From Sports Media Watch. This is what they have posted so far.

Music City: 5.4M
Texas: 5.0M
Holiday: 4.2M
Russell Athletic: 4.2M
Foster Farmers: 4.0M
LasVegas: 3.7M
Belk: 3.5M
Independence: 3.4M
Heart of Dallas: 2.6M
GoDaddy: 2.4M
St. Pete: 2.4M
Birmingham: 2.4M
Military: 2.2M
Bahamas: 2.1M
Boca Raton: 2.0M
Camellia: 1.9M
Armed Forces: 1.9M
New Mexica: 1.8M
Hawaii: 1.6M
Quick Lane: 1.5M
New Orleans: 1.5M
Poinsettia: 1.4M
Miami Beach: 1.2M
Potato: 1.1M

I hate the potato bowl... Glad Akron won and everything but there is not a single thing that makes the bowl work.

Expensive to get to, too early in the bowl season, not a great location, does not usually do well on TV.

(12-27-2015 10:38 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  I hate the potato bowl... Glad Akron won and everything but there is not a single thing that makes the bowl work.

Expensive to get to, too early in the bowl season, not a great location, does not usually do well on TV.

It is that damn, blue field!
It makes me nauseous just watching it on TV.

(12-27-2015 10:38 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  I hate the potato bowl... Glad Akron won and everything but there is not a single thing that makes the bowl work.

Expensive to get to, too early in the bowl season, not a great location, does not usually do well on TV.

If the NCAA changes bowl eligibility to 7-5 it may be one of those games that will go by the wayside.

The new Florida games are more valuable to protect, IMO.

Curious what the Bahamas' Bowl ratings will look like.

It was noon EST on Christmas Eve.

Anyone home to watch (a good game)?

(12-27-2015 10:38 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  I hate the potato bowl... Glad Akron won and everything but there is not a single thing that makes the bowl work.

Expensive to get to, too early in the bowl season, not a great location, does not usually do well on TV.

If the Potato Bowl goes under, I would hope that we could maybe push for a new bowl in Indianapolis or St. Louis to replace it. I like having a MAC-MWC game, and a primary tie-in to a midwestern bowl would be nice after losing Detroit. If we must lose one of our primary tie-ins overall, I'd much rather have a game in Indy or STL against the MWC instead of another Sun Belt team in Montgomery, even though the first two there have been better than expected from what I've heard.

(12-27-2015 02:05 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(12-27-2015 10:38 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  I hate the potato bowl... Glad Akron won and everything but there is not a single thing that makes the bowl work.

Expensive to get to, too early in the bowl season, not a great location, does not usually do well on TV.

If the Potato Bowl goes under, I would hope that we could maybe push for a new bowl in Indianapolis or St. Louis to replace it. I like having a MAC-MWC game, and a primary tie-in to a midwestern bowl would be nice after losing Detroit. If we must lose one of our primary tie-ins overall, I'd much rather have a game in Indy or STL against the MWC instead of another Sun Belt team in Montgomery, even though the first two there have been better than expected from what I've heard.

The MAC does have the exact plan you are talking about.

No one is bowl tripping to St Louis over christmas. A game in indy would be a good fit for the mac. The potato bowl has its weaknesses but Boise is a cool city and traditionally it has been a well run bowl w a lot of local support.

ESPN decided that the Potato Bowl needed to have a weekday midday kickoff, when most people who wanted to watch or attend were still at work.

(12-27-2015 11:54 PM)pono Wrote:  No one is bowl tripping to St Louis over christmas. A game in indy would be a good fit for the mac. The potato bowl has its weaknesses but Boise is a cool city and traditionally it has been a well run bowl w a lot of local support.

I wonder if the Boise bowl can get a better day/time? Mid-week/afternoon isn't the best but no one would want to play that game at night (but the crazy NFL played a night game outdoors last night in Minnesota).

I haven't thought this through, but next year Christmas (and New Year's) will be on a SUNDAY so ESPN, etc. will have a whole week from Monday Dec 19 through Saturday Dec 24 to get a lot of bowl games in.

Last I checked, NFL had a monopoly on Sundays.

Saturday (e.g., this year) can be a huge day for bowls, but next year it will be Christmas EVE.

I assume the New Year's bowl games will be 1/2/2017. Friday 12/30/2016 (and Sat. 12/31) will be a huge day for bowls, I'd think.

The Potato Bowl has been on a Saturday afternoon in the past. It was a Saturday when UT played in it.

(12-28-2015 04:05 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(12-27-2015 11:54 PM)pono Wrote:  No one is bowl tripping to St Louis over christmas. A game in indy would be a good fit for the mac. The potato bowl has its weaknesses but Boise is a cool city and traditionally it has been a well run bowl w a lot of local support.

I wonder if the Boise bowl can get a better day/time? Mid-week/afternoon isn't the best but no one would want to play that game at night (but the crazy NFL played a night game outdoors last night in Minnesota).

I haven't thought this through, but next year Christmas (and New Year's) will be on a SUNDAY so ESPN, etc. will have a whole week from Monday Dec 19 through Saturday Dec 24 to get a lot of bowl games in.

Last I checked, NFL had a monopoly on Sundays.

Saturday (e.g., this year) can be a huge day for bowls, but next year it will be Christmas EVE.

I assume the New Year's bowl games will be 1/2/2017. Friday 12/30/2016 (and Sat. 12/31) will be a huge day for bowls, I'd think.

The calendar is going to be challenging next year. If anything, I think there will need to be even MORE pre-Christmas Bowl games.

Whereas both last year (Friday 2-Jan and Saturday 3-Jan, 5 Bowl games total) and this year (Saturday 2-Jan, 4 Bowl games total) there were days AFTER the New Year's 6 Bowls available for mid-tier Bowl games like the Gator, Alamo and Cactus --- that dynamic does not exist next year.

The New Year's 6 Bowl games will be played on Saturday 31-December and Monday 2-January. The NFL will be exclusive on Sunday 1-January. On Tuesday 3-January, everybody is heading back to work.

The net result is that we have even LESS days to get the Bowl games in. Assuming all 40 Bowl games carry-over, we'd have to fit in 34 between that first Saturday (17-December) and Friday 30-December.

I'd guess it goes something like this:

Saturday 17-December: 6 bowl games (similar to this year).

Monday 19-December through Friday 23-December: 6 bowl games total (there were 5 between the 1st Saturday and 23-December this year).

Saturday 24-December: 1 bowl game (Hawaii). NFL will be playing their full Sunday schedule on this day.

Sunday 25-December: 1 bowl game (Bahamas). Nobody's attending this game anyway, slap it on at 12 PM on ESPN for the die-hards who want football.

Monday 26-December: 2 bowl games. Like today, 2 PM on ESPN, 5 PM on ESPN2. NFL has Monday night football, so limits the number of TV slots ESPN has available here.

Tuesday 27-December: 3 bowl games. (ESPN trip-header).

Wednesday 28-December: 4 bowl games (ESPN trip-header + Arizona Bowl).

Thursday 29-December: 4 bowl games (ESPN quad-header).

Friday 30-December: 5 bowl games (ESPN quad-header + Sun on CBS).

Saturday 31-December: 3 bowl games (New Year's 6).

Monday 2-January: 5 bowl games (New Year's 6 + Citrus + Outback).

Interesting points Nittany. I assume it's still 40 bowls next season?

I kind of miss the International Bowl in Toronto. I know it's not the island resort reward of the Bahamas, but it was a great regional bowl that was easy to travel to in a vibrant downtown. I had a lot of fun when I went to the 2007 IB. Attendance was pretty good for a "minor" cold weather location bowl.

(12-27-2015 09:20 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(12-27-2015 02:05 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(12-27-2015 10:38 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  I hate the potato bowl... Glad Akron won and everything but there is not a single thing that makes the bowl work.

Expensive to get to, too early in the bowl season, not a great location, does not usually do well on TV.

If the Potato Bowl goes under, I would hope that we could maybe push for a new bowl in Indianapolis or St. Louis to replace it. I like having a MAC-MWC game, and a primary tie-in to a midwestern bowl would be nice after losing Detroit. If we must lose one of our primary tie-ins overall, I'd much rather have a game in Indy or STL against the MWC instead of another Sun Belt team in Montgomery, even though the first two there have been better than expected from what I've heard.

The MAC does have the exact plan you are talking about.

Hopefully so.

I've echoed this for years. In a perfect scenario, the MAC champ should get a nice, sun-drenched touristy bowl in Florida as a reward. The rest? Regional domed bowls in places such as Minneapolis, Indy, Detroit, St. Louis, Toronto. Not the sexiest of locations, but if we're looking for neighborhood cities that MAC fans can travel and attend. Obviously this is not realistic, but what would be nice.

(12-27-2015 10:01 AM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  From Sports Media Watch. This is what they have posted so far.

LasVegas: 3.7M
GoDaddy: 2.4M
Boca Raton: 2.0M
Camellia: 1.9M
New Mexica: 1.8M
New Orleans: 1.5M
Poinsettia: 1.4M
Miami Beach: 1.2M
Potato: 1.1M

Bahamas had 2.1M, a 43% increase from last year.

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2015/12/...-football/

(12-30-2015 11:45 AM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  

(12-27-2015 10:01 AM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  From Sports Media Watch. This is what they have posted so far.

LasVegas: 3.7M
GoDaddy: 2.4M
Boca Raton: 2.0M
Camellia: 1.9M
New Mexica: 1.8M
New Orleans: 1.5M
Poinsettia: 1.4M
Miami Beach: 1.2M
Potato: 1.1M

Bahamas had 2.1M, a 43% increase from last year.

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2015/12/...-football/

Guess they (viewers) learned about MACtion last (2014) Christmas Eve... and decided that maybe more MACtion is a good thing...

(12-27-2015 11:54 PM)pono Wrote:  No one is bowl tripping to St Louis over christmas. A game in indy would be a good fit for the mac. The potato bowl has its weaknesses but Boise is a cool city and traditionally it has been a well run bowl w a lot of local support.

For a Saturday 1/9 game in either the afternoon or night they might. St Louis will lose their team and their leadership if they are smart will start a bowl game to at least show they are trying to make their constituents happy.

Open up bowl game participation to FCS teams. A Montana/Northern Iowa/Youngstown State or Montana State matchup vs an FBS team would draw. if NDST ever losses in an FCS playoff game, they would send bus loads of people to St Louis to play an FBS team.

Updated

Pretty good ratings for the Camelia Bowl.

MAC hit approximately 2M for several bowl games. Not bad.