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Sun Bowl To Invite South Florida

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By BRETT McMURPHY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 27, 2007

TAMPA - Here comes the Sun Bowl, Bulls fans.

The Sun Bowl selection committee voted Monday night to extend an official invitation to the University of South Florida, said John Folmer, the bowl's committee chairman.

Today at 3 p.m., the Brut Sun Bowl's board of directors formally will invite USF to represent the Big East Conference in the 74th Sun Bowl against a team from the Pacific-10 Conference, still to be determined.

The Sun Bowl will be held in El Paso, Texas, at 2 p.m. on Dec. 31.

The 10-person committee chose USF (9-3) over Cincinnati (9-3) in part because the Bulls ranked No. 21 in the BCS rankings and Cincinnati was No. 23.

"There were a lot of conversations, some heated arguments, but that's good," Folmer said.

Although Cincinnati defeated USF 38-33 on Nov. 3 in Tampa, Folmer said the selection committee thought USF "would do a better job."

"Based on the fact they were ranked higher in the BCS poll and based on the fact they beat West Virginia, a team that likely will play for the national title, and also won at Auburn was big," Folmer said.

The Bulls, who tied the school record for most victories in a season, will be making their third consecutive bowl trip.

"USF is a storybook story, from not having football 11 years ago and being where they are today," Folmer said. "They have a lot of great wins."

USF started the season unranked, but won its first six games, including upsets over nationally ranked Auburn and West Virginia. The Bulls' 6-0 start earned them a No. 2 national ranking before they suffered three consecutive losses by a total of 15 points.

The Bulls rebounded strong, by closing the regular season with three consecutive victories.

Another factor in USF's favor was a larger television market. Tampa has the nation's No. 13 TV market, while Cincinnati's is No. 33.

"There a lot of things that make USF attractive," Folmer said. "Florida football is like Texas football - it's the king right now."

Folmer said the selection committee also was impressed by an online poll on the bowl's Web site in which 81 percent of 16,000 respondents voted for USF.

What Pac-10 team the Bulls will play isn't as clear cut.

The Sun Bowl is required to take the Pac-10's third-place team, unless that team participated in last year's bowl. Oregon State defeated Missouri 39-38 in last year's game.

So if the Pac-10 only gets its league champion in the BCS, the Pac-10 runner-up goes to the Holiday Bowl and the third-place team likely would be Saturday's Oregon-Oregon State winner. However, if Oregon State finishes third, the Sun Bowl has the option of taking fourth-place Oregon.

If the Pac-10 gets two teams in the BCS, the Sun Bowl gets the fourth-place team. Under this scenario if Oregon State lost to Oregon and finished fourth, the Sun Bowl can take either Oregon State or fifth-place UCLA.

Those are the two most likely scenarios, but with Arizona State (6-2 Pac 10) hosting Arizona (4-4), UCLA (5-3) visiting USC (6-2) and Oregon State (5-3) visiting Oregon (5-3), there is the possibility of a four-way tie for first place between Arizona State, USC, UCLA and the Oregon-Oregon State winner.

Sun Bowl tickets are $40, $50 and $60 and can be purchased by calling 1-800-GoBulls or at GoUSFBulls.com. Travel packages for USF fans also will be available today at GoUSFBulls.com.

USF will purchase 1,000 student tickets that will be distributed to USF students. Details will be announced today.

Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com

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