COLUMN
HUNTINGTON, W.Va.— If bowl games are about rewarding the players for a great season, there is no better reward for a Marshall team with 29 players on the roster from Florida than to go bowling in the sunshine state.
That’s just one of the reasons the matchup between Marshall (12-1) and Northern Illinois (11-2) in the inaugural Boca Raton Bowl makes sense for the Thundering Herd.
“I could not be more excited about the matchup for the first-ever Boca Raton Bowl,” said Boca Raton Bowl Executive Director Doug Mosley. “We have two great champions squaring off in what will surely be a must-see game, and our community is ready to welcome these two schools to Boca Raton and Palm Beach County.”
Once Marshall’s chance at an access bowl, such as the Peach Bowl, faded away with a loss to Western Kentucky the priority was to find a great opponent in a great location. NIU has won 11 games in each of the last five seasons, the only team in the country to do that, and is just two years removed from making an appearance in the Orange Bowl.
“It’s a chance to play in Florida, where we have a large fan base, and it is a reward for our players, many of whom are from South Florida and have family in the area. Make no mistake, we wanted to play in the access bowl.”
Ultimately it was Conference USA’s decision which bowl Marshall was going to attend and Marshall officials could have pushed Conference USA to play a P5 school in the Heart of Dallas Bowl but what kind of a reward is it to play a mediocre team from the Big 10, in a nearly empty 70,000 seat Cotton Bowl, with iffy weather conditions?
In 2004, Marshall played in the Fort Worth Bowl in Fort Worth Texas in subfreezing temperatures with sleet and snow falling. That won’t be an issue in Boca Raton.
“We didn’t worry about the perception of playing a MAC champion versus playing a 6-6 Big Ten school, it is about doing what’s best for your team,” Hamrick said of playing Northern. “Many in the P5 are not as good as some teams in G5 — I hate those terms. I like more publicized and least publicized conferences, but there is a lot of good football in the G5, and NIU is one of those great teams.”
It also never hurts for Doc Holliday to show off his program in the heart of his favorite recruiting grounds, South Florida. Of the 15 reported verbal commitments in Marshall’s 2015 recruiting class, 15 are from Florida.
The Dec. 23 bowl is the only bowl game outside the semifinals that features two conference champions and Yahoo! Sports’ Dr. Saturday ranked the Boca Raton Bowl as the 10th best bowl game of the year. By the way, the same article rated the Heart of Dallas Bowl, pitting Louisiana Tech vs. Illinois as 37th out of the 38 bowl games.
Rakeem Cato, Tommy Shuler and others will get to play their final game for the Herd in their home state. Marshall will face a quality opponent in a great location.
That is a reward for a great season.