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I have posted similar threads on the Sun Belt and MAC message boards.
Here are some interesting questions that a MAC fan asked, and my responses:
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(06-04-2021 02:18 PM)axeme Wrote: Wouldn’t the highest ranked P5 team not in NY6 bowl rather play the next highest P5 or third highest or any other ranked P5 team first before any G5 team?
That might be the case, but such a preference wouldn't be the sole factor determining their decision. There are other important factors that they would consider, such as the ranking of the team that they would be playing, the amount of national exposure/viewership they would receive, and the amount that they would be paid.
More importantly, plenty of P5 teams have played bowl games vs. non-P5 teams, including:
The 2020 Liberty Bowl (WVU vs. Army; 3.74 million viewers)
The 2019 Liberty Bowl (K. St. vs. Navy; 3.3 million viewers[/b])
The 2019 Quick Lane Bowl (Pittsburgh vs. Eastern Michigan; 3 million viewers[/b])
The 2018 Las Vegas Bowl (Fresno St. vs. Arizona St.; 3.3 million viewers[/b])
The 2018 Military Bowl (Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati; 2.7 million viewers)
The 2017 Las Vegas Bowl (Boise St. vs. Oregon; 3.8 million viewers)
The 2017 Liberty Bowl (Iowa St. vs. Memphis; 3.4 million viewers)
The 2017 Birmingham Bowl (USF vs. Texas Tech; 3.4 million viewers)
Further,
some P5 schools might actually prefer to play a slightly lower-ranked opponent, particularly if their highest priority is to win the game, since a win in a major bowl game would help them, going forward, from a recruiting, attendance, and fund-raising standpoint.
(06-04-2021 02:18 PM)axeme Wrote: ...wouldn’t ESPN or whoever and/or a title sponsor rather have two ranked teams the general public is familiar with?
Not necessarily. They might care the most about the team's potential viewership, and there might be some highly-ranked non-P5 teams that would have very competitive levels of viewership.
For example:
The 2020 Peach Bowl
(Cincinnati vs. UGA) ranked #4th in bowl game viewership, with 8.73 million viewers (more viewers than the Orange, Fiesta, and Cotton Bowls, featuring
Texas A&M vs. UNC, Iowa St. vs.
Oregon, and
Oklahoma vs. Florida, - had).
The 2019 Cotton Bowl (
Penn St. vs. Memphis; 6.22 million viewers) had more viewers than bowl games, featuring
Florida vs. Virginia,
Texas vs. Utah, and
OK ST vs. Texas A&M,
Tennessee vs. Indiana,
Notre Dame vs. Iowa State, and
Auburn vs. Minnesota had).
The 2018 Fiesta Bowl (
LSU vs. UCF; 8.47 million viewers) had more viewers than bowl games featuring
Florida vs. Michigan, UK vs.
Penn State, Washington St vs. Iowa St.,
Texas A&M vs. NC St., WVU vs. Syracuse, and Wisconsin vs. Miami had.
The 2020 Liberty Bowl
(Army vs. WVU; 3.74 million viewers) had more viewers than bowl games featuring OK ST-Miami, Colorado-Texas, and UK-NC State had.
The 2020 Army-Navy game had 7.7 million viewers, and the 2020 regular season game UCF vs. GT game had 3 million viewers.
The 2019 Liberty Bowl
(K. St. vs. Navy; 3.3 million viewers) had more viewers than bowl games featuring Arizona St. vs. Florida State, Iowa vs. USC, and California vs. Illinois had.
The 2019 Army-Navy game had
8 million viewers, the 2019 Houston vs. Oklahoma game had
5.4 million viewers, and the 2019 games between CIN and OSU (2.94 million), BYU vs. USC, Wash. St. vs. Houston,
Buffalo vs. Penn St. had over two million viewers.
The 2018 Las Vegas Bowl
(Fresno St. vs. Arizona State; 3.3 million viewers) had more viewers than bowl games featuring Iowa vs. Mississippi St., TCU vs. California, Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech, Stanford vs. Pitt, Purdue vs. Auburn, and South Carolina vs. Virginia had.
The 2018 Army-Navy game had over
8 million viewers, UCF's 2018 games vs. Cincinnati and Memphis had over 3 million viewers, the 2018 BYU vs. Wisconsin game had more than 2.9 million viewers, the 2018 GT-USF game had 2.5 million viewers, the 2018
Ball State vs. Notre Dame game had 2.5 million viewers.
The 2017 Peach Bowl ([b]UCF vs. Auburn) had 8.4 million viewers, the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl (Boise St. vs. Oregon) had 3.8 million viewers, the 2017 Armed Forces Bowl (Army vs. SDSU) had 3.5 million viewers, the 2017 Liberty Bowl (Iowa St. vs. Memphis) had 3.4 million viewers, and the 2017 Birmingham Bowl (USF vs. Texas Tech) had 3.4 million viewers.
NOTE: In addition, the 2017 Army-Navy game had [b]8.4 million viewers, the 2017 UCF-USF game had 4.6 million viewers[/b], the 2017 Texas Tech vs. Houston game had 3.75 million viewers, the 2017 Cincinnati vs. Michigan game had 3.6 million viewers, the November, 2017 UCF vs. Memphis game had 3.4 million viewers, the 2017 UCLA-Memphis and Navy-Notre Dame games each had 3.2 million viewers, the 2017 BYU vs. Wisconsin and Akron vs Penn State games each had 2.3 million viewers, and the Fresno St. vs. Alabama game had 2 million viewers.
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college...v-ratings/
(06-04-2021 02:18 PM)axeme Wrote: I guess I’m not understanding how the much poorer G5 could overcome those disadvantages by outbidding the normal financial backers. Wouldn’t this just make the rich richer and the poor poorer?
I think that the above data from the 2017 through 2020 bowl games provide strong evidence that a game between the top-ranked non-P5 team and a top 15 P5 team would be capable of generating at least 3-4 million viewers, and could generate as many 6+ million viewers (the #7 bowl games had 8.7 million, 8.4 million, 6.2 million and 5.8 million viewers in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively).
Thus, a G5-sponsored "NY7" quality bowl would be likely to generate enough revenue to benefit both teams that would play in it.
(06-04-2021 02:18 PM)axeme Wrote: As fans, we’d all love to see the game, but would the universities, especially those whose teams would rarely be in the running for this game most years, consider this money well spent?
That would depend on what kind of viewership the proposed bowl game would be capable of generating.
Let's bear in mind the fact that the total enrollment of the 65 non-P5 FBS universities is nearly equivalent to the total enrollment of the 65 P5 universities, and that
many fans of non-P5 teams would have a particular interest in watching a game sponsored by the G5 conferences and presented as a "challenge bowl," with the two teams representing the G5 and P5 conferences.
If the viewership levels would be in the predicted (3.5 to 5+ million viewers) range, it should be possible for the bowl to become self-sustaining, particularly if it is able to attract a reasonably strong corporate sponsor.
NOTE: It shouldn't be difficult to find a corporate sponsor for such a bowl game, since a large national corporation would have a strong financial interest in sponsoring a game that would be keenly followed by the students, fans, alumni, staff, families, and communities of 65 of the nation's largest universities and the three major service academies.
If the sponsored bowl were to become self-sustaining, the schools wouldn't have to keep contributing after the first or second bowl game is played, and they would be able to receive distributions that would pay them back for their initial investments.
One way to ensure that the universities that aren't able to send teams to play in the NY7 bowl would come out ahead would be to stipulate in advance that whichever non-P5 team would happen to play in the NY7 bowl would only receive a sum large enough to pay for their travel and related expenses, plus a small honorarium.
Most of the "purse" that would ordinarily go to the non-P5 team's school could instead be distributed to all the non-P5 universities.
In that case, the P5 school would be playing, chiefly, for the honor of representing the non-P5 universities in the game, with the knowledge that, by playing the game, they would be helping to even the playing field between the P5 and non-P5 teams. Needless to say, playing in such a game would also boost their schools' recruiting and attendance.
(06-04-2021 02:18 PM)axeme Wrote: I might be missing something here that answers those questions, but while I’d love the game, I don’t see how it actually happens.
Hopefully, I have answered your questions effectively. While I don't have all the facts and figures to prove that it would be feasible, I'm pretty sure that a feasibility study would make it clear that such a bowl game could be a real success.
Logically, my reasoning would be that more than half of the bowls that have been able to be self-sustaining with less than three million viewers. The top 17 bowls in 2019 had more than 3 million viewers. A "NY7" quality bowl, featuring the #2 non-P5 team and a top 15 or top 20 P5 team should be able to make the top 10 list in viewership, and the likelihood of being one of the top 11 to 17 bowl games would be very high.
It wouldn't cost much to do a feasibility study. Do you think that you and other fans would be in favor of conducting such an exploratory study, with the understanding that
a bowl game wouldn't be sponsored unless it is found to be nearly certain to benefit all of the non-P5 universities that would be underwriting it?
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