http://wvgazette.com/Sports/MitchVingle/200905070938
Gator Bowl in no hurry to commit to Big East
By Mitch Vingle
Sports Editor
GATOR BOWL president Rick Catlett took in The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass Thursday afternoon.
He was spoiling sponsors and advertisers with a little golf. Next week, he'll begin jetting off to conference meetings in other prime locations. ("Yes,'' Catlett admitted, "it's not a bad job this time of year.'')
However, when all the traveling is over, when all the meetings are completed, the Big East is hoping Catlett lands in a familiar spot.
Taking the league's No. 2 team once again.
Bowl negotiations are moving slowly as conferences approach the last season on their current deals. But the Big East has made its desire clear to Catlett. Forget the future. The league wants to get back to the past.
"We met with [outgoing Big East commissioner] Michael [Trangehese] in Los Angeles about 10 days ago,'' Catlett said. "We were out there for the [Football Bowl Association] meetings. We met with him and a couple of his staff members.''
Their message to him: Forget the complicated tie-in with the Sun Bowl, Big 12, ACC and Pac-10 and get back to simpler days when the bowl took the Big East's runner-up.
"That's what they want,'' Catlett confirmed. "What [Tranghese] would like is a straight-up deal for No. 2.''
Catlett is hesitant to make such a commitment. First, he loves the idea of flexibility. And he sure flexed the last couple of seasons with Texas Tech and Nebraska playing ACC teams in Jacksonville.
Now, the terms of the expiring contract say the Gator must take either a Big East team or bowl partner Notre Dame at the end of this coming season. Which is fine with Catlett.
The bowl president is just wary of signing a new contract solely with the Big East and revisiting old problems.
"How many times is West Virginia going to play in the Gator Bowl before the team and the fans get tired of it?'' he asked.
It's a question that's been faced in the past. But odds are the Sun won't sign as a partner again after getting stiff-armed in its attempt to land a 6-6 Notre Dame team last season and wound up with Pittsburgh, a 3-0 loser to Oregon State.
So we'll have to see. Maybe the Big East is in a good position. If other bowls don't wish to partner, maybe its stand will take. Most understand the Gator only likes to see tradition-rich Notre Dame and fan-crazy WVU coming to town out of the Big East group.
But the Gator's options seem limited. Would it stoop to taking the Southeastern Conference's No. 5 or 6 team? The SEC, after all, will many times send two teams to the Bowl Championship Series round. It then sends a team to the strong Capital One Bowl. Then there's the Outback, Chick-fil-A and Cotton bowls.
Yet Catlett is proceeding slowly. For many reasons.
"Until we get a TV deal done, we can't get anything done,'' he said. "And before that gets done, the Capital One Bowl has to get its deal done. I know [Tranghese] wants a decision a little quicker, but we've laid out our timeline. I think we'll know by mid-summer.''
Catlett and others are waiting for the Capital One Bowl because of conference rules forbidding SEC and Big Ten league teams from overlapping, etc. The Gator could move from Jan. 1.
In sum, though, it's a tangled mess Tranghese is hoping to simplify.
"In the past, [contract negotiations] were pretty simple,'' Catlett said. "You'd roll everything over. But this year, with the economy, sponsors are hesitant to sign on the dotted line.
"It's a time to be cautious.''
Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or
http://twitter.com/MitchVingle.