I think one of the biggest complaints the I have heard about the Pac Ten is the lackluster bowl schedule it has put together for it's members. The Pac Ten's excuse is the bowls back East don't want them because we wouldn't travel well. The real problem is the Pac Ten hasn't done a good job of developing venues out West.
The Rose of course is the granddaddy of them all, and the Holiday is a very classy game, but after that things begin to fall rapidly in prestige.
The Sun Bowl agreement changed this year opening up the game to Big 12, ND, in addition to the Big Ten. I like the Sun Bowl, it has a CBS contract, a long history, friendly town, and full stadium. What it isn't is a destination resort. What the Pac Ten's third place team gets is a game with another conferences 5th place team.
The Insight Bowl in Phoenix was a nice addition, but we lost the contract this year to the Big Ten. We shouldn't be shut out of the bowl picture in a Pac Ten state. The Pac Ten should go head to head with the Fiesta Bowl committee by staging a game at Sun Devil Stadium. The stadium is vacant in September since the new stadium has opened in Glendale.
We enter into another year in what will be a long relationship with the Las Vegas Bowl. Las Vegas has everything you need to replace El Paso as the venue for our 3rd place team except the proper stadium. It isn't a Pac Ten city, but it is close enough to California that it can tell which side it's bread is buttered on.
The Emerald Bowl in San Francisco is played in the baseball stadium, an intimate venue with a nice view, but a little tight. The contract with the ACC brings some nice diversity and interesting opponents.
The final choices are if there are enough eligible teams is the Hawaii against the WAC, or the Forth Worth against the MWC.
This season it is a good bet that we will have two teams qualify for the BCS, when that happens the bowl lineup looks better.
This years schedule:
Rose Bowl (BCS)
Holiday Bowl (Big 12)
Sun Bowl ( Big 10, Big East, or ND)
Las Vegas Bowl (MWC)
Emerald Bowl (ACC)
Fort Worth Bowl or Hawaii Bowl (MWC) (WAC)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
I quit caring about bowls, except for those the Huskies were in, quite awhile ago. It used to be a fun day. The first time I noticed bowl games was when my grandparents took me to some friends of their's house so they could sit around drinking and gambling all day. I was 5 and their friends had a pool and pool table so my attention was divided, but it was still a fun situation to be around, all the big bowl games, one after another...1966, I believe.
I understand their importance to the funding of things, but they're just too commercial for me. They probably were just the same back then and I didn't realize it. If the Huskies are playing, I'll do all I can to watch or listen, Pac-10 team, maybe, others, unless it's a friend's favorite team and I want to bet against him, it might be on, but only peripherally.
JB, agree with you on the paucity of good bowls for PAC10. Of course it doesn't help when your #2 team plays the Big 12 #3, and your #3 plays the Big 10 #5 and then loses validating a weaker conference. The Huskies haven't helped that perception in our history (0-3 in Holiday losses to Colo, Kan St, and Texas); and 1-3 in Sun losses to Bama, lackluster loss to Iowa, loss to Purdue and great win over Texas). I like the Vegas bowl, but agree the high school stadium atmosphere is lacking. If they had a 50-60k stadium, they could probably get a Super/Pro Bowl plus two college bowl venues during the holidays. The fact the insight and fiesta are not Pac10 locks is nothing short of incompetence. But I also agree with HoD in too many meaningless (and underfunded)bowls
The first bowl I remember was the 1960 Rose Bowl....I was a toddler, but can remember throwing a fit as my dad left to go to the train station to travel to the game with some friends. Yes, they took the train back then.
Not having a Pac Ten game in Arizona sucks....it is incompetence.
Post a Comment