Conference USA and the MAC Get a Huge Recruiting Tool in New Bowl Game

When you decide to play for Rice, Marshall, East Carolina you know it will take an Act of God for you to play in a BCS bowl or starting next season one of the playoff games. Schools like Akron, Toledo, and Ball State are pretty much SOL as well when it comes to the big bowl games.

So what sort of carrot can the coaches in the MAC and Conference-USA dangle in front of recruits since they can't realistically promise a trip to a big bowl game?

How about one to the Bahamas?

Starting in 2014 the MAC and Conference-USA are going to be sending teams to the Bahamas (Nassau to be precise) for the Bahamas Bowl.

Here you are. You are in your teens or early 20's and fit. You get to travel to a tropical paradise for a week in order to play a football game.

That doesn't suck at all.

Of course it would be great to play in the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, or Orange Bowls, but only a select few teams get to go to those games. Even if they go undefeated it is highly unlikely that any team from the MAC or Conference-USA will be chosen outside of scheduling the hardest non-conference schedule in the nation (and winning).

So head to a school in one of these two conferences and there is a good chance you will get to spend a week staring at this (when you are not playing football that is):

Anyone looking for an overweight recruit in his 30's?