BMarkey Wrote:I'd like to see some attibution to this unnamed writer's assertion.
There were other bowls calling? Maybe, but says who?
How could North Texas have turned down $1.2 million from the Indy Bowl, unless the Indy tried to stiff the Mean Green with a payout of only $750,000, as it reportedly tried to do to Troy.
The Indy Bowl is the BIG loser here - giving up much closer and better teams - and the organizers deserve it.
Here's the article from today's New orleans Times-Picayune. Other bowl comments are at the end of the article. Also according to coach Dickey, the players wanted the New Orleans trip.
<a href='http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/...28365126300.xml' target='_blank'>http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/...28365126300.xml</a>
SEE YA LATER?
First not always foremost for New Orleans Bowl, which is seeking a later playing date next season
Sunday, December 12, 2004
By Ted Lewis
Staff writer
Being the first game of the college bowl season isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Just ask those involved in the Wyndham New Orleans Bowl.
Because of its early date, Tuesday's game in the Superdome between North Texas and Southern Mississippi conflicts with final exams at Southern Miss and would have at North Texas had the school not moved them earlier in anticipation of the Mean Green's winning a fourth straight Sun Belt Conference championship and a trip to the game.
The exams not only affect the players, but also students who would attend the game and those fans who find it harder to get away this week than for a date closer to Christmas.
"We have a lot of people who would love to go to the game, but haven't been able to for four years because they've got kids in school or have to work," said North Texas athletic director Rick Villarreal. "No ifs, ands or buts about it, we would double or triple what we would bring to the game if it were later. I know the date works for TV, but the reality is that the date doesn't work for us."
ESPN, which holds the TV rights to the game for the next five years, does in effect control the date of the game, not so much for the amount of fees it pays (slightly in excess of $100,000) but because TV exposure is vital for the participants and sponsors.
Bowl executive director Ron Maestri of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation sought a change for this year's game, but said he was told, "They just couldn't do it this year."
Maestri, Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters and Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky are to meet with ESPN director of college football programming Dave Brown this week to make their case.
"It's got to happen," Maestri said. "It's got to happen."
But hoping and getting are two different things.
"We take it year by year when scheduling the games," said ESPN college football spokesman Mike Humes, whose network televises all but three of the 24 non-BCS games. "And we always in good faith consider everyone's request. But December's a very busy month for us with 20 bowl games, college basketball, the NFL, the NBA and other programming. It's hard to accommodate everybody."
ESPN was able to accommodate the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Ala., after TCU rejected a bid to the game last year, citing conflict with exams.
The game, which was played two days after the New Orleans Bowl the past three years, will be played Dec. 21 this year, leaving the New Orleans Bowl as the only game this week.
"I think when we sit down with Dave and explain things, we'll be able to get it changed," Maestri said. "Academics alone makes it vital that we can change. I feel confident we can work something out."
Both Waters and Banowsky indicate they cannot continue to commit their conferences to the game if the date isn't changed, primarily because of the exam conflicts. Eight of the 12 C-USA schools and six of the 11 Sun Belt schools are in finals this week.
Contracts with both conferences expire after the 2005 game.
"The playing date is a challenge for us," Banowsky said. "We're able to work around exam conflicts this year, but when we set our future bowl relationships in place, obviously we want to have bowls that clear our final exam periods."
Said Waters: "We're not panicked, but we are concerned.
"There has to be a balance between the broadcast and academics. We're not going to walk away from the bowl, but the date is an issue."
Waters, who in essence founded the game when the Sun Belt began play as a Division I-A conference in 2001, has one compromise idea. He proposes putting four or five of the bowls being played next week -- the GMAC, Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Hawaii and Champs Sports (formerly Tangerine) -- into a rotation of being the first bowl each year, with the stipulation that it would get the first choice of available teams from the conferences involved whose exams are finished before the game.
"That way you get to be the first bowl with all of the attention it gets once every five years, but you also wind up with a more preferable date in the other years," he said.
Humes said ESPN would have no comment on the proposal until it had been studied further.
The bowl has issues beyond the date.
Starting in 2002, bowls had to average 25,000 in attendance for a three-year period to remain certified by the NCAA. The New Orleans Bowl has averaged 22,104 the past two years.
While the presence of Southern Miss should improve things this year and a later date also would, Maestri said more local support is vital for the future of the game.
There's also the problem of regional representation.
After Cincinnati wound up in the 2002 game and brought fewer than 2,000 fans, Banowsky assured Maestri that the C-USA team would be from as nearby as possible.
That happened last year with Memphis, but if Southern Miss had not beaten UAB on Nov. 27, Cincinnati, a 70-7 loser to Louisville in its final game, would have been in the New Orleans Bowl. UAB would still be in the Hawaii Bowl because that bowl picks its C-USA team ahead of the New Orleans Bowl.
"We've got to have more say-so," Maestri said. "In fairness, Britton is working with inherited contracts, but I think everyone understands the importance of us having a team from our region."
Above all, there is money.
The bowl is required by the NCAA to generate income equal to the revenue from ticket guarantees made by the conferences, about $275,000 each.
"In the long run we'd like to make money, but it hasn't happened yet," said Jay Cicero, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, whose group owns the game. "And we may have plateaued because of the date. In the long run, something positive has to happen for us."
While the game has its problems, it also has its fans -- most notably at North Texas.
With several conferences unable to fulfill their bowl commitments this year, North Texas had the opportunity to play in either the Fort Worth or Independence bowls, both of which would have meant more money for the school. Troy State would have taken North Texas' place in New Orleans.
But the Mean Green rejected the opportunity.
"Our kids talk about making it to New Orleans year-round," North Texas coach Darrell Dickey said. "Everything about the bowl is first class. If we had tried to go someplace else, our players would have been very, very upset."
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Ted Lewis can be reached at tlewis@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3405.