Sunday night was supposed to be the night that Case Keenum and his University of Houston teammates held a BCS bowl party. There'd be giddy watching of ESPN's final BCS standings show, grand planning, laughs and joy all around.

Instead, there's the quiet word of a season-ending game in Dallas. In the Cotton Bowl, the stadium that the actual Cotton Bowl bowl game (one of the premiere non-BCS bowl games) doesn't even play in anymore because Jerry Jones' sparkling Cowboys Stadium has made the place largely obsolete.

Oh, joy.

Still reeling from its BCS-blowing 48-29 loss to Southern Mississippi in the Conference USA Championship Game, now 20th-ranked Houston (12-1) has found out it will play No. 24 Penn State (9-3) in the TicketCity Bowl at 11 a.m. Jan. 2. The Big D the day after New Year's (a day when everyone in Houston figures to be talking about who the Texans will be playing in the NFL playoffs) somehow doesn't hold the same allure as New Orleans for a primetime Sugar Bowl showdown. It's not even in the same universe.

Adding to the feeling of second class status is the fact the TicketCity Bowl is shown on ESPNU, which isn't exactly a staple cable channel on most systems.

Case & The Coogs' bowl placement doesn't necessarily reflect a lack of interest in them. It has plenty to do with Conference USA's inability to negotiate significant binding bowl tie-ins as well. As conference champion, Southern Mississippi didn't even get an expected Liberty Bowl berth and ABC appearance.

Instead, the Golden Eagles are relegated to the Hawaii Bowl for a Christmas Eve night game — with the Liberty Bowl's decision a clear snub of Conference USA.

One could make the argument that a 6-6 Texas A&M team ended up with a better bowl draw than UH. The Aggies will be coming to Houston for the Meineke Car Care Bowl to play Northwestern at Reliant Stadium at 11 a.m. on Dec. 31. Houston's bowl isn't a headline-grabbing national player yet, but it gives the teams first-class treatment in every way. Veteran coaches wives, who've seen it all when it comes to bowl games, raved to CultureMap about the setup and the perks in H-Town last December.

The Car Care Bowl is also shown on ESPN, the original, the channel everyone gets. Plus, the Aggies fans figure to show in force — especially if their new coach is on the sidelines.

Could that be current Houston coach Kevin Sumlin? One of the intriguing things about this Texas bowl tango is the possibility that Sumlin will be coaching the Aggies in Houston rather than the Cougars in Dallas. He's been removed, or he has removed himself, from consideration for the UCLA job. The Arizona State situation has also cooled.

Other programs either realize that Sumlin is set on Texas A&M or they think he might stick in Houston after all.

Texas A&M has previously said that its current interim coach Tim DeRuyter will coach the team in its bowl game, and that's still the most likely possibility. But this is a fluid situation. If Sumlin becomes the Aggies new coach, and if he's named quickly, there's a chance he could be involved with the game in some capacity.

Dominos Fall

Houston's bowl could have taken Penn State, but the massive child abuse scandal baggage that accompanies the once storied Nittany Lions scared many bowls away. Northwestern is much more of a feel-good story. One of those types of stories went bowling in Houston last year — Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III.

There was thought Griffin could have been headed to the Cotton Bowl (the big game played at Cowboys Stadium) not the stadium where UH will play. Instead, Kansas State was tabbed to take on Arkansas for a matchup of two Top 10 teams at Jerry World. Griffin and the Bears will play Washington in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on Dec. 29. That's something of a letdown for a 9-3 team that finished 12th in the final BCS standings with wins over Oklahoma, Texas and TCU.

Baylor lost by one point at Kansas State.

Still, the chance to finish in the Top 15 in the country one year after playing a bowl game in Houston (and getting blown off the field in that game) is no small accomplishment for Art Briles' program. If the Car Care Bowl gets seen as something of a springboard to breakthrough seasons, it will only enhance the bowl's rep and the organizers attempts to eventually build it into a bigger and bigger game.

The University of Texas, on the other hand, will play in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 28, while BCS-denied TCU will play Louisiana Tech in the Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 21 (talk about bowl letdowns).

As for Case & The Coogs? The TicketCity Bowl is more of a goodbye — to Keenum at the very least. Much of the country may not be able to watch his last passes on TV, but maybe that will inspire more UH fans to make the drive to Dallas.

Small consolation you say? That's how it goes on letdown weekend.