1987alum wrote:One of the MAC bowl bids went to Marshall. According to everything I've read and head, C-USA basically paid for Marshall to get into that game.
Put those two together and you have, voila, two MAC teams in bowls.
Conference USA stepped in to help Marshall because the MAC decided it wasn't going to help a team that was already packing its bags for a new league.
Instead, the MAC helped other conference teams.
This included financial help.
I'm pretty sure the MAC effectively agreed to accept less than the full Independence Bowl pay out in order to get Miami in (by taking the full payout and then forwarding a substantial cut back to the bowl game to help with "marketing" or whatever).
And, in light of the disasterous attendance at the Silicon Valley Bowl which promoters should have seen coming, I've got to think our mid-season contract to send a third team there included a similar financial scheme.
My point here is that I'm not prepared to assume Marshall would have gone bowling ahead of a third MAC team. Not at all.
For one thing, that Silicon Valley Bowl contract was locked down weeks before the end of the season. I see no reason to think they would want a 6-5 Marshall instead of a superior Northern Illinois or Miami. Troy and Marshall had already played that season, and it wasn't like Marshall was going to put many more butts in seats in San Jose.
