Overlooked in the initial outrage of Maryland being sent to the Military Bowl is a unique opportunity. How many teams get o play their bowl game within 15 miles of their campus? Not many. In this sense, it's a positive for the Terps.
With that in mind, Coach Friedgen spoke at halftime of the Basketball game yesterday, and pleaded with the fans to buy tickets to the Bowl game, according to Patrick Stevens at D1scourse. During his speech, he said something interesting about how the bowl process treated his team.
"I have a favor to ask. I would like for you to help us attend this Military Bowl. We are very thankful that we have a chance to play in the Military Bowl. We are disappointed in the process. I think our players have deserved a lot more support and in a way, they disrespected our school by this process."
Hmmmm. Can't say I disagree with him.
The Military Bowl got the eighth pick of ACC teams. Any way you slice it, they were much better than eighth in their conference. If you look at the standings, only two teams had a better record than the Terps. There were two other teams that finished at the same same record. One of those teams being NC State, whom the Terps beat in the final game of the season.
That means that there were four bowl games that could have picked Maryland, and their selection would have been totally justified based on the standings. But they didn't. Each one of those four bowl games decided to pass on the Terps in favor of a team that they felt would mean more cache for their event.
I can totally understand why Coach feels like the Terps got disrespected, because they kind of did.