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Football: Bowl tidbits
By Jonathan Okanes
Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 9:10 pm in Mid-week.
I talked on the phone today with Bruce Binkowski, the executive director of the Holiday Bowl. He clarified that if there is a two-way tie in the spot his bowl picks, the berth would go to the team that won the head-to-head matchup.
That could be good news for the Bears if everything shakes down in their favor. If Oregon State wins out and goes to the Rose Bowl and USC doesn’t hiccup against Notre Dame and UCLA, both teams should be in BCS games. The Trojans surely will be selected for another BCS game if they win out.
If that happens and Cal wins out, the Bears would finish in a tie with Oregon for the Holiday Bowl slot. That means the Bears would get the berth by virtue of their regular season win over the Ducks.
Of course, there are several other scenarios in which the conference race could play out. Cal could finish in a tie with as many as two other teams for third place, with the berth there going to the Sun Bowl. Sun Bowl executive director Bernie Olivas said in the event of a tie, their committee would consider head-to-head results, national ranking and which team hadn’t been to the Sun Bowl the longest. Cal is the only Pac-10 team never to play in the Sun Bowl.
If the Bears finish in fourth or fifth place, or tied for fourth or fifth place, it looks as though they would go to the Emerald Bowl. The Emerald Bowl and the Las Vegas Bowl get the No. 4 and No. 5 teams in the Pac-10, and they rotate the first pick every year. But even though the Las Vegas Bowl has the first pick this year, Emerald Bowl executive director Gary Cavalli said it’s almost for certain the Bears would end up in the Emerald Bowl. He said if the Las Vegas Bowl ended up wanting Cal, the Emerald Bowl could negotiate a deal with the Las Vegas Bowl to keep the Bears in the Bay Area.
Cavalli really wants the Bears. It obviouisly would help with attendance and give them a quality team if they finish 8-4 and in or near the national rankings.
One other sidebar to this story. There’s a chance Stanford could be eligible for the Emerald Bowl as well if the Cardinal wins the Big Game. In fact, the Emerald Bowl could conceivably be in a position where it chooses between Stanford and Cal. In that case, Cal could end up in the Las Vegas Bowl. But my gut tells me that the Emerald Bowl would pick Cal over Stanford because of the Bears’ following.
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November 18th, 2008 at 7:42 am
What are they thinking? why would a Cal fan go to the Emerald Bowl? Cold and at night. Not thanks. I would go to the Basketball game which occurs at the same time.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I would be glad to go to Emerald Bowl to see the bears one last time this season ends (always a bit of sadness when the season is over). I was there two years ago when UCLA played Florida State, and had a great time. I for one say that anything that prolongs the season is a plus.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:44 am
I agree GoldenBear, I can’t get enough college football! Remember everyone, this was supposed to be a building year for Cal with so much inexperience and coming off a REALLY disappointing ’07. Now they are in the home stretch with a good chance of going to the Holiday Bowl! Any bowl game should be a blessing…things could be a lot worse (see: Washington St. & Washington). I went to the SC/Cal game and those fans are so spoiled… they could give a fuck about the Rose Bowl. I want Cal to win EVERY game, but I don’t ever want to become like that.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:00 am
I figured either an 8-4 or 7-5 year, so I’m not really disappointed…the teams we’ve lost to are pretty good and we’ve had both inexperience and injuries to deal with and are still going to a bowl game. I also believe that tree siting episode had a negative effect on recruiting as well.
I basically always go to the bowl game if I can afford it (flying to El Paso may not happen) so I’ll be happy with any bowl except the Hawaii or Sun Bowl…
November 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Bowl or no bowl, there is always that club sport called rugby. LOL
November 18th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Law school or no law school, Amy — there is still the fact that you can keep being supported by your daddy since you had that mental breakdown and had to leave CalStateDavis law school.
Be careful what you ask for.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Golden Bear Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Because you called this a minor sports paper I posted over at the San Francisco Chronicle. Just for you my friend. LOL
November 18th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I’m as much your friend as Jay Heater. Remember when he punked you earlier — you called him your friend and he posted “Moron, we were never friends”.
Take your meds, Amy.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
OK as long as you don’t use that phrase “fat old man” again. I was just warning you that those comments are what will get you banned because SB aka AB might get offended and start the whining campaign again. BTW why are you posting on what you have called a minor sports page? Isn’t this below you?
Be careful what you ask for.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I hope at this point Cal goes to the Emerald Bowl. That would save me some money. I really don’t care which bowl we get to. The Holiday bowl might be bad because we aren’t up to par right now for the holiday bowl. Too injured and the offense isn’t performing well enough. Playing Boston College, Virginia Tech, Miami, or Georgia Tech in the Emerald bowl wouldn’t be too bad either.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I’m slumming while I also post on Scout boards and the Cal board, unlike my old friends morens, lessncs, iam, i was, mebane —– they don’t post there anymore. I wonder why?
Amy: 0 — Fat old man: lots of sn kills…too many to count.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Yup! at least Cal has the elite Rugby team that racked up the national championship cup year in year out. And, oh! the Cal Water Polo team that defeated the troll twice in the last two championship games. oooooooo that hurts.
Go Bears!
November 18th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Actually, I have a question for More NC’s:
Do you really think more NC’s will come to USC? Do think it will be hard with strength of schedule being that the pac-10′s 5-star recruits all end up at USC?
Don’t you think it would be better for USC to give a few of their recruits on the bench to some other pac-10 teams the strength of schedule looks better? Otherwise any Trojan brain fart ala OSU could take them out of the National Title hunt. Look at the love that Florida, Oklahoma, Texas are getting vs. USC after all have only 1-loss. I hope this year isn’t an indication for years to come. Otherwise the only hope any pac-10 team ever has of winning NC’s is to go undefeated vs. a Big 12 or SEC team with 1-loss.
We know there’s an east coast bias, so it may be tough for even USC to see more NC’s in the future.
November 19th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Jake Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Actually, I have a question for More NC’s:
Do you really think more NC’s will come to USC? Do think it will be hard with strength of schedule being that the pac-10’s 5-star recruits all end up at USC?
Don’t you think it would be better for USC to give a few of their recruits on the bench to some other pac-10 teams the strength of schedule looks better?>>>>You are reading too much internet garbage. I saw the same article. It assumes that the same 5* players from USC playing at other Pac 10 schools would perform as well or better. Baloney! You have had your 5* players and they did not pan out as expected. It’s all about coaching and no coach is better than PC. The 5* players come to our program because they want to compete to be an elite group. We will be back in the NC because everyone on both coasts want to play us for the right to say that they beat us.
November 19th, 2008 at 7:31 am
toparchiBear Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Yup! at least Cal has the elite Rugby team that racked up the national championship cup year in year out.>>>> Rugby = club sport i.e. not recognized in the Sears Cup as a sanctioned NCAA sport. Anyone for synchronized diving?
November 19th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Tedford took a 1-10 team and went 7-5 the following year, so he’s nowhere near a bad coach, in fact he’s quite good. One could argue that with the talent that the BlowCal Trolljins have, they shouldn’t be a one-loss team two years in a row and should have had More NC’s since Reggie-I made-$100,000-on-work-study Bush led them to a win over OU.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Hey Moron, rugby is NOT a ‘club sport’, idiot. Its under the Intercollegiate Athletic Dept.’s jurisdiction and the national program, including the US national team, are governed by USARugby. There are a lot of sports that are not under NCAA jurisdiction. That does not make them ‘club sports’. Get a clue, you fool.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Hey guys, check out the Matier & Ross column in today’s (11/19) edition of the Chronicle. Cal may be negotiating to move the football games to Candlestick in SF while Memorial undergoes renovations and the athletic dept. is considering going to a seat license system for season football tickets after the renovations are completed.