Rockne's Roundtable

Here comes the Sun Bowl for Notre Dame?
December 5, 2010 7:21 AM | No Comments
By Brian Hamilton

For Notre Dame to land in a warm-weather bowl destination, a few dominos across several games had to fall just so on Saturday.

And none of them did. So the likeliest outcome for the Irish is now a bid to the Dec. 31 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, perhaps against Miami.

That would jumpstart one of college football's most heated rivalries about two years ahead of schedule, with the teams originally scheduled to reconnect at Soldier Field in 2012. That still hinges on the Champs Sports Bowl's decision, as it can select the Irish over 9-3 West Virginia -- though multiple outlets have reported it will not.

"The last confirmation we had, the Champs (Sports) Bowl was going to take West Virginia," longtime Sun Bowl football selection committee chairman John Folmer told the El Paso Times for Sunday's editions.

"And how can they not? West Virginia is the Big East runner-up, West Virginia is 9-3, West Virginia is nationally ranked and West Virginia always travels well. That will leave us free to select Notre Dame and that's what we plan to do."