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BYU fans have waited quite a while to hear any news on BYU's bowl agreement for the 2014 season and thanks to ESPN's Brett McMurphy they may now know where the Cougars will be playing (if they are bowl eligible) come December.
McMurphy broke the report earlier today via Twitter account earlier today:
BYU will play AAC team in inaugural Miami Beach Bowl in Dec., sources told @ESPN
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) April 28, 2014
According to The Salt Lake Tribune's Jay Drew, the American Athletic Conference(AAC), who owns the Miami Beach Bowl will not confirm McMurphy's report at this time.
AAC director of communications Chuck Sullivan "can neither confirm nor deny" reports that BYU headed to Miami Beach Bowl. AAC owns the bowl.
— Jay Drew (@drewjay) April 28, 2014
AAC's Sullivan did tell me that no announcement is planned for today regarding Miami Beach Bowl's non-AAC participant.
— Jay Drew (@drewjay) April 28, 2014
If the McMurphy's report does turn out to be true the Cougars will face an AAC opponent in the bowl's inaugural game this upcoming December. The bowl will be held at Marlins Park, the home of Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins, which stands on the former site of the Orange Bowl. According to the Miami Herald the Miami Beach Bowl will likely be held on either December 22nd or 23rd and tickets will cost around $60.
While Miami is definitely a premiere destination for a bowl game, the prospect of playing another (or a repeat) AAC opponent in 2014 may not excite too many Cougar fans. BYU is already set to play AAC members Houston, UCF, and UConn during the upcoming regular season and it is very likely that the first two teams on that list will be headed to one of the AAC five bowl games. The AAC will both add and subtract a number of teams for the upcoming season, so the other possible AAC opponents for 2014 are Cincinnati, Memphis, SMU, USF, Temple, East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa.
So fans what are your thoughts? Will you be excited or disappointed if this turns out to be true?