Bowls leaning on ‘benefit of time’ in abnormal year
current 100-degree temperatures are better suited for cool pools than cozy pullovers, but in some ways mid-August reminds bowl officials of early December when it comes to the suspense of college football and who will play where.
“It’s been an interesting year, to say the least,” said Derrick Fox, longtime president of the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. “This year, there’s been a little more of a focus on the start of the season and how that goes, as well as what the tail end of the year might look like come bowl season.”
The Big 12, SEC and ACC all are pressing ahead with plans to play their seasons starting in September during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 have chosen to postpone football until the spring semester, if they play at all.
The current approach to trying to squeeze in a football season is good news for the Texas Bowl, which pits the Big 12 versus the SEC at NRG Stadium, but leaves the Alamo Bowl and its Big 12 versus Pac-12 setup in more of a pickle.
“We’re scheduled to have games with them through 2025,” Fox said of the agreement with two of the five power leagues. “If the Pac-12 is not having a 2020 fall campaign, then an opponent would have to come from another conference. What that looks like — who knows from that perspective? Do things adjust and everyone shifts to the spring of 2021? Who knows?”
Fox knows one thing: Bowls are in a better position than conferences and individual programs right now, based on the calendar.
“We have the benefit of time in that we (play) at the end of the season,” he said. “From that perspective, we’ll see how it plays out. (The bowls) are starting to have conversations about what 2020 will look like on all fronts, and the College Football Playoff will have to start having those conversations as well.”
The bowls also have the potential to award the equivalent of participation trophies to teams taking part in the postseason. There are currently 41 bowls planned around the holidays — meaning 82 teams are needed — but as of Tuesday night only 77 Football Bowl Subdivision programs were playing a regular season, according to WatchStadium.com.
“Your normal definition of bowl eligibility might be different this year,” Fox said. “Every bowl has conference partners for specific reasons, and if 2021 is more toward the norm, you could kind of revert back to that. This certainly might be a year of flexibility and pivoting and different things, and we’ll just have to watch and see how the college season unfolds — hopefully.”
The Myrtle Beach Bowl in Conway, S.C., the Fenway Bowl in Boston and the LA Bowl in Inglewood,
Calif., all picked an incomparable year to debut. The trio and even some more established bowls might decide to sit this one out because of the pandemic.
“Everything about the bowl experience will be up for discussion between the bowls and conferences,” the Football Bowl Association’s Nick Carparelli told 247Sports.com. “That may include when it starts, how long it goes and when it finishes.”
The Rose Bowl typically pits the top teams from the Big Ten and Pac-12 — if they’re not in the fourteam CFP — but luckily for the tradition-drenched event, this season it is part of the CFP semifinals on Jan. 1, 2021 — a date subject to change.
The Alamo Bowl began in 1993, and Fox remembers a time when bowl officials convinced the city of San Antonio not to drain the River Walk during bowl week as the event at the Alamodome tried gaining traction with fans across the country who had perhaps nevThe er been to the Alamo City.
Now the popular bowl’s direct economic impact on the city averages about $40 million per year, Fox said, and he and his staff are developing multiple plans for what might happen in late December. He added the Alamo Bowl can learn from how programs like Baylor, TCU, Texas and Texas Tech handle any fans this season and apply that to the Alamodome when the time arrives.
“One of the beauties of (waiting) is we can reach out to our partners from the respective universities and ask, ‘What are your protocols and best practices? How are you seeing game-day experiences going?’ ” Fox said. “We can make sure and learn from the good and the bad and build upon those experiences to make our game the best we can.
“It’s just a different world we’re in.”