Sun Belt inks provisional deals with three bowls

If your conference can fill all of its bowl slots, there's a pretty good chance that a Sun Belt Conference team might swoop in and drink your milkshake, accoding to CBS Sportsline.

The Sun Belt Conference announced Tuesday that it has signed agreements with the St. Petersburg Bowl, the Papajohns.com Bowl and the PetroSun Independence Bowl.

The new agreements will take effect immediately, covering both the 2008 and 2009 football season.

Bowl-eligible teams from the Sun Belt Conference will be the first available teams in these bowls if a conference is unable to fill its slot, under the terms of the new agreement. In the past, the bowls have had to solicit teams on an at-large basis to fill in when teams did not become bowl eligible.

It's an interesting angle. Perhaps both sides are kinda taking a flyer on this one. The Sun Belt doesn't get much out of it on first blush.

The conference champion for the Sun Belt is still slotted to the R+L Carriers Bowl, but... with a glut of college bowl games, there's a better than zero chance that a Sun Belt team that wouldn't have gotten a bid may now end up in these games over another at-large mid-major team. In that regard, it could end up being a big push for the Sun Belt.

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Looking ahead: 2008-2009 Bowl Game Predictions

Here's yet another entry in the long line of 2008-2009 college football bowl game predictions - this time from ESPN.

FedEx BCS National Championship Game
(BCS No. 1 vs. BCS No. 2) Georgia Bulldogs vs. Ohio State Buckeyes

Tostitos Fiesta
(BCS vs. BCS) Oklahoma Sooners vs. BYU Cougars

Allstate Sugar
(BCS vs. BCS) Auburn Tigers vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders

FedEx Orange
(BCS vs. BCS) West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Clemson Tigers

Rose Bowl presented by Citi
(BCS vs. BCS) USC Trojans vs. Wisconsin Badgers

A few other notables.....

Capital One
(SEC vs. Big Ten) Florida Gators vs. Illinois Fighting Illini
(aka the Zook Bowl)

AT&T Cotton
(Big 12 vs. SEC) Texas Longhorns vs. LSU Tigers
If these two teams couldn't make the BCS, I don't think you would hear a lot of complaints about this marquee matchup.

Konica Minolta Gator
(ACC vs. Big 12/Big East/Notre Dame) Wake Forest Demon Deacons vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Gaylord Hotels Music City
(ACC vs. SEC) Miami Hurricanes vs. South Carolina Gamecocks

Pioneer Las Vegas
(Mountain West vs. Pac-10) Utah Utes vs. Oregon Ducks

So... by Mark Schlabach's predictions... Mike Leach, Tommy Bowden, Bret Bielema, and the BYU Cougars all pop their BCS cherries in 2008-2009. Interesting. Notably absent... Urban Meyer, Frank Beamer, Les Miles, and Mack Brown. Interesting.

Y'all hang on to your crystal balls and Magic 8 balls... it's gonna be a long season.

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Big East drops Texas Bowl, C-USA picks it up

The Big East will end its affiliation with the Texas Bowl today, to be effective for the 2008-2009 season.

The annual game was to pair a Big East conference team with a Big XII representative; however, the Texas Bowl has signed an agreement with Conference USA to face off against a Big XII opponent.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because a formal announcement will be made today, said the bowl also has reached an agreement to add independent Navy. The Big 12 Conference will remain affiliated with the bowl.

The date of this year's game has been changed to Dec. 30 at Reliant Stadium.

Rutgers was the Big East's only representative during its two-year affiliation with annual game played in Houston.

The Texas Bowl also has an at-large agreement with Navy, but that option seems very unlikely given the Midshipmen's new deal with the Congressional Bowl, so the C-USA agreement should be a good move for the game.

The Texas Bowl has also called upon the Mountain West Conference in years past, as TCU filled the Big XII's slot in last year's matchup.

HT: The Wizard of Odds and his motley crew of interns and internet super sleuths ;-)

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Before & After: The Orange Bowl

As a college football fan, it's a little painful to see The Orange Bowl this way....

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

FINAL

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