Big 12 adds Gator, Sun, Insight to bowl mix

DALLAS -- The Gator Bowl will invite a Big 12 team to its New Year's Day game twice during a four-year agreement that starts with the 2006 regular season, the conference announced Friday.

Under the arrangement, the Big 12 will have two bids each to the Gator Bowl and the Sun Bowl and will face a Big East opponent. The Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., will have the first choice but must select a Big 12 team in two of those seasons. The Sun Bowl is traditionally played on New Year's Eve in El Paso, Texas.

Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg said he hopes to strike a deal with one or two more bowl games. The conference renewed four-year agreements with the Cotton, Holiday and Alamo bowls while adding the Gator, Sun and Insight.

Weiberg would only say that he was talking with bowls that have past relationships with the conference, a hint that the Big 12 may renew its deal with the Houston Bowl.

Weiberg said the Gator/Sun alliance was part of an effort to avoid schools making frequent trips to the same bowls. Before a Rose Bowl appearance last season, Texas went to three Cotton Bowls and three Holiday Bowls in a six-year stretch.

"We do have some enhanced flexibility as part of these arrangements," Weiberg said. "It envisions a process where bowls will work in consultation with the conference office."

Weiberg said the payout for all Big 12-affiliated bowls will exceed $1 million per team.