An explanation Please

[WVAPPeer]

This is my question if anyone has actual factual information - I have been asked my family and friends from Ohio to Florida to Texas to Colorado - WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED WITH THE BELK BOWL? - Was it all conjecture from the beginning? Was there something to it? If so, what happened?

This is not a discussion of should we have - this or that --- Just would like to know for myself and friends and family. There are so many more who follow APP football that any of us know - My cousin owns a restaurant/bar in Telluride and is a HUGE Bama fan - he always has the APP game on some of his TVs - etc.,
Thank you ---

[AppStFan1]

This is my question if anyone has actual factual information - I have been asked my family and friends from Ohio to Florida to Texas to Colorado - WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED WITH THE BELK BOWL? - Was it all conjecture from the beginning? Was there something to it? If so, what happened?

This is not a discussion of should we have - this or that --- Just would like to know for myself and friends and family. There are so many more who follow APP football that any of us know - My cousin owns a restaurant/bar in Telluride and is a HUGE Bama fan - he always has the APP game on some of his TVs - etc.,
Thank you ---

I don't know if you saw my post a couple weeks before the end of the season of all the stuff that had to happen for us to have any chance to be considered for a NY6. Well, there was a long list of stuff that had to happen for us to get in Belk Bowl and none of it happened. Because of the title game results there was never a chance for it to happen. It was mainly an idea pushed by fans and ESPN liked but just not feasible with how it went.

The biggest thing we needed was for Georgia to win and once that did not happen it pretty much killed any talks that people wanted to have.

[Black Saturday]

What happened was, we failed to beat a known rival on our home field. We knew they were coming for a whole year.

[WVAPPeer]

I am not sure that had anything to do with what happened with the Belk Bowl

[BeauFoster]

The official answer is that the Belk Bowl has contractual tie ins with the SEC and ACC, both of whom had eligible teams. Thus, the Belk Bowl invited those teams to play.

The unofficial answer is nothing more than guesses, as I'm positive the only people who know aren't posting the full story on this board.

[GoBoone]

ESPN had this interesting comment: This is the last year of Belk's sponsorship of this bowl game, meaning all bets are off for the Belk Bowl Twitter account during the game. Will it reveal the horrifying truth about why App State was snubbed from this game or will unseen forces use a pretty fun matchup between the Hokies and Wildcats to distract us from the awful conspiracy hiding right under our noses? To be continued ...

[appbanker]

I’m pretty sure it had to do with the SEC having enough teams to fill the spot. Depending on how many teams they sent to the NY6, there was a chance that they would not have enough bowl eligible teams for the lower bowls, which brought up the discussion of sending App to the Belk.

[Black Saturday]

We never had a shot at any outside bowl with the loss to Georgia Southern. We all saw where we stand in the committees perception by being behind Memphis, Cincy, and Boise St. With no loss, still not sure they put us ahead of Tiger High or Cincy either. The AAC has done a grand job of public relations. I'd say any Belk talk was just that, talk.

[spacemonkey]

I’m pretty sure it had to do with the SEC having enough teams to fill the spot. Depending on how many teams they sent to the NY6, there was a chance that they would not have enough bowl eligible teams for the lower bowls, which brought up the discussion of sending App to the Belk.

This is the answer...As soon as the SEC could fill the bowl game the choice to take App no longer was a choice.
The part I am not sure about was if we needed 6 bowl eligible teams for us to take the slot if it was open. If we had 6 teams I am 100% sure it would have happened. NOLA would have taken Louisiana and been happy....leaving us available for the Belk bowl. ESPN owns the Arizona bowl and would have probably let the sunbelt not fill that game if the SEC had not filled the spot.

Nothing more than the stated above....no conspiracy to hold us back. Just contracts.

[bigdaddyg]

I am not sure that had anything to do with what happened with the Belk Bowl

I agree, everything cannot be pinned to the loss to Georgia Southern. Every single bowl decision didn't hinge on that game. I believe some are correct. The Belk Bowl has tie ins with the ACC and the SEC and both had enough eligible teams to fill their spots, to include this game. Someone had said that if Ole Miss had beaten Mississippi State that would have left the SEC with a team short thus opening the Belk Bowl slot opposite the ACC representative. Didn't happen and we were left out.

[EastHallApp]

GS may well have cost us the Cotton Bowl. It was irrelevant to the Belk Bowl.

[appstatealum]

I’m pretty sure it had to do with the SEC having enough teams to fill the spot. Depending on how many teams they sent to the NY6, there was a chance that they would not have enough bowl eligible teams for the lower bowls, which brought up the discussion of sending App to the Belk.

This is the answer...As soon as the SEC could fill the bowl game the choice to take App no longer was a choice.
The part I am not sure about was if we needed 6 bowl eligible teams for us to take the slot if it was open. If we had 6 teams I am 100% sure it would have happened. NOLA would have taken Louisiana and been happy....leaving us available for the Belk bowl. ESPN owns the Arizona bowl and would have probably let the sunbelt not fill that game if the SEC had not filled the spot.

Nothing more than the stated above....no conspiracy to hold us back. Just contracts.

After asking around to people who may have known something and reading the articles/postings, I think your assessment is probably pretty close to what occurred. Belk Bowl and ESPN were doing their due diligence to lineup a good matchup if the opportunity arose, but things didn't fall into place. Contracts were honored. End of story.

[WVAPPeer]

Don't worry about my old buddy Black Saturday as he has found a game (this year's GaSo) to take the place of his most hated V-WORD

Villanova

[WVAPPeer]

So was there any validity to what I read that "somebody" was "trying to do a buyout"?

[hapapp]

The SEC was short the number of eligible bowl teams but it turns out it apparently chose to forego the Liberty Bowl instead of the Belk Bowl.

[Stonewall]

GS did cost us the Cotton Bowl.

[Black Saturday]

Don't worry about my old buddy Black Saturday as he has found a game (this year's GaSo) to take the place of his most hated V-WORD

Villanova

Wasn't it a pisser too.

[NewApp]

GS did cost us the Cotton Bowl.

What facts do you have to back up that opinion
?

[Hudson2002]

The SEC needed to be short two teams, which looked likely, but because of the way things worked out on conference championship day, they ended up only short one. All along we needed them to be short two because the Liberty Bowl is the first to miss out on an SEC team if they are short one. After that my understanding is that it gets worked out among the other bowls and Belk made it known it was very interested in taking App. In fact, my understanding is that App vs VT in the Belk was essentially a done deal had things fallen our way, but alas they didn't which was a real bummer. Penn State jumping Auburn and Alabama for the Cotton is what did us in I believe.

[ericsaid]

We never had a shot at any outside bowl with the loss to Georgia Southern. We all saw where we stand in the committees perception by being behind Memphis, Cincy, and Boise St. With no loss, still not sure they put us ahead of Tiger High or Cincy either. The AAC has done a grand job of public relations. I'd say any Belk talk was just that, talk.

Yes, we did. Had Georgia made it into the playoff, App likely goes to the Belk Bowl. Georgia was trounced by LSU meaning App wasn't going to the Belk Bowl.

It's that simple.