Intersting to see how this one plays out....I personnally hate the fact that we have ever had a tie in with this bowl...it would be like the Pac 10 having a tie in with the tire bowl in Charlotte...also...the insight.com bowl finally got to host ND this past yr so it will be intersting to see what they choose to do...
-- Anyone think a Insight.com for Liberty bowl trade is possible? That would make geographic sense for both leagues
Jackson
Mountain West takes closer look at bowl lineup
By STEVE KIGGINS
Star-Tribune staff writer Friday, April 01, 2005
So long, Memphis, Tenn.
Determined to keep its bowl-eligible football teams in familiar surroundings, the Mountain West Conference has reached a "verbal agreement" to continue its relationship with the Las Vegas Bowl and is pursuing involvement in bowl games in Phoenix, San Diego and Fort Worth, Texas.
"Our feeling is, let's try to get west," Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson told the Casper Star-Tribune on Thursday. "Which means San Diego. We've had great conversations with the Insight Bowl in Phoenix. ... This is our final year in San Francisco, but I'm optimistic that we can continue that relationship.
"We're staying out west and that means the odd man out is the Liberty Bowl."
But maybe not immediately.
Until the Mountain West can solidify deals with additional bowl partners -- the Insight Bowl is tied to the Pacific 10 and Big East conferences for one more season and the Fort Worth Bowl has a deal with Conference USA and the Big 12 for 2005 -- Thompson hopes his conference can continue its partnership with the Liberty Bowl.
Thompson said he had an hour-long discussion with Memphis bowl officials this week and believes there's a "50-50 chance, maybe a little bit higher" that the two sides will agree on a one-year contract.
By securing a spot in the Liberty Bowl, the Mountain West would have three bowl tie-ins, just as it did in 2004. The conference will also be represented in the Las Vegas Bowl and the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.
The Mountain West also could send a team to Texas, Thompson said.
If the Big 12 fails to meet its contractual obligation with the Fort Worth Bowl, as has been the case the past two years, the Mountain West has reached a "back-up" deal with bowl officials and will have first chance to fill the vacancy.
"In 2006, we'll (have a contract to be in) that game," Thompson promised.
The Mountain West also hopes to add the Insight Bowl and, pending NCAA certification, the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego to its 2006 postseason schedule.
"There's a lot of questions still out there," Thompson said. "It's a jigsaw puzzle, really."
The pieces would begin to fit together if the NCAA Football Certification Subcommittee gives San Diego officials the green light to launch a second bowl game. The city already hosts the wildly successful Holiday Bowl.
The Poinsettia Bowl would match a Mountain West team against Navy or an opponent from Conference USA or the Western Athletic Conference, Thompson said. Bowl officials have already secured a sponsorship deal and arranged a television contract, he added.
If the NCAA subcommittee, which meets at the end of the month in Phoenix, decides to add a 29th bowl game, Thompson said he's "extremely confident" that the Poinsettia Bowl would be first on the list.
It's also possible that at least one of the existing 28 bowl games -- the Houston Bowl and the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose barely made the cut a year ago -- will not be re-certified. If that happens, a second bowl game in San Diego would almost certainly receive approval.
"They have everything in place," Thompson said. "They're good to go. They just need to get the rubber stamp to go."
A rubber stamp might be all that's needed on the conference's new contract with the Las Vegas Bowl, which soon could include the Mountain West champion against an upper-tier team from the Pac-10. The payout would also rise significantly from the bowl minimum of $750,000, Thompson said.
"We really have a strong interest in growing the Las Vegas Bowl and if that means sending our first selection, our first-place team, that's definitely on the radar screen," the commissioner said
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