A few hours ago, we were all getting righteously excited about a bowl game named after CAFO chickens that’s played in a boondoggle stadium in the Bay Area’s most boring suburb. I suppose when you are San Diego State University of the Mountain West Conference, even those modest dreams are too much to ask for.
Oh, also a bowl game in a soccer stadium against SMU is also too much to ask for.
And a game in Birmingham, Alabama in the only FBS stadium crumbling more rapidly than the Aztecs’ venerable home.
After an entire morning and early afternoon of confusion and frustration and FLAILING RAGE that probably ruined your Sunday as much as it did mine and my family’s, SDSU was finally handed a consolation landing spot in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas against Army. The game will be played on Saturday, Dec. 23 at 12:30 p.m. Pacific. The game will be on ESPN, which is important to know because you are definitely not going to attend.
While this is undeniably more palatable than the worst case scenarios (they were, in order of best to worst: no bowl at all, New Mexico Bowl and Arizona Bowl) this is still a something of a disgrace. SDSU is a 10-2 team that spent half the season in the rankings and beat two winning Pac-12 squads. And that gets you a date with a service academy?
If this were a just world, SDSU’s regular season would have earned it a matchup with a Power Five opponent. If this were a just world, SDSU’s most recent bowl game against a Power Five opponent would not be the 1998 Vegas Bowl.
Guess that’s life in the most Group of Fivinest conference that ever Group of Fived.
Aztec players had opinions!
For the record, all these tweets went out while SDSU was still in limbo getting overlooked by better games. So don’t take this as disrespect for Army.
And that’s good, because the Black Knights aren’t bad at all. They’re 8-3 with the Army-Navy game still to come next weekend. Army beat Duke and Temple and shut out Air Force. So maybe, just, maybe, a win would be enough to sneak SDSU up into the final season Top 25.
But don’t hold your breath.
This fiasco should be enough to show you not to count on SDSU getting anything resembling respect from anyone.
KABEER THIRTY 