Miami-Notre Dame likely Sun Bowl matchup

As proud supports of the University of Notre Dame, The Saucedo Company is excited at the prospect of the Irish invading El Paso for the 77th Annual Hyundai Sun Bowl! Go Irish!

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Get ready for the Catholics vs. the Squeaky Clean ‘Canes.

Or the Catholics vs. the Coachless, whichever you prefer.

An official announcement has yet to be made, but it looks as if Miami will play Notre Dame in the Sun Bowl Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas. It would be the teams’ first matchup in 20 years.

“We never in our wildest dreams in 77 years of bowl business thought we’d have a matchup like that,” Sun Bowl chairman John Folmer told me Sunday morning.

He added, “That’s the scenario unless the Champs Bowl decides to do something at the last minute, and that’s certainly their prerogative.”

Folmer said he was told Saturday night that the Champs Bowl would take West Virginia (9-3) as its Big East team – Champs has the option to take 7-5 Notre Dame instead of a Big East team – barring a last-minute change of mind.

That would leave Notre Dame for the Sun Bowl to select in place of a Pac-10 team — which it would have been contractually obligated to take had enough teams been bowl eligible — and pit against Miami as its ACC representative.

Everything worked out for the Sun Bowl on Saturday.

West Virginia won. Connecticut won. And Washington did, too.

Folmer said Sun Bowl representatives were “sweating” out the Washington-Washington State game. Washington’s win made it the Pac-10’s fourth eligible team. That means a Pac-10 team will be available to the Holiday Bowl — which selects ahead of the Sun Bowl — so the Holiday can’t opt to take Notre Dame.

“By the skin of our chinny, chin-chin it did happen,” Folmer said of everything falling into place for his bowl. “It was pretty close — pretty tense, needless to say. I’m glad I was taking my blood pressure medicine.”

The Hurricanes will be led in their bowl game by interim coach Jeff Stoutland, who was promoted from offensive line coach after Randy Shannon was fired Nov. 27.

“We’re a little worried about the no-coach situation and all of the hoopla that’s gone along with that,” Folmer said. “But we’ve had that happen to us before when Pittsburgh came here. Pittsburgh committed to the game [in Dec. 1989] and fired Mike Gottfried a week later.

“It wasn’t a very good situation. But the game’s played for the kids. It’s not played for the coaches and administration. That was the salvation we had.”

Folmer said El Paso football fans would be thrilled to see Miami-Notre Dame.

“Are you kidding me? It would be incredible. It would be something the city of El Paso never expected to see,” he said.

Miami and Notre Dame have played 23 times. The Hurricanes lost the teams’ last meeting, 29-20, at Notre Dame in 1990. The teams are scheduled to play in the regular season (Oct. 6) in 2012 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

by: Steve Gorten, Sun Sentenail

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_college_hurricanes/2010/12/miami-notre-dame-likely-sun-bowl-matchup.html