Conference USA & Big Ten swap bowl spots: HOD for Armed Forces Bowl

Conference USA & Big Ten swap bowl spots; C-USA will now play in Armed Forces vs. Army (if eligible) & B1G in Heart of Dallas vs. Big 12

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 13, 2017

Just for this season. Of course they could revisit after the season to keep it this way

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 13, 2017

From a Big10 - blog:

In a year where the Big Ten was scheduled to take a one-year hiatus from the Heart of Dallas Bowl, the conference is reportedly getting its affiliation with the bowl game back in 2017.

From LaTech Board:

Below are the slated Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl match ups for the next three seasons.

•2017 Season - Army vs. Conference USA
•2018 Season - American Athletic Conference vs. Big 12 Conference
•2019 Season - Mountain West Conference vs. Big Ten Conference

Below are the slated Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl match ups for the next three seasons:

2017 Big 12 vs. Big Ten
2018 Big Ten vs. Conference USA
2019 Big 12 vs. Conference USA

From CUSA Board

Heart of Dallas Bowl Payout: $1.2 million Armed Forces Bowl Payout $675,000.

Thoughts?

Some initial reactions included:

My thoughts are quite simple: we need to be playing as many P5 programs as possible in bowls. I do not like anything that even temporarily removes our ability to do so. Pushing the G5 programs out of bowls against P5 gives the P5 the functional split that have been salivating over. This is a situation where perception > $. Even if we got paid off for the difference in the payout PLUS an incentive, it’s bad deal to me, made by a desperate commish, trying to refund some of the TV money lost to conference members on her watch.

clt says we need a new commish.

#baddeal

The HoD is the best bowl in the CUSA line-up, particularly for the western schools. I would like to get some details as to why because on the surface it makes no sense to trade it for a potential game with Army. If CUSA didn’t get something behind the scenes then someone needs to be fired because the HoD is great exposure for the conference.

Something to look at going forward for us though (if we can find some O) is not so much the tie-ins but the spots that the P-5 can not fill. With the gluttony of bowls there have not been enough 6-6 teams to fill all them and there are some fairly attractive openings for a school that can get to 6-6 in CUSA and not be selected for an aligned bowl.

Because I know chucklehead P5 fans will start some BS about better attendance, etc, attendance stats for the last several HoD bowls (including CUSA teams):

January 1, 2011 Texas Tech 45 Northwestern 38 40,121

January 2, 2012
Houston 30 Penn State 14 46,817

January 1, 2013
Oklahoma State 58 Purdue 14 48,313

January 1, 2014
North Texas 36 UNLV 14 38,380

December 26, 2014
Louisiana Tech 35 Illinois 18 31,297

December 26, 2015
Washington 44 Southern Miss 31 20,229

December 27, 2016
Army 38 North Texas 31 39,117