[BostonCard]

Speaking for myself, given how easy it is to get into a bowl game these days, I don't consider doing it a particularly noteworthy achievement.

Those of us who witnessed seven bowl-less seasons between the ill-fated Seattle bowl and the first sun bowl, when we were just thrilled beyond measure to become bowl eligible, would disagree.

I remember when in the midst of the Montgomery era, people used to discount his accomplishments by grumbling about how easy it was to make the tourney and complain about the number of second round exits.

BC

So what you're saying is we should be very happy in years we go 6-6 and end up in the Insignificant Bowl.
I certainly hope we are wise enough not to hire any Buddy's or Wlat's again, but I guess you never know.
Think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

No, I did not write that we should be happy to go six and six and end up in an insignificant bowl.   What I wrote is that going to even an insignificant bowl every year for the last ten is a rather more significant achievement than you give the team credit for, and we are just one or two bad hires away from not just missing out on a bowl, but from a prolonged and painful slump that at one point saw us go 1-11.  I mean, sure most teams in power five conferences will make a bowl game.  But over time eventually everyone stumbles, so while going to a non top tier bowl game may not seem like much of an accomplishment, not going to one will eventually happen, at which point we will be thankful for the golden years of Stanford football, when a “bad year” meant we were “stuck” going to the Sun Bowl as the fourth best team in the conference.  

Quick, name all the pac-12 teams who have a bowl streak as long or longer than ours.  Short list, because all eleven other PAC-12 teams have missed out on a bowl game in the ten years we’ve been going.  If making a bowl is so easy, surely other teams, who did not have to contend with a Buddy or Wlat, have gone, right?  Exactly ten teams in all of college football have been going to bowl games as long as Stanford, most in conferences that play only 8 conference games (the OMG SEC has four such teams).  My point is that going to a bowl game year in and year out is an accomplishment, and going to the Sun Bowl is something that at least seven other teams in the conference envy.  And even Cal’s Cheez-It’s appearance is better than teams like UCLA, USC, Arizona, not to mention Oregon state and Colorado wish they could be doing instead of staying home for the holidays.

BC

[BostonCard]

Speaking for myself, given how easy it is to get into a bowl game these days, I don't consider doing it a particularly noteworthy achievement.

Those of us who witnessed seven bowl-less seasons between the ill-fated Seattle bowl and the first sun bowl, when we were just thrilled beyond measure to become bowl eligible, would disagree.

I remember when in the midst of the Montgomery era, people used to discount his accomplishments by grumbling about how easy it was to make the tourney and complain about the number of second round exits.

BC

So what you're saying is we should be very happy in years we go 6-6 and end up in the Insignificant Bowl.
I certainly hope we are wise enough not to hire any Buddy's or Wlat's again, but I guess you never know.
Think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

No, I did not write that we should be happy to go six and six and end up in an insignificant bowl.   What I wrote is that going to even an insignificant bowl every year for the last ten is a rather more significant achievement than you give the team credit for, and we are just one or two bad hires away from not just missing out on a bowl, but from a prolonged and painful slump that at one point saw us go 1-11.  I mean, sure most teams in power five conferences will make a bowl game.  But over time eventually everyone stumbles, so while going to a non top tier bowl game may not seem like much of an accomplishment, not going to one will eventually happen, at which point we will be thankful for the golden years of Stanford football, when a “bad year” meant we were “stuck” going to the Sun Bowl as the fourth best team in the conference.  

Quick, name all the pac-12 teams who have a bowl streak as long or longer than ours.  Short list, because all eleven other PAC-12 teams have missed out on a bowl game in the ten years we’ve been going.  If making a bowl is so easy, surely other teams, who did not have to contend with a Buddy or Wlat, have gone, right?  Exactly ten teams in all of college football have been going to bowl games as long as Stanford, most in conferences that play only 8 conference games (the OMG SEC has four such teams).  My point is that going to a bowl game year in and year out is an accomplishment, and going to the Sun Bowl is something that at least seven other teams in the conference envy.  And even Cal’s Cheez-It’s appearance is better than teams like UCLA, USC, Arizona, not to mention Oregon state and Colorado wish they could be doing instead of staying home for the holidays.

BC