Will CCU get a dream bowl game? Sun Belt commissioner says its options may be expanding
Coastal Carolina has realistic aspirations of playing in a New Year’s Six bowl game if it can finish as the undefeated Sun Belt Conference champion.
If chosen by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee for one of the six marquee games, CCU could face one of the preeminent programs in college football having one of the best seasons of 2020.
The possibilities include Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M, Miami and Oklahoma, which are all ranked between fifth and 11th in the College Football Playoff ranking.
But if the No. 13 Chanticleers (11-0) aren’t selected for a NY6 game, its bowl options appear to be limited, and the probable opponents include less-storied programs Buffalo, Western Michigan and Ball State.
So Coastal’s captivating season will result in the program’s first ever bowl berth, but it could have an anticlimactic ending against what would seemingly be a lesser opponent.
The Chants’ options may be expanding based on what Sun Belt commissioner Keith Gill said Monday, however.
Bowl selection process
The big prize for all teams from the Group of Five conferences, which Coastal is a part of as a member of the Sun Belt, is a berth in a New Year’s Six bowl game.
Group of Five schools are guaranteed one bowl spot in the New Year’s Six, and it’s awarded to the highest-ranked conference champion from the Sun Belt, American Athletic, Mountain West, Mid-American or Conference USA.
New Year’s Six bowls include the national semifinal games — which this season are the Rose and Sugar bowls — as well as the Orange, Cotton, Peach and Fiesta bowls. Because the Orange Bowl is contracted with the ACC, Big Ten and SEC, a Group of 5 team will play in one of the other three bowls if it isn’t selected for the semifinals.
Nothing precludes the committee from including two Group of Five teams in the lucrative games, so both Coastal — which faces No. 19 Louisiana (9-1) in the Sun Belt Championship game at Brooks Stadium on Dec. 19 — and No. 8 Cincinnati (8-0) of the American Athletic could presumably both participate in them.
The only other guaranteed spots are reserved for the champions of the Power Five conferences — the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 — so the committee chooses six at-large berths.
What restricts Coastal’s possibilities if it doesn’t get into a NY6 bowl is the existing selection process for the remaining bowls, which is built on contracted conference affiliations.
Just about every bowl’s participants are based on agreements with specific conferences to supply teams.
The 10-team Sun Belt’s bowl tie-ins give the conference five games for its programs in each of the next six years, and none feature Power Five opponents.
All five are among the season’s early bowls during the week after the championship game from Dec. 20-26. They are the Myrtle Beach Bowl on Dec. 21, R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 23, Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama on Dec. 25, Cure Bowl in Orlando, Florida on Dec. 26, and Lending Tree Bowl in Mobile, Alabama on Dec. 26.
The Myrtle Beach and New Orleans bowls are too soon after the Sun Belt title game for CCU to safely participate, so that leaves the other three games, which would give CCU either five or six days between contests. Georgia State has already committed to the Lending Tree Bowl, so that leaves just two possibilities within the contracted games.
“I think that’s going to give us flexibility to make sure we can create the best matchups for the teams in our championship game in those bowls that will give them significant rest,” Gill said on Dec. 7.
Possible opponents
The Camellia and Lending Tree bowls are scheduled to feature a MAC opponent, and the Cure Bowl is scheduled to feature an American Athletic opponent.
The MAC is playing just a six-game regular season schedule after waiting until November to start its season, and Buffalo (5-0) will face either Ball State (5-1) in the league championship game on Dec. 18. Other candidates for CCU in the Camellia and Lending Tree bowls are Western Michigan (4-2), Kent State (3-1), Toledo (4-2) and Central Michigan (3-3).
Potential CCU opponents in the Cure Bowl aside from Cincinnati include Tulsa (6-1, 6-0), which is playing the Bearcats in the AAC championship game next week, Memphis (7-3, 5-3), Houston (3-4, 3-3) and Tulane (6-5, 3-5).
SMU (7-3, 4-3 AAC) and Central Florida (6-3, 5-3 AAC) have committed to the Frisco Bowl on Dec. 19 and Boca Raton Bowl on Dec. 22, respectively.
The only bowl that lists at-large opponents is the Montgomery Bowl on Dec. 23, which is presumably too early for the Chants. It’s a replacement for the canceled Fenway Bowl for this season only.
Gill said last week he expected CCU to play in a contracted bowl if it didn’t make the NY6 because “that’s generally the way the system is set up,” but on Monday he changed course, saying there may be other opportunities that arise for the Chants aside from the Cure and Camellia bowls.
“I think the bowl situation is fluid,” Gill said. “Those are certainly our two contracted bowls and we’ll be looking for the best matchups we can. So I think there’s certainly a great chance that could happen because we’re contracted there. But I certainly think there are some other scenarios that could put either one of the teams that play in our championship game in a bowl that’s outside of our contracts.”
Ten of the 43 scheduled FBS bowl games in 2020 have been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, but none that involve Sun Belt contracts this season, and Gill said Monday he didn’t expect any of the five to be canceled.
Waiting for a matchup
The final CFP ranking and NY6 matchups are scheduled to be announced on Sunday Dec. 20 after the conference championships are played.
Gill said more would be known then, after the results of championship games and the CFP rankings and New Years Six matchups.
“I think the [bowl] location for the teams that are playing in our championship game is up in the air and I think there are a lot of good options out there but they won’t be really solidified until Sunday morning once we see what the outcomes of the games on Saturday were and try to manage the best matchups,” Gill said. “. . . I think it’s all about matchups. At the end of the day we’re not closing any doors, we’re not going to preclude any opportunities to try to get the best games we can get. I think there are a lot of opportunities available and I think we need to be flexible. There certainly isn’t a benefit to making a declaration now and then losing an opportunity later.
“. . . There could be some other things that might be intriguing that may make a little more sense.”
The NCAA Football Oversight Committee removed the minimum bowl-eligibility win standard of six games this season because of the pandemic’s impact on the sport, but the basic bowl system structure hasn’t changed.
“The minimum standard is replaced by a contractual standard that each conference had with the bowl system,” Pete Derzis, ESPN senior vice president of college sport programming and events, wrote in an email to The Sun News. “. . . The most likely outcome, as of now for Coastal, would be a NY6 or Sun Belt-contracted game.”
ESPN Events owns and operates 17 bowl games — though two have been canceled — including three of the five affiliated with the Sun Belt this year. Derzis wouldn’t rule out the Chants finding their way into a more high-profile bowl, however.
“We are awaiting confirmation from conferences that their membership will agree to fill respective bowl slots,” Derzis wrote. “In the event that teams begin to opt out, that may provide opportunities for repositioning.”
Boston College (6-5) and Pittsburgh (6-5) of the ACC have said they will not play in a bowl, citing physical and emotional exhaustion. But with double-digit bowl cancellations this year, there may be no opportunities outside Sun Belt-affiliated games despite opt-outs.
“I think we’re working really hard so that Coastal can be our representative in the New Year’s Six. We’re excited about their resume,” Gill said. “. . . So that really is our focus, and I wouldn’t call any opportunity to play a disappointment. At the end of the day, if we get an opportunity to have access to a bowl and play that game, I would say that’s a gift and something we’d take very seriously.”
Selection factors
Coastal almost certainly needs to win its remaining two games for NY6 bowl conversations to continue.
Its only competition appears to be Cincinnati or Tulsa. If Cincinnati loses the AAC championship game on Dec. 19, and the Chants remain undefeated, Coastal will surely become the highest ranked Group of Five team and make a NY6 bowl.
Cincinnati canceled its regular-season game this weekend with Tulsa because of coronavirus cases within its program. The cancellation eliminates the difficulty of trying to beat a good team in consecutive weeks, but Cincinnati may be compromised by COVID-19 for the championship game.
The coronavirus pandemic might additionally help CCU get invited to a major bowl because with attendance at bowl games either not allowed or very limited, the size of a fan base and its reputation for traveling to games won’t be much of a consideration.
A team’s cachet could play a role, and Coastal’s sudden rise to prominence in college football has become a national story, as evidenced by the popular ESPN show College GameDay broadcasting from Brooks Stadium last Saturday. So CCU could be a coveted commodity for a bowl compared to surprise teams from Power Five conferences such as No. 12 Indiana (6-1) and No. 14 Northwestern (5-1).
CCU head coach Jamey Chadwell has made his case in recent interviews for the Chants to get into a NY6 bowl if it runs the table. That would give CCU three wins over top-25 opponents — Louisiana twice and BYU — a win over a team just outside the rankings in Appalachian State, a Power Five opponent in Kansas and several impressive blowout victories.
Comparatively, Iowa State (8-2), which is ranked six spots higher than CCU in the CFP at No. 7, also has two top-25 wins over No. 11 Oklahoma and No. 20 Texas, but also has two losses, including a 17-point loss to Louisiana, a team CCU beat.
“People are going to continue to doubt us and continue to say whatever,” Chadwell said after Saturday night’s 22-17 win over BYU, which entered the game No. 13 in the CFP ranking and eighth in both the AP Top 25 and Amway Coaches polls. “We’re putting our product on the field, . . . and I hope tonight shows people we have a program to be reckoned with and we’re here to try to state our case and continue to win. If we can take care of the Sun Belt championship game, we’ve faced everybody that’s been in the top 25, we’ve done things we’re supposed to do. Hopefully tonight will help us take the next step and get a little closer to that.”
Game-changing payout
The prestige of a NY6 bowl game isn’t the only reason to covet a spot.
The financial windfall for CCU and the Sun Belt would be astronomical compared to the Chants playing in one of the conference’s contracted bowls.
If payouts are the same as 2019, each conference with a team in a CFP bowl receives $4 million per team, plus an additional $2.43 million to cover expenses for the game. CCU Director of Athletics Matt Hogue said the team representing the Sun Belt in a game would receive “the lion’s share” of the conference distribution.
The Sun Belt’s bowl affiliation contracts are new this year and go through 2026, but according to figures last year, the Camellia Bowl has a $300,000 payout to both teams combined, the Cure payout is approximately $573,000 and the Lending Tree, which is now off the table, is $1.5 million.
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 11:11 AM.
