recession: the key to getting a playoff?

with the recession, i see where many companies are cutting back on sponsorships. golf tournaments are in real danger since most of their sponsors are luxury-item companies. if corporate sponsors are backing out of agreements, maybe this takes the money out of the bowl games and they'll fold.

that would be HUGE toward making a playoff a possibility.

 

Not really, no. Some lesser bowls folding wouldn't affect anyone except the 7-5, 6-6 teams. In fact, I wish some of them would go away.

 

found this

Saturation, hard times suggest bowls won't grow

Licensing for games expected to get tougher as stakes rise.

Ralph D. Russo
The Associated Press

New York -- After years of relentless expansion, college football's nearly monthlong holiday party -- the bowl season -- finally seems to have maxed out.

Those involved in the bowl business say that, with the national economy flailing, events which are as much about tourism and corporate sponsorship as football now are staring at a set of challenges that will level off the number of second-tier bowls, if not reduce them.

There are a lot of second-tier bowls to choose from.

"We're talking about disposable income, and that's drying up as fast as water in the desert," said Paul Hoolahan, chairman of the Football Bowl Association and CEO of the Sugar Bowl.

The bowl roster now stands at 34, giving 68 teams the opportunity to play a nationally televised game and be pampered by the host community. That's more than half of the 119 schools playing college football at its highest level.

The NCAA has been liberally licensing new bowls in recent years. Since 2002, 11 new bowl games have been established, while only three have closed up shop. Two games will debut this season, the EagleBank Bowl in Washington D.C., and the St. Petersburg Bowl in central Florida.

To get a license, organizers need a stadium, sponsorship, an agreement with two major college football conferences to put teams in the game and a network willing to televise the show.

People in the industry suspect that getting licensed and keeping that license will be tougher because of the economic crisis.

"As they are evaluated on an annual basis, I think a stricter criteria would probably be implemented to establish the fiscal viability of the business model," Hoolahan said.

In other words, can you raise enough money to pull this off?

Hoolahan runs a game with little to worry about. The Sugar Bowl is part of the Bowl Championship Series, along with the Rose, Orange and Fiesta bowls, and the national championship game.

ESPN agreed this week to pay the BCS $125 million per year over four years, starting in 2010, to televise its games, excluding the Rose Bowl, which has its own lucrative TV deal. That's up about $40 million a year from the current deal the BCS has with Fox.

The Sugar Bowl and the other BCS games pay about $17 million to each participating team, and the school splits that money with the rest of its conference.

With all that TV money, plus insurance giant Allstate as the title sponsor, the Sugar Bowl will have no problem paying its bills. Hoolahan expects another sellout crowd -- or close to it -- at the 72,000-seat Superdome on Jan. 2.

Bowls attract thousands of fans, tourists and media members, who fill hotels and restaurants and boost local businesses. Whether they'll be as big a financial bonanza this year is uncertain.

"That's the reason we do a bowl game," said Scott Ramsey, executive director of the Music City Bowl in Nashville. "We want people to come to Nashville and spend money and to get 3 1/2 hours of television time for our sponsors and city."

Ramsey said he's seeing an uptick in local ticket sales. Usually, the Music City Bowl's goal is to sell about 20,000 tickets locally. Each team is on the hook for between 10,000 and 15,000 tickets. Every school that plays in a bowl is obliged to buy tickets and do its best to get them in the hands of its fans.

Ramsey said the Music City Bowl is already close to its local ticket sales target.

"I don't know if that's more people staying home for the holidays and we're creating a local option for fans," Ramsey speculated.

Ramsey said the Music City Bowl builds its budget around 55,000-57,000 tickets sold to LP Field, which seats 67,000. So it, like many second-tier games, doesn't need a sellout to meet its financial needs.

"We need to raise $5-$5.1 million to break even," said Ramsey, who has also served as the Football Bowl Association chairman. For most bowl games, breaking even is the goal, he said.

The Music City Bowl matches teams from the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference. It's a model most second-tier bowl games use: Pick teams from the region so fans don't have to spend a fortune to get to the game.

Ramsey said that in this economic climate, bowl organizers and conferences will likely follow that model.

Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters, who is also the chairman of the NCAA's postseason football licensing subcommittee, said he believes oversaturation, and not the economic crisis, is more likely to keep the bowl lineup from growing.

He said the passion of college football fans is the game's greatest resource.

"I'm not willing to say college football is recession proof," he said, "but it sure is close."

 

i think eliminating 6-10 bowls would be a great first step.

 

Not to mention increasing the number of wins. It sucks to see 6-6 teams make it when they're not deserving. Its similar to the NC State Football Playoffs...4 wins and you qualify. To both it should be 7-8 wins, not six.