The Mid-American Conference didn’t want to take any chances on teams getting left at home from bowl games when the College Football Playoff starts in 2014.
To relieve the anxiety, the league announced the addition of the Cameilla Bowl to the MAC postseason and several outlets have reported a bowl game with a MAC tie-in hosted in the Bahamas.
Adding two bowl games gives the conference five contracted bowl games for the 2014 season.
“I think it’s very important to add legitimate postseason opportunities that you are contractually committed to,” Ball State athletic director Bill Scholl said. “It just helps remove some of the chance of whether or not you’ll have a spot.”
The MAC has seen bowl-eligible teams from the conference left at home during the postseason because of the at-large selection and other conferences, specifically BCS conferences, have more teams eligible than contracted bowls.
Ball State wasn’t selected to a bowl after a 6-6 season in 2011, coach Pete Lembo’s first season at the school. Before joining the now American Athletic Conference, the MAC’s Temple missed out on a bowl game with an 8-4 record in 2010.
Last season, 9-3 Louisiana Tech was left in the cold.
The Cameilla Bowl will pit a MAC team against a team from the Sun Belt. The planned Bahamas Bowl is expected to place a team from the MAC and Conference-USA in the game.
Non-BCS conferences have pushed to stock their postseason bowl contracts with the coming College Football Playoff. When the playoff begins, 12 bowl-eligible teams will be selected compared to 10 bowl-eligible teams selected in the current BCS bowl format.
“It’s all part of growth,” Scholl said. “It’s kind of an indicator of a healthy program and that was the MAC has right now. We have a lot of really good football programs.”
Lembo uses the MAC’s bowl opportunities as a recruiting tool. The Ball State coaching staff and even the players have been able to add last season’s Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl appearance as another pitch. Another bowl game in Montgomery, Ala., and another in the Bahamas would only help the recruiting tools.
He understands the playoff coming in 2014 could affect how many non-BCS schools get picked into bowls as an at-large (Ball State’s selection to the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl was as an at-large bid), but said the emphasis is getting more bowl games in general.
“Playoffs or not it’s important,” Lembo said. “You’d rather be in a primary situation with a bowl rather than having your fingers crossed and hope another conference doesn’t fill all its slots.”
The Cameilla Bowl will be played at the Cramton Bowl. The Bahamas Bowl has been reported by CBSSports.com to be play in Thomas Robinson Stadium in Nassau.
