I was searching for a photo to throw in here, but nothing under “not classy” really seems family appropriate…
So it seems the SEC is learning what a pain the Gator Bowl can be. The Gator Bowl, if you recall, spent years jerking the Big East around and then either was too cool to talk to the Big East about the next bowl cycle - or tried to save face when the Big East said, “We’re done.” (It depends what side you talk to, of course.) The Big East instead signed its no. 2 team to the Champs Sports Bowl, which I certainly saw as a better option, the Gator went after the SEC and now the Gator’s causing all sorts of scheduling issues for the SEC’s other bowls.
Of course, while The Birmingham News’ Jon Solomon was writing about that, Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett had to AGAIN throw in a shot at the Big East.
“The Big East is not the conference it was before expansion,” Catlett said. “There are some really good teams playing at a really high level, but without the national recognition. We needed to have those types of national programs now. It’s great to be back to our roots and where we should have been all along.”
The italics are mine. But really: how does he think that national recognition is going to come if he’s out there denigrating the league every chance he gets?
Anyway, the domino out of this is that the Papajohns.com Bowl may now have to share – with the Liberty Bowl – the SEC’s 8 and 9 picks. The Big East is still trying to pick its last two bowl affiliations (from, most likely, the Papajohns.com, St. Petersburg and International) and I don’t know how a potential ninth-place SEC team for an opponent would weigh when that decision’s being made.
What do you think? Is an SEC foe enough, or if it’s a ninth-place one (and then therefore maybe not even regularly available), does the picture change?
Aditi Kinkhabwala has written a regular column for SI.com and been published in Sports Illustrated.