12-07-2014, 10:42 PM
Rick Catlett is a moron. The guy is a politician that used his connections, and then rode the back of Wayne Weaver and TD Jacksonville, in order to get this job with the Gator Bowl Association. The ultimate good ole boy among a sea of good ole boys. How the Gator Bowl, which for awhile now has been a New Years Day bowl on par with the Citrus and Outback, has now been reduced to a mid-afternoon Jan 2nd bowl sandwiched between the Armed Forces and Alamo bowl I'll never know.
Not sure how many are aware but the SEC actually changed their bowl tie-ins this year. SEC gets as many teams into the Big 6 bowls as they can(this year there are three of them... Bama, Ole Miss, and Miss St). Then the Citrus bowl gets their pick(they took Mizzou). And then its "supposedly" a rotation between the Outback, Gator, Belk, Music City, Liberty, and Texas Bowl. The idea being you wouldnt have a team like South Carolina or Georgia always end up in the Outback like they always seem to. And you'd rotate the bowls around. But notice how the Outback, which is a new years day bowl, got top 20 Auburn. Even though these remaining 6 bowls are now "equal", was the SEC and the Outback really going to settle for a 6-6 Tennessee team to play on New Years Day? Of course not. Those 6 bowls wont be rotating who picks first each year. Outback will always get one of the better remaining teams because its in a primetime New Years day bowl slot. And thats where the Gator Bowl USED to be. But again, now its cast into the dustbin of bowl games amidst the likes Armed Forces, Alamo, and Cactus Bowl... the day after new years when nobody will be paying attention.
Not to keep harping on this but as one who grew up going to the Gator Bowl and always thought highly of it, I remember there always being good contests. They would routinely have two ranked teams. And would quite often get a top 10 team. But thats changed. They havent had two ranked teams since 2004. And over their last 8 bowl games, their highest ranked participant was only 18th. Its become just another bowl game that nobody cares about, nobody watches, and gets added to the list of bowls everyone complains about when they say there are too many of them.
One of the biggest problems the city of Jacksonville has is that there are too many good ole boys in places of power who fear the city becoming anything more than "the biggest town in south Georgia." No reason the Gator Bowl with their history, an NFL stadium, good new years day weather, a nearby beach, tons of golf etc... from becoming one of the bigger bowl games and drawing big crowds. But some, like Catlett, have no desire to see it be anything more than just another local attraction that pulls in a few tourists dollars all the while collecting a nice TV paycheck. The guy is an embarrassment.
Not sure how many are aware but the SEC actually changed their bowl tie-ins this year. SEC gets as many teams into the Big 6 bowls as they can(this year there are three of them... Bama, Ole Miss, and Miss St). Then the Citrus bowl gets their pick(they took Mizzou). And then its "supposedly" a rotation between the Outback, Gator, Belk, Music City, Liberty, and Texas Bowl. The idea being you wouldnt have a team like South Carolina or Georgia always end up in the Outback like they always seem to. And you'd rotate the bowls around. But notice how the Outback, which is a new years day bowl, got top 20 Auburn. Even though these remaining 6 bowls are now "equal", was the SEC and the Outback really going to settle for a 6-6 Tennessee team to play on New Years Day? Of course not. Those 6 bowls wont be rotating who picks first each year. Outback will always get one of the better remaining teams because its in a primetime New Years day bowl slot. And thats where the Gator Bowl USED to be. But again, now its cast into the dustbin of bowl games amidst the likes Armed Forces, Alamo, and Cactus Bowl... the day after new years when nobody will be paying attention.
Not to keep harping on this but as one who grew up going to the Gator Bowl and always thought highly of it, I remember there always being good contests. They would routinely have two ranked teams. And would quite often get a top 10 team. But thats changed. They havent had two ranked teams since 2004. And over their last 8 bowl games, their highest ranked participant was only 18th. Its become just another bowl game that nobody cares about, nobody watches, and gets added to the list of bowls everyone complains about when they say there are too many of them.
One of the biggest problems the city of Jacksonville has is that there are too many good ole boys in places of power who fear the city becoming anything more than "the biggest town in south Georgia." No reason the Gator Bowl with their history, an NFL stadium, good new years day weather, a nearby beach, tons of golf etc... from becoming one of the bigger bowl games and drawing big crowds. But some, like Catlett, have no desire to see it be anything more than just another local attraction that pulls in a few tourists dollars all the while collecting a nice TV paycheck. The guy is an embarrassment.
--- can you say empty stadium.