Big Ten could line up new bowl tie-ins
Of The Oakland Press
Big Ten football fans who build their winter vacation plans around their favorite school's bowl game soon might have new destinations to visit.
The Capital One Bowl and ABC begin exclusive negotiations Monday, during which the two entities hope to renew their partnership. The game, traditionally played at 1 p.m. New Year's Day, pits Big Ten and SEC teams against each other as a lead-in to the network's Rose Bowl coverage.
The two sides have 60 days from May 1 to come to an agreement, and stand as the next dominoes that need to fall as bowls jockey for position below the BCS.
Capital One Bowl executive director Tom Mickle said he is hopeful a deal will be reached, though others have speculated money ultimately could force the game to another network.
Mickle said the game is looking for a deal "in (the) ballpark" of the one that allowed it to be the top-paying non-BCS bowl last year, guaranteeing an average of $5.2 million a team, and "to get some increase at least over the life of the contract."
ABC recently cut its football coverage, passing on all BCS games except the Rose Bowl, as well as Monday Night Football. The network does not discuss ongoing negotiations, vice president for media relations Mark Mandel said.
"I think it's a pretty valuable property," Mickle said of the Capital One Bowl. "I think we're encouraged, and I think it'll go well. We'll get the value or very close to it, and if that's the case, I think we'll be able to retain our matchup.
"I don't think it'll get done the first day, but it'll get done."
Several other bowls have expressed interest in aligning with the Big Ten.
The Gator Bowl, looking to drop its affiliation with a pock-marked Big East conference that lost powers Miami (Fla.), Boston College and Virginia Tech, has had preliminary discussions with the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 about playing a New Year's Day game against an ACC opponent.
Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett said talks with the Big 12 are "further advanced" because the other leagues are currently forbidden from playing in his Jacksonville, Fla.-based game because of an exclusivity agreement they have with the Capital One Bowl. That deal prohibits other Big Ten and SEC teams from playing in a New Year's Day game that kicks off after 11:07 a.m. and intrudes upon Capital One's TV window. The Gator Bowl, currently on NBC, starts at 12:30 p.m.
"If the time slot is open, that opens up an opportunity for us to have in-depth discussions with the SEC and the Big Ten," Catlett said.
The Champs Sports Bowl, run by the same people who operate the Capital One game, is interested in affiliating with the Big Ten as well.
"We'd be very interested in a Big Ten team in Champs," Mickle said. Both the Capital One Bowl and Champs Bowl are played in Orlando and run by Florida Citrus Sports. "We've had Big 12 (the seventh-place team), and I don't think that's going to work for us. We're looking at the same type of options, Big East and Notre Dame and if they're tied to the Big East, and you weigh that against what's available in the Big Ten or SEC. We're talking to everybody."
Mickle said he hopes to have a football festival of sorts in Orlando running from Christmas to New Year's Day, with the Champs Bowl played Dec. 29 and offering a payout of as much as $2 million a team. That is more than all of the Big Ten's current second-tier bowls - the Alamo, Sun, Music City and Motor City bowls - and could force one or more of those games to seek a partnership elsewhere.
Last year, the Champs Bowl was played Dec. 21 and had a guarantee of less than $1 million per team.
"We're of the opinion that we need to elevate that game or dissolve it, one or the other," Mickle said.
Another option that has been discussed is bowls sharing conference affiliations. Games such as the Music City Bowl and Insight Bowl, for instance, could swap Big Ten and Big East teams every other year for the duration of their four-year contracts. The Insight Bowl, played in Phoenix, currently pits a Pac-10 team against Notre Dame or a team from the Big East.
Upper-tier games such as the Gator, Outback and Cotton bowls might share on an as-needed basis, when teams are slated to play in their game for the second time in as many years, as was the case in 2001-02 when Ohio State and South Carolina met in consecutive Outback Bowls.
Sun Bowl executive director Bernie Olivas said the idea has merit, but would be difficult to pull off unless per-team payouts were equal among the sharing bowls.
Still, it's something Motor City Bowl executive director Ken Hoffman would like to see.
"I not only wouldn't be surprised that happens, I would encourage that," Hoffman said. "To have that kind of flexibility and those kinds of options is good for everyone. It's good for conferences to be able to move teams around to different bowl games, it's good for cities and bowls to see different conferences. It just makes great sense to do that."
Of course, no changes will go into effect until the 2006 season. Most bowl contracts expire after this year, and all are waiting for the Capital One-ABC negotiations to begin.
"The good news for everybody is that ABC and the Citrus Bowl are about to embark upon discussions in the next few days," Outback Bowl CEO Jim McVay said. "That will answer a lot of questions. If they're not interested and somebody else surfaces as a broadcaster or the conferences look for alternatives, there's a lot of people that have a lot of interest in all that stuff.
"They're the next logical bowl to fall."
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