The Sports Professor Rick Horrow, in conjunction with promotional partner Northern Trust, analyzes the impact of the 28 bowl games that begin this next week, and reviews the question – Are there too many?
Last week, U.S. Representative Adam Schiff may have best summarized the reaction to the BCS hearings before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee: "With an ongoing war in Iraq, thousands of Katrina evacuees still in need of homes, millions of Americans without health insurance, the potential for an avian flu pandemic, soaring home heating costs, and an $8.12 trillion debt, Congress held a hearing on the best way to pick a college football champion."
This next week, the Wyndham New Orleans Bowl pits Arkansas State against Southern Mississippi. The game, moved to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Cajun Field, ushers in the 2005-06 bowl season – 28 bowl games over a 16-day period ending with the crowning of this year’s "undisputed" national champion at the Rose Bowl on January 4 in Pasadena.
The business facts have remained fairly constant over the past five years.
The 28 bowls have a payout of a record $193.1 million, up about four percent from 2004.
The first 23 bowls have an average payout approximately $1.35 million per team; the Capital One Bowl in Orlando has a $5.3 million payout for 9-3 Wisconsin and 9-2 Auburn.
The four Bowl Championship Series games on January 2-4 have a payout of $18.3 million per team for the Tostitos Fiesta, Nokia Sugar, and FedEx Orange – and $14.8 million per team for Texas and Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Quite a difference from the $750,000 NCAA mandated minimum payout per team for the first seven bowls of the season.
Overall, 11 of the 28 bowls pay this minimum. In these cases, the schools recoup their expense dollars. Their real compensation is the exposure gained from their fleeting bowl "moment in the sun."
The projected payout for each conference breaks down like this:
Big Ten 7 bowl teams; $35 million SEC 6 bowl teams; $32.5 million Big Twelve 8 bowl teams; $25 million Pac-10 5 bowl teams; $19.9 million
The 56 teams continue to inspire statistical mediocrity. Thirteen of the 56 teams have 6-5 records (the same as last year). The combined record of all bowl participants is 438-190 (eight more cumulative losses than last year). Interestingly, however, there have been three teams who have gone to bowls with losing records – 5-6 Troy State in 2001; 4-6 SMU in 1963; and 5-6 William & Mary in 1970. The first time a top 25 team appears in a bowl is Clemson (7-4) seven days into the season on December 27 at the Champs Sports Bowl. The first time a top 10 team appears in a bowl is sixth ranked Oregon (10-1) at the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl – the 13th game of the bowl season.
This year continues a period of relative corporate stability. Twenty-five of the bowls have some corporate or public sector name attached. Only the Ft. Worth, Poinsettia (the new bowl in San Diego on December 22), and the Independence Bowls do not have a public or corporate name. That bowl in Shreveport has operated with a $375,000 annual grant through the Louisiana Economic Development Fund, with an additional $100,000 provided by the City of Shreveport. The bowl has been the "granddaddy of the name game" – played in the mid-90’s as the Poulan Weedeater Independence Bowl through 1997. Sanford and MainStay sponsored the game through 2003, and the public sector has provided a bridge loan until a new sponsor is found – especially in post-Katrina Louisiana.
