd put the Holiday, Cotton, Peach, Gator, Capital One and Outback bowls all ahead of the Sun Bowl. At least those bowls will likely have 2 ranked teams.

[Jtrain]

I'd like to see the Big East boot Notre Dame if they don't accept full football membership. We don't need their quasi-association/non-participation in football and full participation in other sports to add prestige to the conference.

The Big East has improved dramatically and gotton very deep with good teams since Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College left. West Virginia, USF, Cincinnati, UConn, Rutgers, and Lousiville are as good a top 6 as any conference in America has.

West Virginia will win the national championship and, once and for all, put the Big East on par with the other BCS conferences in the national mindset.

[Jtrain]

I forgot to mention the Cotton, Holiday, and Peach bowls. However, the Sun Bowl is right there with all of them. It's a major step up from the lower-tier bowls.

The national TV exposure in the Sun Bowl on CBS, the 6-0 start and #2 ranking, the wins over West Virginia and Auburn, and a top 20 finish will enable Jim Leavitt to bring in a top notch recruiting class next year.

Hopefully we'll be able to get a steady recruiting pipeline from this point forward and get to where we reload instead of rebuild every few years.

[Mike Lakeland]

awww man =/

Unless I win the lottery, no bowl for me.

I'll still buy two tickets though!

[Jtrain]

Mike, you can fly round trip to El Paso for about $400. Rent a car for two days for about $60. Get a hotel room for two nights for about $100. The game tickets are $40-60. Figure food and beer would cost about $100. So you can do the whole trip for $700-720. Not bad for a New Year's getaway.

The average El Paso temperatures for December and January are a high of 57 and a low of 33. Not bad at all. I've been there a couple times (both in the wintertime). It is a really nice city with spectacular scenery. It's pretty similar to Tucson, Arizona as far as scenery, weather, and demographics are concerned.

[Jtrain]

El Paso is also about the same size as Tucson, Arizona. Anyway, here's some pictures of the El Paso area (courtesy of UTEP).

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://iilab.utep.edu/images/El%2520Paso%2520downtown.jpg&imgrefurl=http://iilab.utep.edu/elpaso.htm&h=360&w=480&sz=36&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=RU9Dr9-tauqypM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3DEl%2BPaso%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGIH_enUS242US243%26sa%3DN

[Brian]

It looks like there was a big run on Cincy students visiting that bowl website ... they have taken 50% of the vote. Or perhaps those are Pac 10 teams hoping for an Oregon State Cincy rematch. What a blasting at the start of the year that was.

[Brett]

I grew up 30 minutes from El Paso in Las Cruces, NM. The Bowl is a pretty decent bowl, and if you aren't from there the culture might be interesting. I suggest going to White Sands National Monument and Juarez markets(during the DAY, not at night) for touristy things. If you have time, Carlsbad Caverns would be an awesome experience. All in all it should be fun and we should all be proud of the Bulls!

[pch]

Cincy students may have made a run on the online poll at http://www.sunbowl.org, but the clock obviously ran out on them, considering the results that the bowl committee looked at had USF with 87% of the votes (per Greg's post).

[cee]

If UCF could go to the Sun Bowl, they would beat the snot out of USF. Jim Leavitt is a poor excuse for a coach and he should be replaced by someone with the same reputation as George O'Leary. George does not recruite convicts and players with 5+ children. Just a thought... I will be in El Paso..

[G.A.]

The voting on that poll is strange: not sure why you wait until after the selection committee has met and picked another team to bombard their poll with votes for your team.

I'm going to go see if I can add some online ballots and get Nomar Garciaparra some more votes for the 2001 All-Star game.

And you guys need to stop posting messages as cee. it's a headache for me, and every minute I spend removing your posts is a minute not spent making calls and getting news for you guys. Enough already.

[Marc]

Notre Dame thought George O'Leary had a great reputation........once.

[JL]

Ohhhhhh.

Greg got angry...he no likey others posting as cee.

Way to go GA!! U da man! Set their butt straight!

Go Bulls!

[Al]

"Also, instead of donating tickets to the El Paso Boys and Girls club you can donate tickets to USF students at the www.gousfbulls.com link." jtrain

How many students will have the means to fly to El Paso, stay in a motel, pay for food and other things...just because they can get a free ticket to the game?

Giving tickets to the local charities will almost guarantee a body will be in the seat.

"It looks like there was a big run on Cincy students visiting that bowl website ... they have taken 50% of the vote."

It was UCF'ers trying to sway the selection away from USF...the Gnats are jealouse of the Bulls.

[Dave W]

When will find out the Car Care Bowl's ACC team? I don't know how the ACC selection process works out, but that could end up being a very interesting game between the BEAST and the ACC.

[Marc]

I think the last prediction for Charlotte was Wake Forest vs UCONN but could be wrong

[jk]

The most important question of them all is... does anyone know what specific hotels are closest to the night life in El Paso? I'd hate to book a hotel that is on the opposite side of town away from all the action.

[Oldie Green and Goldie]

Perhaps USF can use the money to build a dining hall for the players as Jim Leavitt has mentioned a couple of times this year.

[Dave W]

The players have a dining hall; it's the same one the rest of us eat at. It worries me when we use student money to construct a building that excludes students... after all, aren't the football players students, too? Or are they better than the rest of us?

On that note, did anyone else notice at the L'Ville game that they didn't announce football players with 3.0 and up GPAs for spring?

[ceeyore]

Ho, hum. People make fun of me.

This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated, if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it.

[ceeyore]

One can't complain. I have my friends. Someone spoke to me only yesterday.

[Accountability]

The SUN BOWL, GO BULLS!!!

A few thoughts:

The BCS Should require Notre Dame to join a conference or lose all bowl rights like every other non-bcs/non conference team.

The Big East should require ND Football to join or drop all other ND sports.

RE the high cost of the Sun Bowl; Any chance of USF offering some free basketball (or other sport) tickets with the purchase of a sun bowl package? I don't think any of our other sports sell out anyway so it would not really cost USF Anything.

Go BULLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gregg]

"I'm going to go see if I can add some online ballots and get Nomar Garciaparra some more votes for the 2001 All-Star game."

Awesome. Well played.