The latest news? Not all that bad, really. Looks like a bowl game in Boise would be unlikely - that's actually good news, because no one likes Boise anyway.
Officials in their respective conferences are trying to get Boise State and Ball State together in a bowl, creating an appetizing matchup of what could be two of major-college football's four remaining unbeaten teams.
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Options range from the Western Athletic-affiliated Humanitarian Bowl in Boise to the Mid-American-associated Motor City in Detroit to a neutral site, the Independence in Shreveport, La., where there may be openings for a couple of teams.
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Pairing Boise State and Ball State may hinge on luring the Cardinals to Boise and the Dec. 30 Humanitarian Bowl, to which Ball State coach Brady Hoke already has expressed some aversion. He doesn't relish meeting the Broncos in Boise, he said. To counter that concern, officials are working on sweetening the Humanitarian's $550,000 monetary and ticket guarantee, designating Ball State as the dark-jerseyed home team and perhaps obliging Boise to make a regular-season return trip to Muncie, Ind.
Yeah, not a lock, or even close to it. But it would certainly be better for the Terps if the trip was made somewhere other than Boise, especially considering the demands they put on teams.
If it's not Boise, and the Terps don't get into another ACC-affiliated bowl (likely Meinike, due to the possible rivalry game w/ WVU), then they'll to find a home in an at-large bid. The most likely bowls are as follows, as per Terrapins Insider:
Dec. 26: Motor City Bowl, Detroit
Dec. 28: Independence Bowl, Shreveport, La.
Dec. 29: Papajohns.com Bowl, Birmingham, Ala.
Dec. 30: Texas Bowl, Houston
Not exactly a very exciting bowl in any of them - my preference would be the Texas Bowl - a later bowl game, a pretty easy opponent (likely a C-USA school, Rice has been considered due to location), Houston's not a bad city...unfortunately, that is the NFLN game, so if you don't have NFL Network, you'd have to make a trip to a sports bar.
None of the others are very appealing to me, to be honest. The cities aren't all that great, the matchups would be average at best - the only one I'd be happy with would be if we could find a way to grab a matchup with Notre Dame. Like most good non-ND fans, I dislike the Domers very much. It'd be fun to play them, and a few of the bowls mentioned would have two free spots (Independence, Papajohns.com).
What say you guys? Any matchup that looks particularly good?