A USF bowl game in Boston? Don’t hold your breath

If the published reports hold up, Fenway Park has been added as a bona fide bowl destination for USF.

Just don’t go dubbing its left field wall the green-and-gold monster just yet.

College football insider Brett McMurphy of Stadium reported Tuesday the fabled Red Sox home will host a bowl game beginning in 2020 featuring teams from the American Athletic Conference and ACC. Los Angeles and Myrtle Beach, S.C., also are being added as bowl-game sites, the report adds.

The American couldn’t confirm the report Wednesday morning, though any formal announcement almost certainly would come from ESPN, which would own the bowl games.

But if and when it’s formally announced, bay area sports fans must consider the plausibility of any local team other than the Rays ever seeing the inside of the park.

As we all know, bowl games (and the four-letter firm that owns many of them) are about creating matchups that will sell the most tickets and generate the most favorable TV ratings.

And for its last bowl, in its home stadium, USF attracted an announced crowd of 14,135.

Would Bulls fans travel en masse to Boston for a chance to see their team in a classic venue? Possibly. But nearby Connecticut (if it ever becomes bowl-eligible again) almost certainly would attract a better audience. And Temple’s in a larger TV market. So is Houston, for that matter.

And even if the most attractive bowl matchup surfaced for the Bulls (say, USF vs. FSU), conference and bowl officials almost certainly would work in unison to stage that game in Florida (i.e. Gasparilla).

None of which is to suggest the Bulls have no shot at the Green Monster.

Just figuratively speaking, it’ll be a tough wall to scale.

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.