Could NU end up playing as an at large team in a non B1G contracted bowl such as the Hawaii Bowl?

[Alaskawildkat]

Below are some of my edited comments from the Detroit Bowl thread that I have combined to focus on the question of whether Northwestern could end up playing as an at large team in a non B1G contracted bowl - given where things currently stand.

Assuming first, that we do not win against Illinois next week:

Question whether the Detroit Quick Lane Bowl can do a deal to take a non B1G team so long as the 5 win Northwestern is guaranteed of an at large bowl somewhere else? My assumption is that they could not leave a 5 win Northwestern stranded if they were the only contractually unfilled bowl in the country, all 6 win teams were already placed, and also now 4 win Duke was off the table for not having gotten to 5 by winning its last game against Miami. (I am still holding out hope that Northwestern ends up with an at large bid in Hawaii for the Hawaii Bowl on December 24th. )

Assuming second, that we do get to 6 wins:

Right now there are 7 B1G teams which are bowl eligible. (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa)

3 more are favored to become bowl eligible by winning next week to get to 6 wins. (Indiana over Purdue, Maryland over Rutgers, and Northwestern over Illinois.) That will make 10 bowl eligible teams in our conference.

All of the presently bowl eligible teams have 7 or more wins (actually excluding 7 win Iowa, all have 8 or more wins) so one can likely assume that it will be Indiana, Maryland, and Northwestern competing for the final three bowl positions, whatever those end up being depending most importantly on how many B1G teams get positioned at the top where added slots then get vacated below.

My guess is that of the likely 6 win teams, Northwestern will get a bowl invite before Maryland and possibly even Indiana - especially if Carr returns healthy and has a good game against Illinois.

Michigan State, Rutgers, Illinois, and Purdue are all now eliminated from bowl contention as none of them can get to 5 wins with just one game left.

Most likely the B1G will have Ten 6 win or more bowl eligible teams this time next week.

Here is how it could play out with regard to bowl pairings:

3 of Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, or Wisconsin playing in the elite College Football Playoff bowls. That leaves 7 B1G teams to occupy the Outback and below.

Below the 1. Outback are, 2. Holiday, 3. Music City, 4. Pinstripe, 5. Foster Farms, 6. Quick Lane (Detroit) and 7. Heart of Dallas.

Am I leaving any bowls out or adding any in that do or don't apply this year? My impression is that Buffalo Wild Wings (Citrus) will not be taking a B1G team this year for some reason.

Even with 6 wins could a deal be made by the B1G contracted bowl to which Northwestern falls to allow Northwestern to play as an at large team in another bowl that did not fill its contracted slots?

 

[Styre]

Assuming first, that we do not win against Illinois next week:

Question whether the Detroit Quick Lane Bowl can do a deal to take a non B1G team so long as the 5 win Northwestern is guaranteed of an at large bowl somewhere else? My assumption is that they could not leave a 5 win Northwestern stranded if they were the only contractually unfilled bowl in the country, all 6 win teams were already placed, and also now 4 win Duke was off the table for not having gotten to 5 by winning its last game against Miami. (I am still holding out hope that Northwestern ends up with an at large bid in Hawaii for the Hawaii Bowl on December 24th. )

All bowl-eligible teams have to be placed into bowls before any 5-7 teams can be considered. If there are any slots left open after all bowl-eligible teams are placed, the 5-7 teams are allowed to pick the games they want in order of APR.

Northwestern will not play in the Hawaii Bowl unless it is forced to do so. It is hugely expensive, massively inconvenient, and unless Hawaii is playing in it, nobody attends.

There are currently 64 bowl-eligible teams and 80 slots to be filled. Remember the order of priority if there aren't enough bowl-eligible teams:

1) Teams finishing 6-6 with one win over an FCS team that did not meet scholarship requirements. (none of these)
2) Teams finishing 6-6 with two wins over FCS schools. (Army)
3) Teams that finish 6-7 in a 13-game schedule. (potentially Hawaii)
4) FCS teams that finish 6-6 or better in their second year of FBS transition. (none of these)
5) 5-7 teams in order of APR. (NU is #2 behind Duke.)

So if NU finishes 5-7, after all the bowl-eligible teams are placed, Army would then get a bid, followed by Hawaii if they win their final game, followed by Duke if they win their final game, followed by NU.

3 of Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, or Wisconsin playing in the elite College Football Playoff bowls. That leaves 7 B1G teams to occupy the Outback and below.

Below the 1. Outback are, 2. Holiday, 3. Music City, 4. Pinstripe, 5. Foster Farms, 6. Quick Lane (Detroit) and 7. Heart of Dallas.

Am I leaving any bowls out or adding any in that do or don't apply this year? My impression is that Buffalo Wild Wings (Citrus) will not be taking a B1G team this year for some reason.

The Citrus Bowl depends on whether the B1G gets a team in the Orange Bowl, and since that seems likely this year, there probably won't be a B1G team in Orlando.

But yes, that is the correct selection order for this year.

Even with 6 wins could a deal be made by the B1G contracted bowl to which Northwestern falls to allow Northwestern to play as an at large team in another bowl that did not fill its contracted slots?

No. All B1G-contracted bowls must select bowl-eligible B1G teams if any are available.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

All bowl-eligible teams have to be placed into bowls before any 5-7 teams can be considered. If there are any slots left open after all bowl-eligible teams are placed, the 5-7 teams are allowed to pick the games they want in order of APR.

Northwestern will not play in the Hawaii Bowl unless it is forced to do so. It is hugely expensive, massively inconvenient, and unless Hawaii is playing in it, nobody attends.

There are currently 64 bowl-eligible teams and 80 slots to be filled. Remember the order of priority if there aren't enough bowl-eligible teams:

1) Teams finishing 6-6 with one win over an FCS team that did not meet scholarship requirements. (none of these)
2) Teams finishing 6-6 with two wins over FCS schools. (Army)
3) Teams that finish 6-7 in a 13-game schedule. (potentially Hawaii)
4) FCS teams that finish 6-6 or better in their second year of FBS transition. (none of these)
5) 5-7 teams in order of APR. (NU is #2 behind Duke.)

So if NU finishes 5-7, after all the bowl-eligible teams are placed, Army would then get a bid, followed by Hawaii if they win their final game, followed by Duke if they win their final game, followed by NU.



The Citrus Bowl depends on whether the B1G gets a team in the Orange Bowl, and since that seems likely this year, there probably won't be a B1G team in Orlando.

But yes, that is the correct selection order for this year.



No. All B1G-contracted bowls must select B1G teams if any are available.

So you are saying we've already qualified?

 

[Styre]

So you are saying we've already qualified?

Well, there are currently 16 open bowl slots. There are 17 teams that could still get to bowl eligibility, and then potentially 3 additional teams that could qualify ahead of a 5-7 NU. So we're not already qualified, but we're surprisingly close.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

All bowl-eligible teams have to be placed into bowls before any 5-7 teams can be considered. If there are any slots left open after all bowl-eligible teams are placed, the 5-7 teams are allowed to pick the games they want in order of APR.
.....

No. All B1G-contracted bowls must select bowl-eligible B1G teams if any are available.

Understood, but I have some vague recollection that trades and deals can be made so long as the bowl-eligible B1G teams get to go bowling somewhere. I assume the B1G would have to consent and the schools themselves would be allowed to have a say, but the likelihood of Northwestern going to a bowl as an at large team would still remain a possibility. (FWIW I note GoUPurple over on HailtoPurple.com currently projects an eight percent chance that Northwestern could end up as an at large team.)

 

[Alaskawildkat]

All bowl-eligible teams have to be placed into bowls before any 5-7 teams can be considered. If there are any slots left open after all bowl-eligible teams are placed, the 5-7 teams are allowed to pick the games they want in order of APR.

Northwestern will not play in the Hawaii Bowl unless it is forced to do so. It is hugely expensive, massively inconvenient, and unless Hawaii is playing in it, nobody attends.

Wouldn't the cost of Northwestern attending the Hawaii Bowl be covered by the B1G if the bowl payout itself did not cover? Even if not, we still share in the combined bowl revenues and that would more than offset any extra cost to Northwestern. I can understand an Independent opting out for cost reasons but the B1G may well find the national TV exposure from a B1G team playing in the Hawaii Bowl to merit the expense, not to mention the advantage to NU in terms of widening exposure to recruits outside of our present footprint. I seriously doubt that playing in Detroit will bring the same type of national exposure.

As to filling Northwestern's ticket quota, I can see a lot of alums willing to spend Christmas in Hawaii if some attractive bowl packages can be put together. There was a strong Northwestern presence at both the Rose Bowl and for our recent game at CAL. For West Coast alums flights to Hawaii are actually much less problematic than going to Florida for a bowl game. (Alaska Airlines alone has multiple flights available during the holiday period between California and Honolulu.) One would assume that hotel room blocks are already being held in anticipation of fans coming to the islands from whatever schools will be selected.

I found this regarding an Oregon State 2013 invite from the Hawaii Bowl: (Sounds like a very affordable "loss" in the grand scheme of things, and actually much less than what schools will pay to have out of conference opponents come to play in their stadiums.)

"OSU indeed took a financial loss of $169,997.21 for its trip that resulted in a 38-23 victory over Boise State, according to documents obtained by The Oregonian through a public records request. The total cost of the bowl appearance was nearly $1.06 million, while the total revenue brought in was $889,340."

 

[NCRNU71]

Wouldn't the cost of Northwestern attending the Hawaii Bowl be covered by the B1G if the bowl payout itself did not cover? Even if not, we still share in the combined bowl revenues and that would more than offset any extra cost to Northwestern. I can understand an Independent opting out for cost reasons but the B1G may well find the national TV exposure from a B1G team playing in the Hawaii Bowl to merit the expense, not to mention the advantage to NU in terms of widening exposure to recruits outside of our present footprint. I seriously doubt that playing in Detroit will bring the same type of national exposure.

As to filling Northwestern's ticket quota, I can see a lot of alums willing to spend Christmas in Hawaii if some attractive bowl packages can be put together. There was a strong Northwestern presence at both the Rose Bowl and for our recent game at CAL. For West Coast alums flights to Hawaii are actually much less problematic than going to Florida for a bowl game. (Alaska Airlines alone has multiple flights available during the holiday period between California and Honolulu.) One would assume that hotel room blocks are already being held in anticipation of fans coming to the islands from whatever schools will be selected.

I found this regarding an Oregon State 2013 invite from the Hawaii Bowl: (Sounds like a very affordable "loss" in the grand scheme of things, and actually much less than what schools will pay to have out of conference opponents come to play in their stadiums.)

"OSU indeed took a financial loss of $169,997.21 for its trip that resulted in a 38-23 victory over Boise State, according to documents obtained by The Oregonian through a public records request. The total cost of the bowl appearance was nearly $1.06 million, while the total revenue brought in was $889,340."

I'm not sure how many NU fans would be willing to go to Hawaii for a December 24th game. I don't know how many went the last time we played in Hawaii but I would hope there would be different referees.
Let's just beat Illinois and not have to worry about this.

 

[Styre]

Understood, but I have some vague recollection that trades and deals can be made so long as the bowl-eligible B1G teams get to go bowling somewhere. I assume the B1G would have to consent and the schools themselves would be allowed to have a say, but the likelihood of Northwestern going to a bowl as an at large team would still remain a possibility. (FWIW I note GoUPurple over on HailtoPurple.com currently projects an eight percent chance that Northwestern could end up as an at large team.)

Well, there's a small chance that we end up as an at-large team simply because there's a small chance that the B1G has more bowl-eligible teams than contracted slots available.

As for what you're suggesting, I have no idea if behind-the-scenes negotiations like you describe are allowable. I don't recall any recent instances of a B1G bowl doing what you say.

Wouldn't the cost of Northwestern attending the Hawaii Bowl be covered by the B1G if the bowl payout itself did not cover? Even if not, we still share in the combined bowl revenues and that would more than offset any extra cost to Northwestern. I can understand an Independent opting out for cost reasons but the B1G may well find the national TV exposure from a B1G team playing in the Hawaii Bowl to merit the expense, not to mention the advantage to NU in terms of widening exposure to recruits outside of our present footprint. I seriously doubt that playing in Detroit will bring the same type of national exposure.

Unfortunately, with the game on Christmas Eve, it usually doesn't get high ratings, and this year it's going up against a prime time NFL game.

There's also a reason why the Hawaii Bowl has only had 3 Power 5 teams play in it since its inception in 2002. I suppose it all depends how much of a financial loss is deemed acceptable.

As to filling Northwestern's ticket quota, I can see a lot of alums willing to spend Christmas in Hawaii if some attractive bowl packages can be put together. There was a strong Northwestern presence at both the Rose Bowl and for our recent game at CAL. For West Coast alums flights to Hawaii are actually much less problematic than going to Florida for a bowl game. (Alaska Airlines alone has multiple flights available during the holiday period between California and Honolulu.) One would assume that hotel room blocks are already being held in anticipation of fans coming to the islands from whatever schools will be selected.

I would be stunned if NU even came remotely close to selling its allotment to a hypothetical Hawaii Bowl. This is the same game for which Nevada famously sold 10 tickets.

 

[mickbula]

Let's just win and beat the Illini. Then allow everything else to take care of itself. Hopefully, it is a bowl we all can go see in person.