From: don.p.del.grande@gmail.com   
      
   > > > Actually, I don't think any of them have to accept the bowl bid.    
   > > I wouldn't be surprised if at least some conferences mandate that they do   
   accept.    
   > > Besides, with the bowl game comes those extra days of practice, and I am   
   assuming that in most cases, schools in bowl games make money from them.   
   > I don't know how other conferences work but the revenue from a bowl game,   
   minus expenses, is shared equally among all    
   > the schools in the conference. I would bet that with the minor bowls, the   
   participating schools are barely breaking even if    
   > not losing money. It costs about the same to send a team to a minor bowl as   
   it does for a New Years 6 bowl game.    
      
   Which could explain any conference demands that its teams play in any bowl   
   games to which they are invited.   
       
   > Coaches definitely like the extra practice time. A bowl game is a transition   
   game. It's as much the first game of the next    
   > season as it is the last game of the current season, especially if there are   
   a lot of departing players opting out. In some    
   > cases, there are interim coaches because the head coach took another job or   
   even been fired. Depending on the bowl, the    
   > players are going to have different levels of enthusiasm. I wonder what the   
   enthusiasm level will be for the Orange Bowl    
   > teams after they got snubbed by the CFP.   
      
   My first response to this thread was going to be, "Since it is a de facto game   
   for the returning players, how hard would it be to leave out the seniors?" -   
   then I realized you are asking each team to play with only something like 75   
   players, only 60 or    
   so of which are on scholarship (and let's not forget about the players now in   
   the transfer portal; practicing with them for "next season" is more than   
   meaningless - it's tipping them off as to what the team will be doing next   
   season).   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)