big east bcs bid getting less sure
Posted: February 5th, 2005, 6:43 pm
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Agreement keeps Sugar Bowl in BCS rotation
Four-year deal will begin in '06 season
Saturday, February 05, 2005
By Ted Lewis
Staff writer
The Sugar Bowl and New Orleans will continue to be part of college football's national championship picture.
BCS chairman Kevin Weiberg announced Friday that an agreement in principle had been reached with the Sugar Bowl, along with the Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl, to retain their spots in the BCS along with the Rose Bowl, which had reached a separate agreement earlier.
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"New Orleans is a terrific community with a long history of playing host to games of this magnitude," said Weiberg, who also is commissioner of the Big 12 Conference. "Teams and fans love going there, and the Sugar Bowl does an outstanding job.
"We are delighted to continue our ongoing commitment."
The four-year agreement, hammered out during two days of negotiations in Dallas with the commissioners of the 11 Division I-A conferences plus Notre Dame, begins with the 2006 season.
It features the new "double-hosting" system in which the year a city is the site of the title game, it also will stage its bowl game as usual.
For the Sugar Bowl, that game will follow the 2007 season.
The Sugar Bowl also retains its tie-in with the Southeastern Conference, meaning the conference champion will play in the Sugar Bowl unless it is in the national title game.
"It was important for us to get the deal done," Sugar Bowl executive director Paul Hoolahan said. "We were authorized to go in and accomplish this, and we weren't going to leave the table until it was solidified."
The deal comes with a cost, however.
Hoolahan said the Sugar Bowl will have to increase its payment to the BCS by 36 percent over its current undisclosed amount.
That primarily will be done by an increase in average ticket prices from $85 to $125, starting with the game after the 2006 season. There will be an incremental increase for the game after this coming season.
"For the first seven years of the BCS, we have had the lowest ticket prices among the four games," Hoolahan said. "But in order to make this all work, he had to bring our average up to industry standards."
Hoolahan also said that the Sugar Bowl basketball games, which the organization has staged since the 1940s, would be eliminated to help offset the increased payout, although the high school events, Mardi Gras Marathon and regatta sponsored by the bowl would continue.
The increased payout from the bowls was designed to offset the new TV contact between the BCS and Fox for all but the Rose Bowl plus the 2010 championship game to be played in Pasadena, Calif., that paid approximately $1 million less per game than the previous contract,which was with ABC. ABC retains the rights to the games in Pasadena.
Weiberg said the BCS bowls will continue to pay $17 million per team in 2006, with the amount increasing to $18 million by the end of the contract.
The Sugar, Orange and Fiesta did fail to secure an eight-year agreement with the BCS as the Rose Bowl did, but Weiberg said they will retain, "favored nation" status for the next cycle of games, which are expected to include a movement towards some sort of playoff.
The bowls did win a major concession in being allowed to control the tickets and other aspects of the championship games rather than being paid a straight management fee.
That will enable them to package title-game tickets along with their non-championship games.
The talks in Dallas began a 60-day exclusive negotiating period with the Sugar, Orange and Fiesta that BCS officials had said they expected to take some time.
But Hoolahan said the bowls went into the meetings determined to get things done quickly.
"We took a no-nonsense, get down to business approach, and they appreciated our tone," Sugar Bowl president Mark Romig said. "They knew we had scrubbed our numbers to something we all could live with.
"It's a brave new world out there, but this solidifies the Sugar Bowl's spot as one of the premier collegiate sporting events in the nation and takes us to the next level with it."
Weiberg said the give-and-take with the bowls produced positive results, especially in opening new revenue streams for the bowls, such as increased merchandising.
"These bowls have been with us from the start, and they certainly have sweat equity in the venture," he said. "Not everything has worked perfectly for them, but I feel the structure is one that allows them to grow."
In addition to the increased payout, the bowls also are incurring some added expenses such as preparing the stadium signage that had been the responsibility of the title sponsors.
"The bowls certainly had concerns, and we tried to work through those games," he said. "And we still have some issues we have to talk over with Fox.
"But we have cleared a major hurdle in reconfirming our relationship with our existing bowl partners. Now we can focus on other issues."
Chief among those is the selection process for the two teams in the championship game but also the at-large teams, which, starting in 2006, will include schools from the Coalition conferences if they meet certain standards.
But what those standards will be is uncertain after the Associated Press pulled its rankings from the standings formula.
Weiberg has said his preference is to not continue with just the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll and the computer rankings. Under consideration is a new human poll of approximately 50-60 people consisting of a mixture of media members and college football experts.
But Weiberg said little progress was made on the subject this week, other than agreement that some sort of public standings is necessary.
In another development from the meeting, the Big East's hopes for keeping its automatic qualifying status took another hit in the meetings when the Orange Bowl declared it only wanted to continue to be tied in with the Atlantic Coast Conference and not both leagues. The Big 12 will continue its ties with the Fiesta Bowl and the Big 10 and Pacific-10 with the Rose Bowl.
But the Big East champion will not have an anchor bowl. The conference's automatic bid will be subject to review if it does not meet unspecified performance standards over a four-year period that started last season.
The BCS commissioners will meet again in St. Louis during the Final Four and April 25-28 in Scottsdale, Ariz., where the selection process is expected to be the major topic of discussion.
. . . . . . .
Ted Lewis can be contacted at [email protected] or (504) 826-3405.
More From The Times-Picayune | Subscribe To The Times-Picayune
Agreement keeps Sugar Bowl in BCS rotation
Four-year deal will begin in '06 season
Saturday, February 05, 2005
By Ted Lewis
Staff writer
The Sugar Bowl and New Orleans will continue to be part of college football's national championship picture.
BCS chairman Kevin Weiberg announced Friday that an agreement in principle had been reached with the Sugar Bowl, along with the Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl, to retain their spots in the BCS along with the Rose Bowl, which had reached a separate agreement earlier.
Advertisement
"New Orleans is a terrific community with a long history of playing host to games of this magnitude," said Weiberg, who also is commissioner of the Big 12 Conference. "Teams and fans love going there, and the Sugar Bowl does an outstanding job.
"We are delighted to continue our ongoing commitment."
The four-year agreement, hammered out during two days of negotiations in Dallas with the commissioners of the 11 Division I-A conferences plus Notre Dame, begins with the 2006 season.
It features the new "double-hosting" system in which the year a city is the site of the title game, it also will stage its bowl game as usual.
For the Sugar Bowl, that game will follow the 2007 season.
The Sugar Bowl also retains its tie-in with the Southeastern Conference, meaning the conference champion will play in the Sugar Bowl unless it is in the national title game.
"It was important for us to get the deal done," Sugar Bowl executive director Paul Hoolahan said. "We were authorized to go in and accomplish this, and we weren't going to leave the table until it was solidified."
The deal comes with a cost, however.
Hoolahan said the Sugar Bowl will have to increase its payment to the BCS by 36 percent over its current undisclosed amount.
That primarily will be done by an increase in average ticket prices from $85 to $125, starting with the game after the 2006 season. There will be an incremental increase for the game after this coming season.
"For the first seven years of the BCS, we have had the lowest ticket prices among the four games," Hoolahan said. "But in order to make this all work, he had to bring our average up to industry standards."
Hoolahan also said that the Sugar Bowl basketball games, which the organization has staged since the 1940s, would be eliminated to help offset the increased payout, although the high school events, Mardi Gras Marathon and regatta sponsored by the bowl would continue.
The increased payout from the bowls was designed to offset the new TV contact between the BCS and Fox for all but the Rose Bowl plus the 2010 championship game to be played in Pasadena, Calif., that paid approximately $1 million less per game than the previous contract,which was with ABC. ABC retains the rights to the games in Pasadena.
Weiberg said the BCS bowls will continue to pay $17 million per team in 2006, with the amount increasing to $18 million by the end of the contract.
The Sugar, Orange and Fiesta did fail to secure an eight-year agreement with the BCS as the Rose Bowl did, but Weiberg said they will retain, "favored nation" status for the next cycle of games, which are expected to include a movement towards some sort of playoff.
The bowls did win a major concession in being allowed to control the tickets and other aspects of the championship games rather than being paid a straight management fee.
That will enable them to package title-game tickets along with their non-championship games.
The talks in Dallas began a 60-day exclusive negotiating period with the Sugar, Orange and Fiesta that BCS officials had said they expected to take some time.
But Hoolahan said the bowls went into the meetings determined to get things done quickly.
"We took a no-nonsense, get down to business approach, and they appreciated our tone," Sugar Bowl president Mark Romig said. "They knew we had scrubbed our numbers to something we all could live with.
"It's a brave new world out there, but this solidifies the Sugar Bowl's spot as one of the premier collegiate sporting events in the nation and takes us to the next level with it."
Weiberg said the give-and-take with the bowls produced positive results, especially in opening new revenue streams for the bowls, such as increased merchandising.
"These bowls have been with us from the start, and they certainly have sweat equity in the venture," he said. "Not everything has worked perfectly for them, but I feel the structure is one that allows them to grow."
In addition to the increased payout, the bowls also are incurring some added expenses such as preparing the stadium signage that had been the responsibility of the title sponsors.
"The bowls certainly had concerns, and we tried to work through those games," he said. "And we still have some issues we have to talk over with Fox.
"But we have cleared a major hurdle in reconfirming our relationship with our existing bowl partners. Now we can focus on other issues."
Chief among those is the selection process for the two teams in the championship game but also the at-large teams, which, starting in 2006, will include schools from the Coalition conferences if they meet certain standards.
But what those standards will be is uncertain after the Associated Press pulled its rankings from the standings formula.
Weiberg has said his preference is to not continue with just the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll and the computer rankings. Under consideration is a new human poll of approximately 50-60 people consisting of a mixture of media members and college football experts.
But Weiberg said little progress was made on the subject this week, other than agreement that some sort of public standings is necessary.
In another development from the meeting, the Big East's hopes for keeping its automatic qualifying status took another hit in the meetings when the Orange Bowl declared it only wanted to continue to be tied in with the Atlantic Coast Conference and not both leagues. The Big 12 will continue its ties with the Fiesta Bowl and the Big 10 and Pacific-10 with the Rose Bowl.
But the Big East champion will not have an anchor bowl. The conference's automatic bid will be subject to review if it does not meet unspecified performance standards over a four-year period that started last season.
The BCS commissioners will meet again in St. Louis during the Final Four and April 25-28 in Scottsdale, Ariz., where the selection process is expected to be the major topic of discussion.
. . . . . . .
Ted Lewis can be contacted at [email protected] or (504) 826-3405.