PSR In-Depth
Bowl Vision
Stars, Fans And Ratings Drive Choices
By Scott Robertson

Gone are the days when guys in brightly colored sports jackets showed up on sidelines late in the college football season bearing crates of oranges or bales of cotton along with invitations to bowl games.

Well, almost gone. Some of the jackets still remain, but the changing landscape of college football and the increased television coverage of the bowls has led to more conference tie-ins and less choice for the bowl games. This season, all 56 of the slots available in the 28 bowl games scheduled to begin with the Dec. 16 New Orleans Bowl are tied to either the Bowl Championship Series or to previously signed agreements between conferences and the bowls.

Choice has not been eliminated, but limited. Bowls still find themselves, based on what the BCS rankings dictate, having to choose between several teams in the same conference. Some choice is eliminated altogether by the BCS, the Nokia Sugar Bowl is this year's national title game, with the BCS No. 1 team facing its No. 2 squad. Thus, Sugar Bowl officials need not fret about who makes the best match-up. Other bowls, while their choices are limited, still have to consider a number of factors in deciding which teams are "good" bowl teams and which are not.

"What you try to do is set yourself up in a situation where one team can bring you television and the other can bring you fans," said Glen Krupica, executive director of the Mainstay Independence Bowl, which takes place Dec. 31 in Shreveport, La.

The Independence Bowl matches a team from the Southeastern Conference against a Big 12 Conference selection. Last season, Mississippi defeated Nebraska. The game proved a major success for the city and for bowl organizers. Mississippi fans traveled from nearby Oxford, Miss., and the game delivered a large television audience thanks to Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning facing Nebraska, which has a long and storied college football history and a large national following.

Have Fans, Will Travel

Traveling well, or getting fans to the game, makes a big difference. Most cities commit to buying a certain number of tickets to each game to ensure local support. The participating teams also must make a ticket commitment.

The Toyota Gator Bowl, set for Jan. 1 in Jacksonville, Fla., pits the No. 2 team in the Atlantic Coast Conference against the No. 2 team in the Big East.

"We do a matrix every year to determine who we are going to take," said Rick Catlett, president of the Gator Bowl Association. "We have the first choice after the BCS from among the ACC, the Big East and Notre Dame. We consult with NBC (which televises the game) on potential match-ups.

"What that means is that we don't look at, say, Pittsburgh by itself. We take teams from two conferences in two different parts of the country. We know the ACC will bring fans, and we believe the Big East will bring television. That's (television) what teams like Pittsburgh, Boston College or Syracuse bring to the table."

Notre Dame is a wild card, even though the Fighting Irish have struggled this season. Often, a mediocre team with a storied history like Notre Dame, Oklahoma or Penn State will get more bowl consideration than say, a 9-3 Minnesota or an 8-4 West Virginia, not because of the fans they bring to the game, but because of the television following.

Catlett said the 1999 Gator Bowl, in which Georgia Tech defeated Notre Dame, is an example of the kind of impact a team with a national following has.

"Notre Dame does not travel as well as you think," Catlett said. "But they do excite the fans of the team they are playing against. We knew we were going to get Georgia Tech two weeks before we knew who their opponent would be. Their fans bought about 15,000 tickets when Georgia Tech was announced. Two weeks later, when we announced they would be playing Notre Dame, Georgia Tech sold 7,000 more tickets. That's what Notre Dame brings."

Harold Grater, associate executive director of the AXA Liberty Bowl, said his game is in a different situation. The game, played annually in Memphis, Tenn., will take place Dec. 31. It pits the Conference USA champ against the Mountain West champ.

"We have no selection, really, unless there is a tie for the conference title, and then it is our choice," Grater said. "Obviously, record is a factor, but the real objective of the bowls is to bring visitors to your city during a time that is traditionally slow. So for us, how well they travel is a big key to the success."

Grater said the Liberty Bowl is strong in that it knows it will bring two championship teams together. He also acknowledged that bowl officials pay close attention to the way the season winds down, hoping that teams that bring the most fans also are the most successful on the field.

"We root for one team or another," he said with a laugh. "We don't tell them that, though."

Stars And Touchdowns

Bernie Olivas, executive director of the Sun Bowl Association, said bowls seeking teams often look to star players as drawing cards. The Sun Bowl in 1998 had an opening for a team to play against Southern California when the BCS took an additional Big 10 team. The bowl considered Central Florida, with quarterback Daunte Culpepper, before settling on a Texas Christian team that pulled a major upset against the Trojans.

"There are a lot of things that make teams attractive," said Matt Garvey, director of communications for the Peach Bowl. "You want the best record and highest national ranking you can get. But a marquee player like a (Pitt wide receiver) Larry Fitzgerald definitely helps draw interest to your game."

The Holiday Bowl has become known for high scoring shootouts. Bruce Binkowski, executive director of the Holiday Bowl, said keeping that tradition intact sometimes plays into the bowl's choice of teams. The Holiday Bowl puts the No. 2 team in the Pac-10 against a Big 12 team.

"We do look at (a team's potential to score) if we are in a position to choose between teams," Binkowski said. "If we have a chance, given what's happened with the history of this game, to take a team that can light it up, we certainly consider it."

The Alamo Bowl, while tied into the Pac-10 and Big 10, has a little more flexibility in its choice. Like the others, it values record, national ranking, travel ability and marquee players in putting its game together.

"We want teams who are excited to come to San Antonio," said Rick Hill, vice president, marketing, for the Alamo Bowl. "Each team is required to sell 11,000 tickets. We don't always get a huge bump (in ticket sales) from the Big 10 because of travel. But the Big 10 is on TV every week on ESPN, and they bring us the TV draw.

"There are a combination of things that make teams attractive that everyone has to consider. The match-up is important. You have to try to have the best game you can. MasterCard is interested in getting the highest rating it can, last year, with Wisconsin-Colorado, we had one of the highest-rated bowl games of the year. You knew going in that Colorado was a good television team, and Wisconsin was what, 7-1 in bowls under Barry Alvarez? You knew they were going to deliver. That's what you want."