More on the SEC and Bowl Contracts
by Purple Reign on Aug 11, 2009 2:29 PM CDT
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PrintLast Thursday I wrote a post on The SEC and Bowl Contracts, seeing as how every bowl contract runs up at the end of the season and negotiations are underway for the next fout-year cycle. For the next few months, you'll hear details trickle out and today, the Birmingham News shed some more light on the situation, with their ability to interview key players in the deal and all. Their take was very similar to mine, with the exception of not throwing out the idea of an SEC-Pac 10 game in Phoenix. See what they said below the fold.
Basically, it's a two-horse race for the first selection after the BCS choices between the Capital One Bowl and the Cotton Bowl. However, even the Cotton seems to be conceding that spot, despite the shiny new stadium and eye on becoming a BCS game. The President of the bowl certainly didn't sound like they were going to up the payout to make a statement in today's article.
"A lot depends on the marketplace the Capital One sets," Cotton Bowl President Rick Baker said.
Cotton Bowl President Rick Baker said his game is "fairly satisfied" with its current spot in the SEC. The Cotton will pay the SEC $3.25 million this season for the first pick of available SEC West teams, or an occasional East team, after the BCS and Capital One choices
As I mentioned last week, the big unknown continues to be the Citrus Bowl stadium in Orlando, home to the Capital One Bowl. It is badly in need of renovations and the current economy is killing the revenue-producing tourism industry right now. Whether or not that will affect this year's contract negotiations remains to be seen, but it certainly leaves the door open for another bowl to swoop in and steal away the top choice of SEC teams away from Orlando.
Stalled renovations to Orlando's aging Citrus Bowl, where the Capital One is played, have raised questions about the game's future with the SEC and Big Ten. In the spring, Hogan told The Orlando Sentinel that the SEC and Big Ten have "grown tired of waiting for the renovation - especially with other cities such as Dallas looking to muscle in on Orlando's bowl positioning."
Hogan said last week that renovating the Citrus Bowl remains important, but the conferences understand Orlando's situation given the economy. Improvements to the stadium, projected to cost $175 million, have been delayed because of a 20 percent drop in tourism revenue.
"I think we will have addressed the concerns of the commissioners as we go," Hogan said. "I certainly don't want to dismiss the concerns. But no one is saying, `You've got to have that stadium built next year.' It's a delicate balance. Hopefully, we and all of our partners have a long-term view in terms of the relationship."
The Capital One Bowl still offers the biggest non-BCS payout at $4.5 million this year, but a matching offer from anyone could lead the SEC into another venue for its best team that doesn't make the BCS. I'm still hoping that goes to the Cotton Bowl, where the SEC No. 2 could face off with the Big 12 No. 2 in a battle royale between the nation's two best conference.
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My Ideal Lineup
In response to your earlier post:
Liked your article. While this probably isn’t realistic (not just for the SEC, but also for the other conferences that would have to shake their bowl agreements up), this would be my ideal line-up based on factors including history, location, and potential matchups:
No. 1 – Sugar Bowl (vs. BCS at-large) – Obviously this one stays at the top. It has the history, the BCS credibility (apologies for the oxymoron), and for LSU, the home-field advantage.
No. 2 – Cotton Bowl (vs. Big 12 #2) – I completely agree with your argument to bump this one up. The new stadium looks incredible, plus the Big 12 appears primed to give us a great matchup year-in and year-out for quite some time.
No. 3 – Capital One Bowl (vs. Big 10 #2/3) – At the moment, this is the best non-BCS bowl by payout, and it’s always fun to see the Big 10 and SEC go at it (outside of the BCS title game). No need to knock this down any further.
No. 4 – Poinsetta Bowl or Emerald Bowl (vs. Pac 10 #3/4) – I also would like to see a good PAC 10/SEC bowl matchup every year, but I have decided to change the location to the Poinsetta Bowl in San Diego (taking over the Mountain West . . . something I’m sure the bowl would be more than willing to do to gain more ratings). Both locations are great in December, particularly San Diego. This would also give us a chance to send an SEC school out to California, which is the one major football recruiting state that SEC teams don’t get to visit on a regular basis.
No. 5 – Peach (vs. ACC #4/5) – I am also willing to bump this bowl up with one condition: that they go back to calling themselves the Peach Bowl.
No. 6 – Gator Bowl (vs. Big East #4/5/6) – Yes, I know the Gator bowl is currently looking to bump out the Big East in favor of the SEC, but I’d rather see them knock out the ACC. We already have that matchup in the Peach Bowl, and this seems like as good a place as any for us to meet a Big East team. By this point the SEC has had a chance to play all of the other major conferences, so it would be nice to take a shot at the last one remaining.
No. 7 – Music City Bowl (vs. MWC #1/2/3) – So the Mountain West wants to join the big boys, do they? I say, let’s give them a chance. Let one of their top teams take the place of the ACC in this bowl (it’s not as though the ACC and SEC don’t schedule enough games against each other during the regular season that they need to play two separate bowl games). After all, the MWC’s current bowl lineup only gives them the chance to play two PAC 10 dregs, two WAC teams, and one C-USA team in the post-season. Over the past decade, they have more than proved they are worth an upgrade.
No. 8 – Outback Bowl (vs. BIG 10 dregs) – There’s more than enough history in this bowl to stop me from dumping it completely. Tampa is a pretty decent city to visit in December, as well.
No. 9 – PapaJohns.com (vs. C-USA champ) – Now that they’ve just earned a tie-in with the Big East, here I am trying to send them back to allowing mid-majors. This is basically the Liberty Bowl, but in Alabama instead. We already have a game in Tennessee, so I think it would be nice to spread the wealth around at least a little.
Under this scenario, we bump the Mountain West out of one bowl game (Poinsetta) but put them in another (Music City Bowl). We bounce the ACC out of two (Gator and Music City), but they can take our old slots in the Liberty and Independence. The Big East also loses their spot in the Papa John’s Bowl to the C-USA champ, but they just earned their spot in it anyway, and they can always take over C-USA’s spot in the Liberty.
Apologies to the Liberty Bowl (for the reasons listed above) and the Independence Bowl (I figure that there will be a number of Louisiana/Arkansas fans upset with me for leaving this one off) for leaving them off the list. I also should apologize to the New Orleans bowl for not promoting them (frankly, I think the SEC would rather have a second bowl game in New Orleans than one in Shreveport).
I recognize that this would be a pretty tough bowl slate, and we might end up with a Big 10/Notre Dame conundrum where our aggressive bowl game slotting leaves us with losing records in the post-season when all things are equal. At the same time, I believe this would create the best possible matchups, allow for some good winter trips (not to mention hitting some good recruiting areas), and make for a hell of an SEC postseason.
by TheBobLoblawBlog on Aug 11, 2009 7:34 PM CDT reply actions
I like it.
I thought about the Holiday Bowl for the Pac 10 match up because of San Diego, and even the Emerald City Bowl (San Francisco is fantastic. Pretty much I’ll take a trip to anywhere out west. How’s that Big 10/Pac 10 thing working out for the Rose Bowl? :)
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# - SEC Tournament Seeding
Team Name = Eliminated from SEC Tournament
| West | Conf | Overall | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | W | L | |
2 LSU Tigers  |
17 | 10 | 40 | 13 |
| 5 Mississippi Rebels |
14 | 13 | 34 | 19 |
| 7 Arkansas Razorbacks |
13 | 14 | 36 | 17 |
| 8 Mississippi St. Bulldogs |
13 | 14 | 31 | 21 |
| 10 Auburn Tigers |
12 | 15 | 29 | 24 |
| |
7 | 20 | 19 | 33 |
| East | Conf | Overall | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | W | L | |
| 1 Kentucky Wildcats |
18 | 9 | 41 | 12 |
| 3 South Carolina Gamecocks |
17 | 9 | 38 | 13 |
| 4 Florida Gators |
16 | 11 | 38 | 15 |
| 6 Georgia Bulldogs |
13 | 13 | 30 | 22 |
| 9 Vanderbilt Commodores |
13 | 14 | 26 | 25 |
|
8 | 19 | 24 | 28 |
