Deal between Big Ten, Gator Bowl?

[gophersfan]

A major reshuffling of several conferences' bowl arrangements beginning with the 2010 season could land the Big Ten a third New Year's Day bowl slot and result in new homes for the Pac-10 and Big East's No. 2 teams.

According to multiple sources, the Gator Bowl and Big Ten are discussing an agreement that would send that conference's No. 4 or 5 team to Jacksonville for the next four years. The Big Ten, which already sends its No. 2 and 3 teams to the Capital One and Outback Bowls, also in Florida, would take the place of the Big East and Big 12, which previously shared deal with the Gator Bowl. The ACC should continue to send its No. 3 team.

The Gator Bowl/Big Ten partnership is dependent on the bowl extending its title sponsorship with Konica Minolta and reaching a deal that would replace current television partner CBS with ESPN, neither of which have been finalized.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/08/13/bowl.arrangements/#ixzz0O6LTPaSK

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/08/13/bowl.arrangements/

 

[thailleagle]

daaaaaaamn

 

[metrolax]

Texas Bowl????

Interesting stuff. The Gator Bowl is a GREAT bowl. The opportunity for the Gophers to
play in the Gator Bowl is exciting.

On another front, a tie-in with the Texas Bowl would be sweet for me, for selfish
reasons of course. In all likelihood, a lower league finish would send the Gophers
down to H'town, but it would be a great bowl after a 6-6 or 7-5 type of season.
Reliant Stadium is a first-rate stadium, and Houston is a loaded with HS talent for
recruiting purposes. We could do a lot worse than this......

 

[Jike Spingleton]

The Gator Bowl showed interest in adding the Big Ten three years ago, so it's not a major surprise to hear that they're inching closer to an agreement this time around.

I'm all for leaving the Alamo Bowl behind. I still can't stand how wishy-washy they were in declining to take us three separate times. Nothing made me happier than when they were treated to the snoozefest that was Nebraska-Michigan State in 2003 in front of at least 10,000 blue seats, while we put on a show with Oregon in El Paso.

 

[gophermartin]

Alamo bowl....is gone.

Going to the Pac Ten.

And that would be 4 not 3 games on New Years day for the Big Ten (including the BCS/Rose bowl game).

I'm disappointed but the Alamo Bowl did pass over us a few times....that said it would have been a great destination for a bowl game.

I like the Texas bowl replacing the Motor City bowl...if that is what would be happening.

Still I hope to not have to worry about that and be top 3 and play on New Year's day.

Go Gophers!

GM

 

[Goldmember]

The way I read this the Texas Bowl would be replacing the Champs Sports Bowl, with the Insight Bowl upgrading to the level of the Gator/Alamo/Champs Sports.

Previous Order:
#1 Rose/BCS
#2 Cap One Citrus
#3 Outback
#4 Alamo/ Champs Sports
#5 Champs Sports/ Alamo
#6 Insight
#7 Motor City

New Order
#1 Rose/BCS
#2 Cap One Citrus
#3 Outback
#4 Gator/ Insight
#5 Insight/ Gator
#6 Texas
#7 Motor City

And I just saw this story.

 

[Jike Spingleton]

And I just saw this story.

I agree with Rittenberg that swapping the Alamo/Champs Sports for the Gator/Texas(?) is a step up. But...

The only downside I can see is if the Insight doesn't strike a new TV deal as they attempt to move up the bowl pecking order. Right now, the NFL Network shows two games: the Insight and Texas Bowls. If the B10 were to send its #6 team to Houston, that would put two of the seven bowls on a channel with far less distribution than ESPN. Would that outweigh the exposure the conference would get by playing four New Year's Day games? No, but I'd like to see our #4/5 team get proper exposure by having the Insight Bowl on ESPN.

 

[SoMplsHawkI]

Going to the Pac Ten.

And that would be 4 not 3 games on New Years day for the Big Ten (including the BCS/Rose bowl game).

Actually a potential of five NYD games should the BT get two BCS bowls.

 

[drunkenMNgopher]

Would make the New Years hangover all the better!

 

[WIgopher]

Actually a potential of five NYD games should the BT get two BCS bowls.

You are obviously forgetting that starting next year if the BigTen champion is selected in the National Title game then the Rose Bowl is FORCED to pick a mid-major team if there is one available per BCS rankings (Anybody see a USC - Hawaii RoseBowl coming ever?) Now, there is still a shot at us getting an at-large 2nd bid for a BCS game, but the odds of that happening when the RoseBowl will not be the one picking is slim to none I would say.

 

[Omega015]

At least Comcast finally added NFL Network to Digital Classic, so it now has a much larger subscriber base, but it still is way behind the other bowl networks. The ratings for the two NFL network bowl games last year was a joke.

 

[GoAUpher]

You are obviously forgetting that starting next year if the BigTen champion is selected in the National Title game then the Rose Bowl is FORCED to pick a mid-major team if there is one available per BCS rankings (Anybody see a USC - Hawaii RoseBowl coming ever?) Now, there is still a shot at us getting an at-large 2nd bid for a BCS game, but the odds of that happening when the RoseBowl will not be the one picking is slim to none I would say.

Partially correct. The scenario you lay out can only happen once per 4 year BCS cycle which means that in at least 3 seasons the B10 would have the same chance as it normally does to place 2 teams into the BCS. Also, I don't see why our chances to have 2 BCS teams diminish if the first team is in the National Title game instead of the Rose Bowl. Where the top B10 team is doesn't change the quality of the 2nd team. If the 2nd team is good enough to be selected with the top team in the Rose Bowl it would still be good enough to be selected with the top team in the NC game.

See here for the details via Rittenburg.