There are very few things more disheartening among SEC fans than the prospects of spending the bowl season at the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana . But a mediocre season and an 8th place finish in the toughest conference in the land will get you some nice parting gifts and an all expenses paid trip to the Port City. Teams and fans alike are sure to enjoy the oppressive heat, street violence, and…hey look, casinos! Every week FOTP will be taking a look at which SEC teams have the best chance of going bowling in East Texas the third most glamorous city in the Bayou State.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when we said that a less-than-stellar match-up in Shreveport would pretty much throw the last few shovel fulls of dirt on the Indepencence Bowl’s casket?  Well, get your eulogies ready and notify the next of kin because the attending physician is ready to call this one.  The Independence Bowl announced yesterday that Louisiana Tech (7-5) will take on the vaunted Huskies of Northern Illinois (6-6).  Yeesh.

We went back into the annals of Indy Bowl history to find a more putrid combination…its a short list.  McNeese St. (now a Div. II team) beat Tulsa in the inaugural Independence Bowl in 1976 and then took on Syracuse and Southern Miss in consecutive years in ’79 and ’80. ..and that’s pretty much it.  In 32 years of Indy Bowls, only 3 games were worse…and those were played in the 70′s, before cable, before ESPN, before the Thriller album and Family Ties…hell, those games are probably only available on reel-to-reel and backed up with audio from a Rambler’s 8 track player.   All that to say, this year’s match-up is about as bad as it can be.

Sure, Louisiana Tech is local, their fans will show up, its the casual fan that fills the non-allottment seats that is going to have a hard time pulling himself off of the couch to go see this game, not to mention there won’t be a sole from Northern Illinois making the trip outside of family and support staff.  Unfortunately for the selection committee, there were not too many options.  With Southern Miss and Memphis accepting bids elsewhere the Indy Bowl was left with the aforementioned Huskies and a pair of Sun Belt teams, Arkansas State and UL-Lafayette…no word on if McNeese State was contacted.