Bowl Chances

I'm pretty confident BYU makes it to six wins this year with the last win.



I'd like to go to the bowl game in San Diego if they make it but Wednesday night before Christmas will be tough. I'm still hoping BYU wins out and shifts to the Cactus bowl when the PAC doesn't have 8 teams available to play and we get Texas again in Phoenix. Both Bowls belong to ESPN and BYU-Texas would be a pretty sweet matchup.

Can you imagine the weeping and wailing of facing Taysom Hill one more time? That would be hilarious.

Cougarfan87 wrote:
Can you imagine the weeping and wailing of facing Taysom Hill one more time? That would be hilarious.

This!



I know it's a long shot to anywhere aside from the Poinsettia. Now that I think about it, do we have ANY chance of a different bowl? I'm happy with a pre-Christmas shellacking of whoever we are paired up with, but to see Texas and Taysom square off one more time, OMG.

I'm sure BYU would be open to taking a better bowl invite, particularly against a B12 team in Phoenix.



From what I understand the process for bowl game selection is now:



1) 6-6 (or better) teams get selected for bowl games according to contracts between conferences/independents and the bowl games



2) 6-6 at large teams fill spots (the selection process isn't outlined here but if it follows the process outlined in step three, the teams with the best 2-year academic progress rates get to pick first from available bowl slots)



3) 5-7 teams are ordered by APR and get to pick which of the remaining bowl games they wish to participate in in that order.



It's still a little fuzzy as to when the contract has to be signed so step 2 could be in any order. ESPN owns or has the rights to most bowl games and they want the best matchups. I'm not sure BYU wants to burn the Poinsettia bowl, but I'm sure ESPN would make them whole for the right matchup and BYU-Texas is it.

My understanding is BYU is contracted for the Poinsettia bowl if they are bowl-eligible in 2016 unless they were to get an invite to the playoffs.



In 2015, there was an option for either the Las Vegas bowl or the Hawaii bowl with the one that was not selected getting BYU in 2019. The bowl committee opted for the BYU-Utah matchup in the Las Vegas bowl. So that means the Hawaii bowl will be contracted with BYU in 2019 if bowl-eligible.



2016: Poinsettia Bowl

2017: At-large

2018: Poinsettia Bowl

2019: Hawaii Bowl



No bowl games were contracted as an independent beyond the current ESPN TV deal which expires after the 2019 season (assuming ESPN exercises their 2019 option).

ESPN can move bowl teams. They rarely do it but it is possible. BYU-SDSU in San Diego is a good matchup, or even Air Force and us. It depends on how things play out.

Either SDSU or Air Force in the Poinsettia Bowl would be a decent matchup this year. Both Air Force and SDSU will likely finish with 9 or 10 wins. Air Force is currently 4-1 with a win over Navy and will likely be favored in all remaining games except Boise St. SDSU is also 4-1 and still projected to win the MWC West division.

I think it is realistic that BYU's bowl scenario will improve after the 2019 season, when the various bowl contracts are up. I think we still see relationships with the Poinsettia and Hawaii bowls, but also believe we can get improved access to bowl games against the PAC and Big 12. Hopefully, BYU is part of a new bowl game in the new Los Angeles stadium.



I could see something like this:



Las Vegas Bowl: versus PAC or MWC - BYU eligible twice in 6 years

Los Angeles Bowl: versus PAC - once in 6 years

Cactus Bowl: versus PAC or B12 - once in 6 years

Armed Forces Bowl: versus B12 - once in 6 years

Poinsettia Bowl: versus MWC - twice in 6 years

Hawaii Bowl: versus MWC or AAC - twice in 6 years



So, assuming bowl eligibility, BYU would have 3-6 different bowls in 6 years and could play up to four P5 opponents in 6 years.