BE positions itself for bowl future NJ Star-Ledger

[TyBull]

Big East positions itself for bowl future

by Tom Luicci/The Star-Ledger Thursday December 04, 2008, 8:37 PM

As the Big East continues to survey the college landscape in its effort to upgrade the league's bowl lineup, two factors will shape the direction the conference takes for its approach to postseason games after the 2010 season.

One is location.

The other is the quality of the opponent.

"Those are really the two areas we're focusing on as we look to strengthen our bowls," Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese said. "We've reached out to a lot of people. We're in much better shape this time as a league than we were last time when we negotiated our bowl contracts (which expire next year). People didn't even know who was in the league the last time we negotiated bowl contracts. That's no longer the case."

No school will welcome an upgraded bowl lineup more than Rutgers, which took a 6-5 record into Thursday night's home game against Louisville, needing a victory to secure the program's fourth straight bowl bid.

Two years ago, the Knights went from playing for a BCS bowl berth in the season finale at West Virginia to a spot in the first-year Texas Bowl following a triple overtime loss.

This year, with a victory Thursday night assuring Rutgers of at least a tie for second in the Big East, the Knights' most likely bowl destinations appeared to be the lower-tier Papajohns.com Bowl or Motor City Bowl via a swap with the International Bowl -- though the Meineke Car Care Bowl and Sun Bowl were still long-shot possibilities.

Nick Carparelli Jr., the Big East's associate commissioner for football, said the league would like to keep the number of bowl tie-ins at six and would continue to include Notre Dame as part of the equation "if it helps us and makes good business sense." But both he and Tranghese said the fluid tie-ins the league currently has with the Sun Bowl and Gator Bowl would likely be dropped or replaced.

"We probably won't have those hybrid tie-ins," Tranghese said. "It confused too many people."

Carparelli said the league coaches and athletic directors have made it clear that location, quality of opponent and accessibility for fans are the variables they are looking for most in bowls.

"It's rare to get all three in any game," he said. "If you can get two out of three you're satisfied most years. If it's just one out of three you hope a school can make up for that the next year."

The Big East currently has tie-ins with the Meineke Car Care Bowl, Gator Bowl, Sun Bowl, International Bowl, Papajohns.com Bowl and the new St. Petersburg Bowl -- as well as an automatic bid to the BCS for the league winner.

The Gator-Sun Bowl arrangement is a yearly either/or deal and allows Notre Dame to take a spot at the Big East's expense with a seven-win season.

"Things were so much different the last time. Now Connecticut and Rutgers have proven track records as bowl teams and schools that bring a lot of fans and Cincinnati is an established program," Carparelli said. "People already knew about West Virginia, Louisville and Pittsburgh. Rutgers, especially, brings a tremendous presence now, not just in terms of fans but with the New York TV market it delivers."

Tranghese and Carparelli said there could be as many as two changes to the Big East's bowl lineup, though they said it is too early to speculate on which games would be dropped or added.

"Whatever new game we consider will have to be weighed against one of our current partners, so we'll see," Carparelli said.

Tranghese said a game like the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., holds promise for the future because of tentative plans for a new stadium and because the opponent, contractually, is an SEC team. The SEC will not be able to fill the slot this year, however.

"We've done a lot of work on this. Knowing I was leaving (in June) and that John Marinatto was coming on board (as the new commissioner), we have made upgrading the bowl lineup a priority," Tranghese said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------