SEC now has the honor of including the Pizza Bowl....

[BattleStations]

amongst the SEC bowls. Oh joy. A trip to Birmingham to play in the ghetto in a run down Legion Field. How great is that??

<span style="font-weight: bold;">ESPN Regional Television (ERT) today announced that the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., will host a matchup between the BIG EAST Conference and the Southeastern Conference starting in 2008.</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">The matchup between a bowl-eligible team from the SEC and one from the BIG EAST came about as the result of negotiations between the two conferences and Conference USA, and with the approval of the NCAA Postseason Bowl Committee. The announcement was made today at the annual Football Bowl Association meetings in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">"The approval of the St. Petersburg Bowl offered both Conference USA and the BIG EAST an opportunity to participate in a Florida based bowl game," said Pete Derzis, Senior Vice President & General Manager, ERT. "Consequently, we were able to partner with the SEC in Birmingham.</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">"We look forward to the added excitement that the Southeastern Conference will bring to the already successful Papajohns.com Bowl. Birmingham and the SEC, with their lengthy traditions in football, are a natural fit. We're pleased to present such a matchup to the community."</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">The third annual Papajohns.com Bowl will be played at Legion Field on Dec. 29. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. CT and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN and broadcast nationally on ESPN Radio.</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">"The Southeastern Conference is excited about the opportunity to have a member institution participate in the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham," said Mike Slive, Southeastern Conference Commissioner. "We look forward to working with the Bowl and the community to continue to grow the game. With the geographic proximity of Birmingham to our schools, it is a natural fit for a new bowl opportunity for the SEC. It is a wonderful opportunity to add an additional bowl against a quality opponent from the BIG EAST Conference to our bowl lineup."</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">"We have always wanted to have a bowl relationship with the Southeastern Conference and this matchup in the Papajohns.com Bowl allows the BIG EAST that opportunity," said Mike Tranghese, BIG EAST Conference Commissioner. "We believe the game will continue to prosper under the BIG EAST and SEC banners."</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">The first two matchups in the Papajohns.com Bowl featured the BIG EAST and Conference USA, with the BIG EAST winning both contests. The Inaugural Papajohns.com Bowl was played in December 2006 with the South Florida Bulls and the Pirates from East Carolina playing in front of 28,527. The 2007 game featured the Cincinnati Bearcats (ranked #20 nationally) and the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in front of 32,595 fans.</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Last month, Papa John's announced that it had agreed to extend its agreement as the title sponsor through the 2009 bowl game.</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">"Obviously, we are very pleased to partner with the SEC in our bowl game in only our third year of operation." said Mark Meadows, Executive Director of the Papajohns.com Bowl. "Since our inception, our goal has been to bring quality opponents to the Birmingham football fans. We feel we have accomplished that in our first two years, and as a result we have enjoyed good corporate support and local interest in our game.</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">According to the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau, the bowl game has generated a combined economic impact of $12.3 million to Birmingham in its first two years.</span> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <br style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tickets for the 2008 Papajohns.com Bowl are scheduled to go on sale June 1. For more information visit</span> http://www.papajohnsbowl.com.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

Or are we dropping a tie-in? We should drop the Liberty Bowl tie-in...

 

[dawgstudent]

to the neighborhood that Legion Field is located.

 

[FlabLoser]

...is The Smith & Wesson Bowl at Mississippi Veteran's Memorial Stadium.

 

[AzzurriDawg4]

another close bowl destination and it is better than Shreveport. Yall act like the Liberty Bowl and the Independence Bowl are in nice parts of town.

 

[8dog]

or nothing. So I'll take B-ham in the winter for a couple of nights. State, Ole Miss, and Vandy need to be loving this b/c more than likely we'll be the 6-7 win teams on the fringe needing slots to open up. This is big.

I don't know that I've ever been excited about a bowl game b/c of the stadium. The Cotton Bowl is a dump.

 

[vhdawg]

...having been to all three stadiums in the last three years, Legion Field was the only one of the three that frightened me. They could charge $100 to park inside the stadium gates, and I'd gladly pay it.

 

[dawgstudent]

that they are sponsoring a bowl game.

And I think someone said they heard my comment on Finebaum.

 

[BillBrasky10]

Write it down bitches

 

[Todd4State]

Well, the thing is the SEC had enough to teams to qualify for one more bowl game. South Carolina got left out, and I guess that either they or Bama would have played Cincinnati.

I could see how MSU, UM, Bama, AU, and Vandy among others would be very attractive for that Bowl.

As someone mentioned, 6-6 will get you in a bowl. I remember last year even after we beat Bama, I was a little nervous because 6-6 would have just meant that we were on the bubble, and I remember 97. Although, I think it's quite likely we would have gone to a bowl even if we had lost our last two games, beating Ole Miss pretty much sealed the deal.

As a city, I would probably rather go to Birmingham than Shreveport, I guess.

Jackson will never have a bowl game, and if Jackson did, it would be a royal cluster<17>. I guess the confederate flag rule is still in place for one thing. But the other thing is the parking there is still horrible. They need to build several garage decks there SO bad. I work at UMC and I went to the Colts/Saints game in part because I had to work that weekend and I knew I wouldn't be able to get out of there. And they need to cut a deal with UMC to use their parking for games as well. While that wouldn't solve the parking problem, it would help out a little. But an SEC/C-USA vs Sun Belt probably would be good for the city overall. You would have people coming into Jackson and spending money, and the Fondren District would be a decent place (during the day of course) to have a parade and the obligatory bowl game pep rally. Heck, people might even go to the Farish St. District .

 

[patdog]

nm

 

[QuaoarsKing]

I know it would never work, as Jackson would screw it up, but perhaps SEC vs. Sun Belt would be the tie-in. As a conference, the Sun Belt only gets 1 tie, so 8-4 Troy got left out of a bowl last year since they went 6-1 in conference and lost to fellow 6-1 (6-6 overall) Florida Atlantic.

So South Carolina vs. Troy could've been the Jackson Bowl last year. Awful matchup? Of course. Better than nothing, especially for the teams invited? Probably, especially Troy.

 

[RebelBruiser]

Years like last year won't happen often. The SEC had 10 bowl eligible teams. With 5 BCS games now, the SEC is more often than not going to place 2 teams in the BCS. When that happens, we'd have to have 9 bowl eligible teams just to fill 8 tie ins. If we have 9 tie ins, that means we'd have to have 10 teams eligible to fill out the tie ins. It happened last year, but that's going to be rare. I'm pretty sure it was the first time since the move to 12 games that we've had 10 eligible teams.

This is just a personal opinion of mine as well, but I don't think 6-6 should really be enough for a bowl invite. If your OOC schedule is particularly weak, you could go 2-6 in conference play and get to go to a postseason game. That's just not worthy in my eyes. I realize it'll probably help schools like ours, yours, UK, and Vandy the most by having as many tie ins as possible, but I still don't like it.

The bowl system has expanded so much that it's basically become the equivalent of what would happen if the NCAA tourney invited 180 teams to the big dance every year. It really dumbs down the accomplishment when you invite half of your teams to the postseason.

 

[CFOEagle]

I'll take that trade any day.

Not that we deserved to be in any bowl game last year.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

The Jackson Bowl would end up having tie-ins with the Sun Belt and the SWAC.

 

[8dog]

but San Francisco, Chicago and many other places are > than B-ham, but Im not attending a 3rd tier bowl game there b/c it costs so much. Therefore, in this situation, B-ham > Tampa.