Louisiana Tech Probably Heading to the 2018 Hawaii Bowl

UPDATE (11/28 3:50pm): Now it's officially happening

We've regularly put Louisiana Tech into the conversation during our Walk-Ons Independence Bowl predictions (tickets on sale now). But I've usually included a note about how unlikely it is that Louisiana Tech would take a bowl bid to Shreveport (or if the Indy Bowl wouldn't extend one to them) whenever we did.

Now it becomes even more likely that Tech won't be making the short trip from Ruston, because they're likely going to be taking the long trip to Honolulu to play against Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl.

That word is coming to us from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, who says it's "likely" that Louisiana Tech will be on their way. The quote from the paper says:

"The Hawaii Bowl is reportedly close to announcing Louisiana Tech as the University of Hawaii’s opponent for the Dec. 22 game, according to people briefed on recent developments."

Which fits in with what we talked about earlier this week with "destination bowls" for Conference USA. The conference has deals with the Hawaii Bowl and the Bahamas Bowl this year. Florida International took the bid to the Bahamas Bowl over the weekend, leaving a vacation game open with the Hawaii Bowl.

Now, there is still a chance for the SEC to fill their spot in the Independence Bowl, but it's VERY unlikely, and would take a series of rare occurrences all at once,  and some negotiations behind the scenes. Even after all of that falling into place, Shreveport would still only get 6-win Vanderbilt again.

Going back to the final prediction we made, it looks like Miami will be able to slide in from the ACC, while Conference USA could send someone like North Texas to Shreveport. Which we think would make for a pretty perfect match-up all around.