Win in Cheez-It Bowl reaches beyond FSU

A strong showing for 3 Orlando bowls

As Mike Norvell took to the field at Camping World Stadium to celebrate his team’s Cheez-It Bowl win, the Florida State coach was awash in cheese-flavored snack treats. A tasty albeit messy reminder of the Seminoles’ 35-32 win against Oklahoma a few minutes earlier.

It was a statement win for FSU and one witnessed by more than 60,000 spectators and millions more on television.

It’s a win that can be shared by the Orlando community, which helps put on three postseason college football games. While the Citrus Bowl has been around since 1947, what is now known as the Cheez-It Bowl (1997) and the Duluth Trading Cure Bowl (2015) are newer additions.

Nonetheless, the three games continue impacting those in the Central Florida area.

Alan Gooch, CEO of the Orlando Sports Commission, which hosts the Cure Bowl, said the game’s economic impact is $10 milion-$20 million depending on the year.

Those figures are only one part of the OSC’s mission. The group has raised $3.8 million for cancer research, with $1.3 million going to the UCF College of Medicines Cancer Research Center, specifically to Dr. Annette Khaled and her breast cancer research. Those figures should grow before the end of the fiscal year on April 30.

“We’ve also cut revenue share checks back to over 50 nonprofit organizations in Central Florida through our Community Give Back program,” said Gooch. “Any nonprofit that helps sell Cure Bowl tickets, we split the profit on the ticket 50-50 with the organization.

“We’re happy to be able to offer the opportunity to give back to the community as well.”

Steve Hogan is CEO of Florida Citrus Sports, the group responsible for finding and hosting events for Camping World Stadium, including the Cheez-It and Citrus bowls. He says the two games, along with the annual Florida Classic game featuring Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M, generate around $100 million in economic impact.

But that doesn’t count the potential impact generated by social media and branding of the Central Florida area.

“These games, and many others we’ve been blessed to be a part of, are good at reaching people,” he said, “reaching eyeballs and engaging with the Orlando brand through social media, digital platforms and the actual broadcasts themselves.

“The community should celebrate knowing those three events in the football world are in the 100 million dollars economic range, but they generate hundreds of millions of dollars in brand and market value.”

The 2022 Cure Bowl featured a top-25 matchup between No. 24 Troy and No. 25 UTSA on Dec. 16. The Trojans rallied late in the third quarter for an 18-12 victory, giving them 12 wins for the first time since transitioning to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2001.

The game earned a 0.9 television rating, according to Sportsmediawatch.com, with an average of 1.46 million viewers, an increase of 15% from the previous year when the game averaged 1.267 million. There also was a bump in announced attendance at Exploria Stadium from 9,784 in 2021 to 11,911 in 2022.

“We had a spike in our TV ratings viewership, but our gate was about the same,” Gooch said. “We had a 3 p.m. kick on a Friday, which hurt us slightly. We even had a hard time getting some volunteers out, but it was a great matchup.”

Florida State’s win in the Cheez-It Bowl earned a 2.9 rating with an average viewership of 5.4 million, an increase of 9% from the previous year when the game averaged 4.9 million viewers. It’s the highest average viewership since 5.75 million people tuned in to watch Miami and Louisville in the then-Russell Athletic Bowl in 2013.

The announced attendance of 61,520 was a 36% increase from last season’s 39,051 from a game that featured Clemson and Iowa State.

The viewership numbers for the Citrus Bowl, which featured No. 17 LSU against Purdue, dipped with the game taking place on Monday, Jan. 2, for the first time since 2011. It earned a 1.9 rating with an average viewership of 3.33 million, which is the lowest in a decade. The announced attendance of 42,791 also was some of the lowest figures since 2013.

“January 2 continues to be a tough day historically,” said Hogan. “When you have to play on Mondays as some of us did this year, many of those ratings were impacted.”

Players opting out of games to prepare for the NFL draft or enter the transfer portal to switch schools continues to impact every bowl game outside the College Football Playoff semifinals and National Championship game.

LSU and Purdue had as many as 14 starters missing for their Citrus Bowl matchup, including the Boilermakers quarterback (Aidan O’Connell), receiver (Charlie Jones) and tight end (Payne Durham), not to mention several starters on the defensive front.