Quote:Later, Gator - Big East not crying crocodile tears
by Jack Bogaczyk
Daily Mail Sports Editor
Advertiser

Later, Gator.

I have covered the Gator Bowl seven times. I've been there more times than West Virginia (six). That's saying a lot. The only teams that have been there more than I have are Florida and Clemson (eight apiece).

I've covered it in Jacksonville, Fla. I've covered it in the Swamp - when it was moved to Gainesville because of stadium construction to accommodate a new NFL team on the so-called First Coast.

I covered it in 1981 when a fog so thick rolled in off the St. John's River that you couldn't see the game from the pressbox.

I'll never forget that. Al Michaels and Lee Grosscup were calling the telecast for ABC, and we scribes were watching the tube to chart play-by-play because the game could only be seen from sideline cameras.

Michaels was getting a game call fed to him from an ABC spotter on the sidelines - yes, a human teleprompter of sorts. North Carolina beat Arkansas, coached by Lou Holtz, 31-27. It didn't help the fogged-in player identification process with UNC wearing white jerseys with light blue numbers.

I have covered the Orange, Fiesta, Sugar, Cotton, Citrus, Peach, Carquest, Independence, GMAC and Continental Tire bowls, and several multiple times, but none of those nearly as often as the Gator.

I have been to the Gator Bowl so many times, I got to know the perennial media hospitality room staffers on a first-name basis. The hospitality and food was warm. The beer was cold ... but enough about that.

I guess I won't be going to the Gator Bowl anymore - after perhaps this football season. The Big East Conference has sent teams there since 1994, but rather than share a Jacksonville bungalow with another league, has moved its No. 2 bowl selection to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando.

(That '94 Big East debut in Jax was the aforementioned game in the Swamp, where a Tennessee freshman quarterback named Peyton Manning sliced and diced Virginia Tech's defense, coordinated by Phil Elmassian. Elmo is now at Division I-AA Illinois State as the DC, if you're counting his many moves.)

The Gator's last gasp with the Big East (where it's 4-7 since '94 in a bowl where Bobby Bowden has beaten Don Nehlen and Rich Rodriguez) will be Jan. 1, unless the Gator takes Notre Dame, which is what the bowl really wants to do.

So, I'll miss the Gator, but the Big East did well to get its No. 2 to Orlando (aging stadium issues aside) in a game that West Virginia lost twice when it was the Carquest and played in suburban Miami).

What the conference needs now is to land a solid payday in its No. 3 berth for 2010-13.

The $1.9 million spot in the Sun Bowl the Big East was expecting has apparently been taken by the ACC for its No. 5. See, Mike Tranghese has retired, but the ACC still is running the end-around on Big East football.

Nothing has been signed, but it still seems the Sun has set for the Big East.

Nick Carparelli, the Big East's associate commissioner for football operations, said Thursday that the conference isn't backing away from the Sun until he's told the news reports on Sun/ACC turn into a signed deal.

He also said that once the news broke Wednesday on the Sun committee's desires, the Big East didn't lack for calls from bowls wanting to get their hands on a No. 3 that could be a TV-thrilling Notre Dame or a fan-flocking WVU.

(It also will help the Big East profile mightily if Syracuse, a Big East football flagship and a not-so-long-ago regular postseason player, could return to a semblance of respectability soon.)

There also could be worse things than having No. 3 return to Charlotte, N.C., for the Meineke Car Care Bowl, which knows it will have to bump its $1 million payoff significantly to maintain its third-floor level with the Big East since other bowls will compete for the Muffler's spot.

What also should be said is that with the Champs (over a Gator/Sun hybrid) and even without the Sun at No. 3, the Big East already has upgraded its bowl attractiveness for teams and fans.

The league can only lose a berth to quasi-partner Notre Dame once in four years. It's two in four in the current deal. Also, if you had to choose a destination, wouldn't Orlando with its theme parks surpass Jacksonville or El Paso?

If the Big East bowl lineup doesn't change any more than Champs replacing the Gator/Sun arrangement, the conference is still ahead of where it has been.

Financially, the league will prosper, because the Champs Sports payout is $2.4 million base, with incentives (if the Big East and its foe can sell out the game, for example). The Big East has the same ticket commitment in Orlando that it has in Jacksonville - 12,500 seats.

Besides, the league and its members will simply do better financially because the next Bowl Championship Series telecast contract - $125 million annually from ESPN - climbs from the $88 million average that Fox is paying now.

It figures to take the BCS conferences from this past BCS season's $18.67 million minimum (for one bid) upwards of $22 million annually.

Keeping a presence in Florida - a major recruiting base - was crucial for the Big East, too.

The sands will continue shifting, the dominos dropping, starting with the Big Ten losing the Alamo Bowl for its No. 4-5 to the Pac-10, which will move its No. 2 up from the Holiday Bowl because the Alamo is paying $3 million.

The Big East has its current Nos. 4 through 6 deals with the International, PapaJohn's.com and St. Petersburg bowls. At least one of those is likely to be replaced.

The conference also is said to be talking with the Independence (Shreveport, La.) and EagleBank (Washington, D.C.) for those spots, and also is believed to be pushing for a new bowl to be created in New York City (Yankee Stadium?).

As for the Gator, I'd imagine I'll miss it more than the Big East will.

Contact Sports Editor Jack Bogaczyk at ja...@dailymail.com or 304-348-7949.

(08-21-2009 10:23 PM)Bearcat 1984 Wrote:  History aside, El Paso is a hole. I've been there. I lived nearby...

(08-21-2009 11:19 PM)PirateMarv Wrote:  Nearby? Alright I have been through El Paso a few times and I am not trying to be mean, but what is nearby? Juarez, Mexico? Because other than that, all that I saw was the New Mexico State line.

(08-22-2009 07:26 AM)Cubanbull Wrote:  I think Sun Bowl is gone. But I think BE could get Music Bowl for our #3 vs SEC

(08-22-2009 07:26 AM)Cubanbull Wrote:  I think Sun Bowl is gone. But I think BE could get Music Bowl for our #3 vs SEC

(08-22-2009 07:30 AM)Garmuck Wrote:  What # SEC team would we face and could you give me a general idea of recent match ups? Either way playing an SEC team would be awesome and a top priority in my mind.

(08-22-2009 07:26 AM)TIGER-PAUL Wrote:  problem with independence is not gauranteed sec/b12 will always have a team right now.

(08-22-2009 07:49 AM)TIGER-PAUL Wrote:  agree, its an upgrade over pizza, but below music or emerald for BE, imo.