RacerX
11/24/2008, 10:40 AM
For the Bowls, a Fork in the Road
Dull matchups, declining travel, the economy and Obama's views threaten to thin their ranks
By DARREN EVERSON (http://online.wsj.com/search/search_center.html?KEYWORDS=DARREN+EVERSON&ARTICLESEARCHQUERY_PARSER=bylineAND)
Some of college football's 34 bowls, those quaint relics of a simpler era, may not survive the winter.
As the economy sputters, more fans and alumni of contending teams are likely to stay home. Several teams with strong track records in selling tickets and attracting TV viewers, like Michigan and Tennessee, won't be playing in one, while less bankable schools like Cincinnati and Oregon State will. Last Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama dealt another blow to the old bowl system when he told "60 Minutes" that college football should hold a three-round playoff, something that would make many of the bowls, if not all of them, sideshows.
Even a rule that prevents teams with lousy records from playing in bowls may have to be bent: There are 68 bowl berths available this season, but as of today, only 61 teams have enough wins (typically six) to qualify -- a potentially embarrassing situation that has forced the NCAA to start thinking about contingency plans which, it says, could involve letting in a team with a losing recordCollege football's regular-season TV ratings are strong overall and the bowls say ticket sales rose slightly last season, but there are increasing signs of weakness. Thanks to lackluster matchups, ratings for many premier bowls dropped last season and nine bowls failed to fill 80% of their stadiums' seating capacity. Most bowl sponsorship contracts are locked in for multiple years, but some bowl officials say they're concerned about what might happen when current deals expire. While the five most prestigious bowls in the Bowl Championship Series should survive any downturn, some of the 29 others, which range in age from 75 years to a few months and stretch from San Diego to Toronto, could be forced to fold.
"We can handle a couple of games that are down because we put money away in the good years," says Rick Catlett, president of the 63-year-old Gator Bowl, which last January had around 40,000 fans in a stadium that seats 77,000. "But I don't think there's any doubt, with the economy the way it is, that some of the newer bowls that don't have financial reserves built up could be in serious trouble."
The bowls were born in 1902 in Pasadena, Calif., with what is now the Rose Bowl. By 1996, they had grown to 18. Since then, thanks largely to television money and growing demand from schools and conferences, that number has swelled to 34.
For fans and alumni, the bowls were always an excuse for a winter getaway. For teams they were a recruiting carrot, a reward to players and staff for a good season and a chance to make a few bucks. Nobody seemed to care that they didn't always produce a clear-cut national champion. Despite their often awkward corporate names (current games include the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl and the Meineke Car Care Bowl), almost all bowls are run by nonprofit organizations whose goal is to attract tourists to the area's hotels and restaurants. Because the bowls pay the teams or their conferences appearance fees ranging from $300,000 to $18 million per visit, they need to secure TV rights and corporate sponsors and sell tickets. To put on the best show possible, the bowls reserve the right to decide which teams they invite -- which explains why some teams with great reputations often get preference over teams that have better records.
The bowl system has been under increasing pressure since the 1998 season, when the major bowls and conferences came together to form the BCS, a system that, as it works now, siphons off the 10 best teams; eight are sent to the four premier bowls (the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., and the Orange Bowl in Miami), and the top two go to a championship game that rotates among those four sites. The addition of the title game has stolen some of the thunder from the other bowls, especially the ones not in the BCS alliance. The growing competition between teams in major-college football also has made it harder for the oldest, most nationally popular programs to win enough games each year to qualify.
Last season these factors contributed to some disappointments. Several bowls were plagued by no-shows. Ratings for the national-title game between LSU and Ohio State, the Rose Bowl between USC and Illinois, and the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Hawaii, were each down more than 17% from the year before, hurt by blowouts and mismatches in their games.
There has been some good news for the bowls. The BCS this week negotiated a reported $125 million annual rights fee with ESPN that begins in January, 2011 (the last deal, with Fox, was worth $82.5 million annually). The bowls reported a small collective increase in ticket sales, according to the Football Bowl Association. And if Alabama and Texas Tech go undefeated, this year's national-title game in Miami could draw significant ratings. "Time will tell," says Scott Ramsey, executive director of the Music City Bowl and the immediate past chair of the Football Bowl Association. "We're certainly thinking we could be seeing fewer fans and a shorter travel stay, but I'm not sure that'll be the case 100% of the time, either." John Junker, the president of the Fiesta Bowl, says he's encouraged by the recent TV rights increase. "The BCS is clearly still a major property," he says.
AAA predicts the number of Americans traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday will decline for the first time since 2002 -- an ominous sign for bowl travel in December and January. In some cases, the matchups may not help. Marquee teams with huge followings like Michigan and Tennessee won't make it and Arkansas, Auburn, and Clemson also are in danger of missing out. The importance of popular teams was starkly apparent last season when the Michigan-Florida matchup at the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Fla., earned a 9.1 rating, higher than those earned by the more-prestigious Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls, according to the Nielsen Company. While several big names stay home, a group of teams with limited national followings, including Cincinnati, Oregon State and Utah, has the inside track to make it to the BCS, where they will play in those premier games.
The growing parity in college football has created a possible nightmare scenario. Last week, worried bowl directors were phoning each other, wondering what would happen if there weren't enough teams with at least six wins. "Everybody is counting right now whether there'll be enough teams available," says Steve Ehrhart, executive director of the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn. An NCAA spokesman said the association is reviewing its options, including admitting losing teams -- although it appears this won't be necessary.
Over the long term, the major threat to the bowls may be the chorus of critics demanding a playoff to determine who's No. 1. The BCS has rejected the idea and its new TV contract makes it unlikely until after 2014. But the concept has some powerful supporters, including President-elect Obama. A spokesman for Mr. Obama said his comments Sunday (he said he wanted to "throw my weight around" on the playoff issue) were said in "a joking tone."
Dull matchups, declining travel, the economy and Obama's views threaten to thin their ranks
By DARREN EVERSON (http://online.wsj.com/search/search_center.html?KEYWORDS=DARREN+EVERSON&ARTICLESEARCHQUERY_PARSER=bylineAND)
Some of college football's 34 bowls, those quaint relics of a simpler era, may not survive the winter.
As the economy sputters, more fans and alumni of contending teams are likely to stay home. Several teams with strong track records in selling tickets and attracting TV viewers, like Michigan and Tennessee, won't be playing in one, while less bankable schools like Cincinnati and Oregon State will. Last Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama dealt another blow to the old bowl system when he told "60 Minutes" that college football should hold a three-round playoff, something that would make many of the bowls, if not all of them, sideshows.
Even a rule that prevents teams with lousy records from playing in bowls may have to be bent: There are 68 bowl berths available this season, but as of today, only 61 teams have enough wins (typically six) to qualify -- a potentially embarrassing situation that has forced the NCAA to start thinking about contingency plans which, it says, could involve letting in a team with a losing recordCollege football's regular-season TV ratings are strong overall and the bowls say ticket sales rose slightly last season, but there are increasing signs of weakness. Thanks to lackluster matchups, ratings for many premier bowls dropped last season and nine bowls failed to fill 80% of their stadiums' seating capacity. Most bowl sponsorship contracts are locked in for multiple years, but some bowl officials say they're concerned about what might happen when current deals expire. While the five most prestigious bowls in the Bowl Championship Series should survive any downturn, some of the 29 others, which range in age from 75 years to a few months and stretch from San Diego to Toronto, could be forced to fold.
"We can handle a couple of games that are down because we put money away in the good years," says Rick Catlett, president of the 63-year-old Gator Bowl, which last January had around 40,000 fans in a stadium that seats 77,000. "But I don't think there's any doubt, with the economy the way it is, that some of the newer bowls that don't have financial reserves built up could be in serious trouble."
The bowls were born in 1902 in Pasadena, Calif., with what is now the Rose Bowl. By 1996, they had grown to 18. Since then, thanks largely to television money and growing demand from schools and conferences, that number has swelled to 34.
For fans and alumni, the bowls were always an excuse for a winter getaway. For teams they were a recruiting carrot, a reward to players and staff for a good season and a chance to make a few bucks. Nobody seemed to care that they didn't always produce a clear-cut national champion. Despite their often awkward corporate names (current games include the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl and the Meineke Car Care Bowl), almost all bowls are run by nonprofit organizations whose goal is to attract tourists to the area's hotels and restaurants. Because the bowls pay the teams or their conferences appearance fees ranging from $300,000 to $18 million per visit, they need to secure TV rights and corporate sponsors and sell tickets. To put on the best show possible, the bowls reserve the right to decide which teams they invite -- which explains why some teams with great reputations often get preference over teams that have better records.
The bowl system has been under increasing pressure since the 1998 season, when the major bowls and conferences came together to form the BCS, a system that, as it works now, siphons off the 10 best teams; eight are sent to the four premier bowls (the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., and the Orange Bowl in Miami), and the top two go to a championship game that rotates among those four sites. The addition of the title game has stolen some of the thunder from the other bowls, especially the ones not in the BCS alliance. The growing competition between teams in major-college football also has made it harder for the oldest, most nationally popular programs to win enough games each year to qualify.
Last season these factors contributed to some disappointments. Several bowls were plagued by no-shows. Ratings for the national-title game between LSU and Ohio State, the Rose Bowl between USC and Illinois, and the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Hawaii, were each down more than 17% from the year before, hurt by blowouts and mismatches in their games.
There has been some good news for the bowls. The BCS this week negotiated a reported $125 million annual rights fee with ESPN that begins in January, 2011 (the last deal, with Fox, was worth $82.5 million annually). The bowls reported a small collective increase in ticket sales, according to the Football Bowl Association. And if Alabama and Texas Tech go undefeated, this year's national-title game in Miami could draw significant ratings. "Time will tell," says Scott Ramsey, executive director of the Music City Bowl and the immediate past chair of the Football Bowl Association. "We're certainly thinking we could be seeing fewer fans and a shorter travel stay, but I'm not sure that'll be the case 100% of the time, either." John Junker, the president of the Fiesta Bowl, says he's encouraged by the recent TV rights increase. "The BCS is clearly still a major property," he says.
AAA predicts the number of Americans traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday will decline for the first time since 2002 -- an ominous sign for bowl travel in December and January. In some cases, the matchups may not help. Marquee teams with huge followings like Michigan and Tennessee won't make it and Arkansas, Auburn, and Clemson also are in danger of missing out. The importance of popular teams was starkly apparent last season when the Michigan-Florida matchup at the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Fla., earned a 9.1 rating, higher than those earned by the more-prestigious Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls, according to the Nielsen Company. While several big names stay home, a group of teams with limited national followings, including Cincinnati, Oregon State and Utah, has the inside track to make it to the BCS, where they will play in those premier games.
The growing parity in college football has created a possible nightmare scenario. Last week, worried bowl directors were phoning each other, wondering what would happen if there weren't enough teams with at least six wins. "Everybody is counting right now whether there'll be enough teams available," says Steve Ehrhart, executive director of the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn. An NCAA spokesman said the association is reviewing its options, including admitting losing teams -- although it appears this won't be necessary.
Over the long term, the major threat to the bowls may be the chorus of critics demanding a playoff to determine who's No. 1. The BCS has rejected the idea and its new TV contract makes it unlikely until after 2014. But the concept has some powerful supporters, including President-elect Obama. A spokesman for Mr. Obama said his comments Sunday (he said he wanted to "throw my weight around" on the playoff issue) were said in "a joking tone."