North Carolina State University Athletics
A Well-Deserved Reward (12/8/08)
12/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Last week took me back to the days when schools used to have to woo various representatives to earn a spot in a post-season bowl. That’s the way it happened before the conferences got together and established official tie-ins with bowls across the country.
I spent much of my time last week talking to friends in the television business and in college athletics to find out what position we’d be in for a bowl game, trying to find out what our viable options were and letting those who were curious know about the character of this team and the obstacles it has overcome to get in this position.
The ACC has nine bowl tie-ins, which is normally enough. But NC State coach Tom O’Brien and his team created a little havoc in the system we have in place by winning their final four game and becoming bowl eligible with a 6-6 record. There have been 10 bowl-eligible teams before, but no conference had ever actually sent 10 teams into the post-season before.
There was little doubt this team deserved to go to a bowl game. The Pack is playing as well as any team in the conference, and there were several bowls with at-large spots available. Everyone was excited about the possibility of having redshirt freshman Russell Wilson, the ACC Rookie of the Year and first team All-ACC quarterback, play in their game.
But there were some procedures we had to follow. The biggest issue was that the NCAA has a rule that says all 7-5 teams have to be selected before any 6-6 teams can be picked. There is good reasoning for that, of course, but it put us into waiting mode. The other nine bowl-qualified teams in the league were at least 7-5, so they were all destined to go to the bowls with our nine league tie-ins.
We had to wait on the outcome of several championship games on Thursday and Saturday to see what spots would be available. When it became apparent that there would be a spot open in the Papajohns.com Bowl, it seemed like a natural for NC State, since it is the closest of all the bowls that had open spots.
Birmingham is 580 miles from Raleigh, which is a pretty good car ride, but not a prohibitive one.
I have to say that one of the big reasons that the football team was invited to this bowl is because of our fans. We have a well-deserved reputation for taking lots of supporters to our post-season games, and that makes a big difference to bowl committees, especially in these tough economic times.
The past support our fans have been able to give bowl games certainly enhanced our position this year.
A strong showing in ticket sales and attendance for this game at Birmingham’s Legion Field can really help us in the future, as Coach O’Brien continues his quest to build the best program in the state, in the conference and in the country.
Tickets are available now at the GoPack.com Ticket Center for Wolfpack Club members and for the general public.
Our partners at Wolfpack Club Travel have put together some travel packages to Birmingham that include transportation, accommodations and tickets to the game.
Let’s enhance the strong reputation we already have by turning Birmingham Wolfpack Red on the afternoon of Dec. 29.
Red days, of course, are better than scarlet nights.
Lee Fowler
Athletics director
