Bowl report

— No bowl for Tech this year

Louisiana Tech, with a 9-3 record and the top-rated offense in the country, isn’t going to a bowl game.

Louisiana Tech Athletic Director Bruce Van De Velde told The Associated Press that Independence Bowl organizers offered a spot in their game on Saturday afternoon, but the Bulldogs had other possible options still available to them. Van De Velde said he asked the Independence Bowl for more time to make a decision, but was told by game organizers that they couldn’t wait.

“Nobody turned a bowl bid down,” he said. “We asked for more time to vet two other opportunities that we had that we felt good about.”

Van De Velde said he told the Independence Bowl organizers: “Anybody you are going to get to replace us will be there on Sunday.

Just give us time to evaluate these opportunities.”

The Independence Bowl had already invited Louisiana-Monroe from the Sun Belt Conference.

An Independence Bowl spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The bowl ended up selecting Ohio from the Mid-American Conference.

Louisiana Tech plays in the Western Athletic Conference, which is going away as a football conference next season and has only one bowl tie-in, with the Idaho Potato Bowl.

The spot went to league champion Utah State.

The Bulldogs are moving to Conference USA next season.

Van De Velde said he was working with C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky on possibly getting the Bulldogs into the Heart of Dallas Bowl or the Liberty Bowl.

But, Van De Velde said, when Northern Illinois slipped into the Bowl Championship Series, taking a possible BCS bid away from Oklahoma, it started a domino effect that filled those spots with Big 12 teams.

“I think we’re just shocked Northern Illinois jumped that high,” Van De Velde said. “I’m happy for them, but I’m disappointed for us.”

CAPITAL ONE BOWL

‘Dogs, Huskers regrouping

ORLANDO, Fla. - Georgia and Nebraska are hoping a New Year’s trip to Florida will be the perfect place to get over their conference championship game disappointments.

Both teams accepted bids to the Jan. 1 Capital One Bowl on Sunday, just a day after falling in their respective conference championship games.

The Bulldogs (11-2) came up just a few yards short of winning the SEC crown and trip the BCS national championship game Saturday night, losing to defending BCS champion Alabama, 32-28.

“We spent ourselves in a worthy cause,” Georgia Coach Mark Richt said.

“We, of course, wanted to play for a national championship. We knew we were just a few yards or a tipped ball, or however you want to say it away from winning it. It was heartbreaking, no doubt.

We were highly hurt by it.

... So you have to kind of get over the heartbreak of that.”

Coach Bo Pelini said though his team was just in Orlando last postseason, he jumped at the chance to play the highest ranked team not in a BCS bowl.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for us,” Pelini said. “That’s one of the reasons we’re excited to be going. Obviously our championship game didn’t go the way we wanted to.”

Nebraska (10-3), lost to Wisconsin 70-31 in the Big 10 Championship game Saturday night in Indianapolis.

Tom Muphy’s ballot

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writer Tom Murphy is a voter in The Associated Press Top 25. Here are his weekly selections in the latest poll.

  1. Notre Dame

  2. Alabama

  3. Florida

  4. Oregon

  5. Georgia

  6. Kansas State

  7. Ohio State

  8. Texas A&M

  9. South Carolina

  10. Stanford

  11. LSU

  12. Oklahoma

  13. Clemson

  14. Florida State

  15. N. Illinois

  16. Utah State

  17. Oregon State

  18. Northwestern

  19. Boise State

  20. San Jose St.

  21. Ark. State

  22. Louisville

  23. Vanderbilt

  24. Nebraska

  25. Michigan

DROPPED OUT

TCU, Kent State

Sports, Pages 19 on 12/03/2012

Upcoming Events