Liberty Bowl close to a deal with the BE & SEC

[CyberBull]

http://www.courant.com/sports/college/hc-befoot0715.artjul15,0,2465293.story?coll=hc-headlines-sports-college

Big East, Gator Bowl Renew Ties

By KEN DAVIS

Courant Staff Writer

July 15 2005

Just weeks after the Big East's agreement with the Gator Bowl appeared to be in jeopardy, the conference announced Thursday it has salvaged that relationship and formed a partnership that includes Notre Dame, the Big 12 Conference and the Sun Bowl.

The collaboration, unprecedented in Division I-A football, assures the two Bowl Championship Series conferences participation in the Toyota Gator Bowl and Vitalis Sun Bowl over a four-year period, beginning with the 2006 regular season.

After each conference's representative to the BCS has been determined, the Gator Bowl or Sun Bowl will have the first pick from the Big East's No. 2 team, Big 12's No. 3 or Notre Dame. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said plans for the selection rotation have not been finalized but it is likely one bowl will get the Big East in the first and third years, and the other bowl in the second and fourth.

Notre Dame, which remains a part of the Big East's bowl pool, will have the opportunity to play in each bowl once. The Atlantic Coast Conference will continue to provide the opponent in the Gator Bowl, and the Pac-10 Conference will do the same in the Sun Bowl.

"Making certain we had a good second spot in our bowl lineup was absolutely imperative," Tranghese said Thursday. "We wanted to play teams from the power conferences and with the ACC and Pac-10 obviously we've got that."

The Big East is entering the final year of its bowl agreements, which include the Gator Bowl, the Insight Bowl in Phoenix and Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, N.C. The Big East also has an agreement with the Motor City Bowl in Detroit if the Big Ten cannot fill its slot against the Mid-American Conference.

"We're close to making three more deals," Tranghese said. "I think we'll have it all done within the next two weeks."

Tranghese would not comment on negotiations with other bowls, but the Big East is expected to renew its agreement with the Continental Tire Bowl. In a move that would raise the conference's postseason visibility, a deal to play a Southeastern Conference team in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn., is close to being finalized.

Possibilities for the final agreement include the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., the Music City Bowl in Nashville, the Motor City Bowl, and a new bowl in Toronto that is awaiting certification from the NCAA. The Big East and the Insight Bowl end an eight-year relationship after this season.

"Two years ago when the ACC took our three schools [Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College], everybody was saying, `The league's going to go away. You're going to lose your BCS bid, you're not going to be on TV anymore and you're going to lose all your bowl games.' It was this doom and gloom scenario," Tranghese said. "I think what we've been able to do is get ourselves re-established."

This season, the Gator Bowl will be played Jan. 2 in Jacksonville, Fla., and the Sun Bowl Dec 30 in El Paso, Texas.

"Four years ago, [Gator Bowl president] Rick Catlett and I tried to make similar deals with other [conferences] and couldn't get anywhere," Tranghese said. "This year, I think Rick was getting a little push from his board [to remove the Big East], but I don't think Rick wanted us to go away."

Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant

[CyberBull]

C-USA looks good to bowl executives

Jack Bogaczyk

Daily Mail Sports Editor

Friday July 15, 2005

In the Conference USA offices in Dallas, as the football bowl futures begin to solidify, administrators aren't exactly paraphrasing Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty, or give me $1.5 million for Music City."

Nor, are they taking the words right out of the Apollo 13 capsule: "Houston, we have a problem."

Conference USA, retooled to 12 all-sports programs with divisional play in football, will finish the 2005 season with five bowls (Liberty, GMAC, Hawaii, Fort Worth and New Orleans).

It also is likely to finish 2006 and beyond with the same number -- but at least one different game. C-USA would love to be in the Independence or Houston bowls -- or both.

C-USA will come out better financially where ever the future games are because not only are most bowls bumping up their payouts, but two of last season's C-USA games didn't reach the $750,000 minimum payout.

Those were Hawaii ($600,000) and New Orleans ($700,000). They'll make it in the future, or they won't make it period. The NCAA has bowls waiting in the wings as replacement players. See Toronto.

You can talk with bowl executives, conference administrators and university athletic directors, as I did Thursday on the subject, and what you can end up with is a bowl of confusion.

However, here is what's real about C-USA's bowl future and Marshall's postseason potential destinations in 2006 and beyond.

C-USA is locked into the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Ala., until 2008.

However, the Liberty Bowl, hosted by the C-USA champ past and present and with hometown Memphis in the league, has been an anchor.

The league wants to keep the Liberty and an executive of another bowl says the conference "believes they can keep it, although it's not yet done."

The Big East and ACC both are talking to the Liberty Bowl and the Southeastern Conference is in the mix, too. The Liberty, if it has the chance for a Bowl Championship Series conference matchup, may jump at it.

The Music City, in Nashville, Tenn., is playing in this same arena. It has the better stadium (home of the NFL Titans) but it doesn't have the Liberty's history, or payout ($1.5 million).

What the Liberty has to decide is whether it wants a C-USA champ or two low-rung teams from the ACC and SEC. The Big East has its third slot available, left from the Insight's coming change.

It could be C-USA No. 1 against Big East No. 3 (OK, forget a Marshall-West Virginia rematch some year), but it remains a fluid situation.

C-USA has helped itself in the eyes of bowl executives by retooling its membership. Yes, it has lost Big East favorite Louisville, but with four Texas schools (including UTEP) and Marshall, it has added teams that bowls and TV like.

C-USA stretches from El Paso to Orlando, Fla., to Greenville, N.C., to Huntington and back to the Rio Grande. C-USA would love to be in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando -- the hometown of Central Florida -- but that's an ACC-Big Ten deal waiting to be made.

Texas-El Paso took 20,000 fans to the Houston Bowl last season, before the Mike Price-coached Miners moved to C-USA. That's significant in current lobbying.

With Alabama-Birmingham, Southern Mississippi and Tulane in C-USA, a deal with the Independence Bowl (Shreveport, La.) makes sense. The GMAC, New Orleans and Hawaii seem destined to remain with C-USA.

With Texas Christian having left C-USA for the Mountain West (which seemingly has lost its champion's berth in the Liberty), the Frogs' hometown Fort Worth Bowl is no lock to stay with C-USA.

However, with Houston, Rice, SMU and UTEP in the league, the Fort Worth makes geographic sense. The Houston Bowl makes more sense. The Independence and Houston bowls pay more ($1 million minimum last year) than Fort Worth, which also is in need of a sponsor.

The SEC or Big 12 -- or both -- may bail from the Independence and/or Houston. Sources say C-USA would take either one over Fort Worth and may have a choice among the pair. The league seems to be staying in Mobile (GMAC), Hawaii and New Orleans.

The alterations in C-USA membership are dramatic. The changes in the conference's bowl destinations don't figure to be stunning, but there will be renovations there, too.

[bullman3]

Look for the ft worth bowl to have Mountain West ties now that tcu is there.

[CyberBull]

I suppose the we should take in consideration that all bowl game affiliations are in play, so it shouldn't be surprising that the Liberty Bowl is up for grabs and looking for a better deal.

I am just surprised that this has caught so many C-USA fans by surprise. Especially Memphis fans.

[USFMikeB]

I wouldn't mind seeing the CUSA #1 vs BE #3 matchup.  I think that is realistically a competitive game, although I'm sure that some certain CUSA fans that troll this board would disagree...

[sdgukhsdgl]

I wouldn't mind seeing the CUSA #1 vs BE #3 matchup.  I think that is realistically a competitive game, although I'm sure that some certain CUSA fans that troll this board would disagree...

at least we woudlnt have to worry about playing UCF

:rimshot:

/mods feel free to delete the pissing match to ensue

[USFMikeB]

That wasn't a rimshot, it was a swoosh!

[GarySJ]

I'd like to see more rotating multi-bowl deals like the Sun/Gator agreement. It's nice to have a wider variety of potential destinations and opponents.

[USFMikeB]

I agree, and it seems natural to me that we should see a few more of these in the near future.

[bulls96go]

so  If ND is bowl eligible our # 2 only have two years we go to gator or sun in 4 yers?

that would mean a winfall for the #3 bowl, they would get BE #2 in 2 of 4 years...am i right?

sounds a little like a well lubed....shaft to me!