North Texas is bowl-eligible. That is not so amazing as it once was — look at us getting all spoiled! — but we can officially begin speculating at the destination.
A few sites gather up some page views by doing weekly guesstimates. Let us take a look at the possibilities and see where our favorite football team could go.
The Bowls
The league has agreements with eight bowls including the now SERVPRO bowl (formerly the Heart of Dallas Bowl) and the Gasparilla Bowl. According to the league, the conference will have a team appear in one or the other.
- Gildan New Mexico Bowl, Albuquerque, NM 12.15.18 ESPN
- R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, New Orleans, LA 12.15.18 ESPN
- Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl, Boca Raton, FL 12.18.18 ESPN
- Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, St. Petersburg, FL 12.20.18 ESPN
- Bahamas Bowl, Nassau, Bahamas, 12.21.18 ESPN
- Hawai’i Bowl, Honolulu, HI, 12.22.18 ESPN
- SERVPRO First Responders Bowl, Dallas, TX 12.26.18 ESPN
- Walk-on’s Independence Bowl *, Shreveport, LA 12.27.18 ESPN
- Frisco Bowl — Secondary, Frisco, TX 12.19.18 ESPN
* If ACC or SEC cannot fill this bowl, C-USA has a secondary agreement.
SBNATIONProjection: SERVPRO: Arizona State vs North Texas
CBSSPORTS Projection: New Mexico Bowl: North Texas vs San Diego St.
ESPN Projection: SERVPRO: Army vs North Texas / North Texas vs Purdue
As usual, the Bahamas Bowl and the Hawai’i Bowl are the nicest locations, but the timings are difficult to get a large crowd from DFW out to those locations.
The New Orleans Bowl would be fun again, but there was a section of the fan base that did not appreciate the opponent, or the timing. That it was a graduation day was not easy, but the administration and the football program did a good job of making it a fun thing by having a ceremony in New Orleans.
I cannot imagine anyone would want a repeat appearance, however.
Albuquerque is cool if you like skiing, but that is quite the distance for a quick turnaround. It is on the 15th of December, just two weeks after the C-USA title game.
The Independence Bowl has fans in longtime observers of college football for its prestige and opponent.
I think NT fans want a Power 5 matchup and that may be the First Responder Bowl in Dallas. It is late enough, close enough, and could provide the kind of matchup that everyone would get excited about. The problem, of course, is that it could be another Army matchup.
