And who thought there weren't any AD's who kept their souls...

[djtestudo]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1672511

TCU planning to decline bowl invite

ESPN.com news services

TCU was unable to land a spot in the Bowl Championship Series. Now it appears the Horned Frogs may turn down the next best thing.


The school is planning to decline an expected invitation to the GMAC Bowl because of academic considerations, athletic director Eric Hyman told The Washington Post on Wednesday night.


TCU had its sights sets on a BCS bowl, but those hopes were dashed by a loss to Southern Miss on Nov. 20. As a result, the Horned Frogs will likely finish second in Conference USA and earn an invitation to the GMAC.


However, Hyman says the school will likely decline the bowl bid because the game falls in the middle of their exam period (Dec. 18). The bowl could have pitted a pair of impressive mid-majors (TCU and Miami-Ohio) against each other.


"I can't do that," TCU Athletic Director Eric Hyman told the Washington Post on Wednesday night. "I have to be sensitive to our young people. They are student-athletes, but they are also students, and they are coming to school to get an education. We cannot disrupt their exams. It's not fair to them."


A GMAC official was stunned by TCU's sentiments. Bowl president Jerry Silverstein told the newspaper he had informed Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky of plans to invite TCU.


"He told us everything is fine," Silverstein told the paper. "We have a seven-year deal with Conference USA and have never had a problem. I think [TCU] can do whatever they have to do to come down here. I would be absolutely shocked if they don't."


By passing on the bid, Hyman would be giving up the $750,000 bowl payout plus considerable national exposure.


"I understand why they want us," Hyman told the Post, referring to GMAC officials. "But on the flip side, I want them to understand that the priority for us this time of year is success in the classroom and in exams. There are alternatives to us."


Silverstein said he had no alternative plans. "I sympathize with them," Silverstein told the paper. "I never would ask a school to disrupt anything. But we have a bowl to put on. We are honorable people and hope they can resolve any problems they have."


"We've had several conversations, and they're ongoing," Hyman told the paper. "What I'm saying to them is real. It's not a matter of trying to position for something else."


Theoretically, TCU could still end up in another bowl with ties to Conference USA. The winner of Conference USA will be invited to the Liberty Bowl, but Southern Miss (8-3, 7-0) is in first place right now after beating TCU on Saturday.


The GMAC Bowl is entitled to select the second-place finisher. The Hawaii Bowl gets the next choice, followed by the Fort Worth Bowl. Memphis (8-3, 5-3) is third in the Conference USA standings. Louisville (8-3, 4-3) is fourth. TCU has one regular-season game remaining, against SMU on Saturday.


Hyman told the newspaper that the Hawaii Bowl (Dec. 25) and Fort Worth Bowl (Dec. 23) would not conflict with TCU's exam schedule.


In two previous GMAC Bowl appearances, TCU (10-1, 7-1) held its exams one week earlier.


"We have gone down to the GMAC Bowl and had a wonderful experience," Hyman told the paper. "But this is bigger than a bowl game."

All I can say is wow...

[The_Dude]

I personally think this is BS.

What if TCU was chosen to play in the national championship or a BCS bowl on that date? The AD would accept without any thought.

[dragon2fire]

Originally posted by The_Dude
I personally think this is BS.

What if TCU was chosen to play in the national championship or a BCS bowl on that date? The AD would accept without any thought.

your in school


would you really want to take your finals early?

I know i would not


not to metion the money is not that good for this bowl and they will likely get a invite to another bowl


if it was a bcs bowl the ad would have to accepct because the money is un fucking belivleable

[gov135]

When I saw this, I immeadiately thought it was sour grapes/posturing by TCU.

We'll have to follow this story. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't fishing for a better bowl bid. Remember, not only did they not get the BCS bid, but the GMAC bowl is not the number one bid for their conference (which will go to S. Miss.).

Miami of Ohio is really, really tough here. TCU has moved their finals of athletes for bowls in the past, so something is going on here, either:
1. TCU feels it can somehow grab a spot in another, better bowl.
2. TCU wants no part of Miami of Ohio.
3. This is just a plain sour grapes move.

What does this say to potential recruits to TCU? You have to show those kids you will take them to a bowl game. Something is going on here, the other shoe is yet to fall. We'll know more later.

[Artermis]

I agree. If you move finals in the past...why would you not this year?

I think they are hoping to get the Hawaii bowl bid.


Art

[BigGov]

Gov nailed it all.

They want a better bowl, they want no part of a good team, and they want more money.

And they don't deserve a damn thing.

[AL9045]

Originally posted by The_Dude
I personally think this is BS.

What if TCU was chosen to play in the national championship or a BCS bowl on that date? The AD would accept without any thought.

I don't think anyone would decline a BCS bowl, it's all about money these days, so if they can milk out a few more dollars, they would accept.

[djtestudo]

What if TCU was chosen to play in the national championship or a BCS bowl on that date? The AD would accept without any thought.

Check the dates; the problem is that the GMAC Bowl is December 18. There are no BCS bowls until January 1.

Besides, maybe the school president decided that moving the finals AGAIN would be too much of a hassle for the students who AREN'T on the football team. Maybe the AD is considering academics for once?

[The_Dude]

Originally posted by djtestudo
Check the dates; the problem is that the GMAC Bowl is December 18. There are no BCS bowls until January 1.

Besides, maybe the school president decided that moving the finals AGAIN would be too much of a hassle for the students who AREN'T on the football team. Maybe the AD is considering academics for once?

I know. I'm just saying that if a BCS bowl fell on dec 18th, the AD would've accepted the invite.

[Jaiddin]

the story is being said to be bad now. TCU people are saying that they did not turn down the bowl, but that they only raised the concern to the GMAC people. IF they are invited to the GMAC bowl (there are still the potential for a couple of other bowls as well), most likely they will take it. This school moved games to tuesday-thurdsay just for media exposure. That is not the mark of a school worried about the acadimics of its athletes.

[RoadRage]

Originally posted by gov135
2. TCU wants no part of Miami of Ohio.

The only I-A school that would want to play the Redhawks right now is Oklahoma. Miami-OH deserves better than the GMAC Bowl.

[BigBlueWrecking]

There are too many bowls. GMAC bowl is a joke. I am sure that is somewhat of a motivation to them, but they can play in a different bowl and get the same little amount of money (which they still have to split 11 ways).

[RHix613]

It's about time a school took the high road. There are too many "worthless" bowls anyway. And TCU decided their players' educations were more important then a little chump-change. I think they should do away with half of these bowls anyway. I know it's not part of this thread but football needs a playoff system, then every school would know what to expect and when they can/should have finals.

[gov135]

Ivan Maisel on espn.com writes:

Isn't That Convenient
Normally, I would applaud TCU athletic director Eric Hyman's principled stand against going to the GMAC Bowl. The Dec. 18 game lands right in the middle of final exams at TCU, and Hyman is concerned about the disruption it would cause for his team, the band and whatever other Horned Frog students make the trip.

Except that Hyman has known all year the date of the GMAC Bowl.

And he didn't say a thing until TCU lost at Southern Mississippi.

And the Mobile game is a disappointment for a team that had dreams of a BCS bid. And the Horned Frogs have been there twice in the last four years.

Hey, if you don't want to go to the bowl game, come out and say it. But give me a break with the self-righteousness.

Miami (Ohio), the MAC team in the game, has final exams during bowl week. The school is arranging for the affected students to take their exams several days early.

Simple problem, simple solution, except in the hallowed halls of TCU.
___________________________________________________

TCU has moved finals plenty of times before. They've just decided that they'd rather not play in the bowl game that traditionally goes to the Conf-USA second place team.

[The_Dude]

tcu goes to ft worth bowl

http://www.conferenceusa.com/sports/...ELEASE_ID=5962

[wraithhibn]

hopefully that means Louisville to the GMAC. A lot more fans will go down to Mobile than to Hawaii, and the football players werent looking forward going to HI because it would mean being stuck in a hotel all week, including Christmas.

[The_Dude]

Louisville has accepted a bid to the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Ala., on December 18, where it will face Mid-American Conference regular season champion Miami (Ohio).

[skysooner]

TCU accepted an invitation to play in the Ft. Worth Bowl that is played on their home field. I guess they didn't want to get exposed any more than they did against Southern Miss.

[dy156]

This guy writing for the Fort Worth paper may be biased, but it's the best explanation I've heard. I didn't know TCU's athletic director used to be the same for Miami(OH), and I doubt that they tried to shy away from playing a good team or wanted to play a bowl game in Fort Worth. Apparantly, there's also some connection between the Fort Worth Bowl and ESPN, which sheds light on the statements made by the ESPN writer posted above.

Posted on Tue, Dec. 02, 2003

Frogs undercut by C-USA
On-the-fence TCU has bowl wishes ignored
By Gil Lebreton
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The invitation has been graciously accepted.

TCU officials said Monday night the Horned Frogs will be happy to be the host team for the inaugural PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl.

Athletic director Eric Hyman called it "the toughest five days of my professional career," and he probably has the long distance phone bills to prove it.

On behalf of an 11-1 football team, the school's most successful in 65 years, Hyman took a tough stand and had the resolve -- some may call it "audacity" -- to see it through.

"The team finished 11-1, they did a hell of a job, and they got caught in some of the politics that were going on," Hyman said.

And therein sits the ugly side of this football story.

It wasn't that TCU chose to, for lack of a better phrase, play the academic card. As early as mid-November, Hyman said he informed Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky that because of the school's examination schedule, "We had a problem and could not play [in the GMAC Mobile Bowl]."

The dirty part of this story also wasn't that TCU had a prior "arrangement" to stay at home and play in the Fort Worth Bowl.

"I have never had one conversation with Pete Derzis [of ESPN] about playing in the Fort Worth Bowl," Hyman asserted Monday night.

Nor was the unseemly story that the Horned Frogs were somehow trying to duck a so-called quality opponent in Miami of Ohio.

"I would love to play Miami-Ohio," said Hyman, who was the AD at Miami before coming to TCU. "That's why we played Nebraska to open the season a year after we lost 28 seniors. That's why we tried to schedule Virginia Tech.

"This was totally, pure and simple, an academic issue."

No, the ugly side of the Frogs' bowl saga is that grown men, trying to settle some imagined score with TCU, banded together and tried to keep a bowl reward away from young men who richly deserved it.

As long as there have been bowl games, there have been deals bargained in smoke-filled rooms. If the Cotton Bowl, for example, couldn't get a Top-10 matchup, it shook enough hands to land a Doug Flutie, a Bo Jackson. Everyone seemed to go away happy.

But Jerry Silverstein, president of the Mobile Bowl, didn't want to take TCU's no for an answer. The question is why.

Why would any bowl official want to invite a team that said it couldn't come, whose students wouldn't be able to come, and whose fans didn't want to come?

Silverstein reportedly claims nobody told him until days after the TCU loss at Southern Miss that the Frogs wouldn't be able to come. Banowsky, the C-USA commissioner, told Hyman he informed Silverstein of TCU's intentions in mid-November.

Somebody is not telling the truth.

Around the country, supposedly, TCU has been getting scorched for trying to break the league's contract with the Mobile Bowl. In truth, that contract has always been written in fuzzy ink. Former commissioner Mike Slive suggested as much last year when, in announcing the deal with the then-new Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, he said the conference's four other bowl games would be allotted by taking into account "regional and various" considerations.

But Mobile pushed. And the people who run the athletic departments around C-USA stood back and allowed them.

Why?

Connect the dots. The dots that have TCU rumored to be leaving C-USA and bolting to the Mountain West Conference.

Having turned down the Mobile game, it was no secret TCU's choice was the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. But Houston was awarded the invitation Monday to play in the Hawaii game.

Houston is staying in Conference USA.

Memphis will play North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl.

Memphis is staying in Conference USA.

See a pattern?

Only when Louisville agreed Monday night to fill the spot in the Mobile Bowl was a bowl berth for TCU finally secured.

A group of adults, trying to wage a grudge against other adults, nearly stole something away from a few dozen deserving kids.

If TCU aims to keep its integrity intact, it will leave this dying mess called Conference USA as soon as possible.

link