The Bowl Reshuffling Comment Count

Brian

A comparison of the Big Ten's old bowl scenario and its new scenario:

bowls blender bowls

left to right: x, f, f(x)

Chart? Chart.

OLD SCHOOL   NEW SCHOOL
Pick Bowl Location Opponent   Bowl Location Opponent
2 Citrus Orlando SEC #2   Citrus Orlando SEC #2
At this point the Citrus is the premiere non-BCS bowl and usually has a great matchup that the Big 10 loses unless Michigan's in it. Fine. Downside: annoying commercials.
3 Outback Tampa Bay SEC #3   Outback Tampa Bay SEC #3
Less enthused about keeping the Outback around just because I'd rather play a different conference.
4 Alamo San Antonio Big 12 #3   Gator Jacksonville ACC #3
Bler. Never been to Jacksonville but the reviews are not good, and this game continues the Big Ten's tradition of playing up. Yet another NYD game. In double-BCS years “we played on New Year's Day” will mean you finished in the top half of the conference. Woo. Small bonus: the Gator's defection is part of a major downgrade for Big East bowls, which will make ND's options when they don't make the BCS even worse.
5 Citrus Jr. Orlando ACC #4   Insight Phoenix Big 12 #4
Note: the Gator and Insight are going to swap the 4/5 picks. In this setup, though, the Big Ten is basically swapping the ACC #3 for the Big 12 #3 and vice versa for the #4s. This is not going to help the bowl record much, though the Alamo always seemed even more horrible than you'd expect: remember that year when 10-3 Texas played an Iowa team that was 6-6 and 2-6 in the Big Ten?
6 Insight Phoenix Big 12 #6   Texas (Probably) Houston Probably Big 12 #6
Relocating to Houston.
7 Motor City Detroit Random MAC   Motor City Detroit Random MAC
Game will lose what little dignity it has if it ends up named after Little Caesar's, but whatever.

Unless you care about relocating from San Antonio to Jacksonville, it's basically the status quo. But I didn't like the status quo, which has two games in which the Big Ten plays up and has that near-identical (Florida games against SEC opponents) pair at the top. The Big Ten is in a similar situation as Notre Dame is when they get dragged into a BCS bowl at a weak 9-3 and then pummeled: so attractive to television they're offered big money to sign up for games they probably shouldn't be in.

I guess the dropoff from the #3 team to the #4 team seems steeper in the ACC and Jacksonville will be less of a homefield for Random ACC team than it is for Random Big 12 team. Both of those effects are marginal if they even exist.

One downside I hadn't thought of until Tim brought it up: the Citrus-Citrus Jr. pairing provided you something to do if you went down to the Citrus. A couple days before your game there was another football game at the same place. I guess this will still be the case but it probably won't have a team you have a rooting interest in.

Comments

Chrisgocomment

August 17th, 2009 at 1:03 PM ^

Bowl selection question:

Wouldn't it be more interesting if all the bowls picked from every eligible team? As in, after #1 and #2 are matched up in the Championship game the 2nd best bowl would get to pick out of all the remaining bowl eligible teams, then the #3 bowl, then the #4 bowl and so on. Wouldn't the match ups be so much more interesting than saying such and such bowl must match up #4 Big Ten & #4 Big 12 or what have you?

or, would that be too confusing or time sensitive while at the same time giving high profile teams a big advantage over, say, Utah?

fatbastard

August 17th, 2009 at 1:21 PM ^

Phoenix isn't much to get excited about, but it will be an opportunity to get out West, and maybe double book a ski vacation??? Jacksonville (yuck, but at least you can stay elsewhere and drive to the game); IF you're going to play in Texas, San Antonio was a nice place to visit, and Austin nearby was neat to see. But, Houston -- OMGShirtless I cannot imagine a single worse place to play in a bowl. Nasty, Horrid place.

In reply to by fatbastard

formerlyanonymous

August 17th, 2009 at 4:29 PM ^

I'm from Houston you fatbastard. It's not really that bad. It could use a better tourist district (or a tourist district if you want to get really picky), but there's still some things to do around here.

Plus, in December/January, there's a good chance it'll be a pleasant 65+ degrees for a high.

cutter

August 17th, 2009 at 1:22 PM ^

My wife and I have friends who live on Amelia Island, Florida and are within a 45-minute drive of Jacksonville. If I were going there for the Gator Bowl, that'd be the place to stay even if I didn't know anyone in the area.

I live in Phoenix and have attended the Insight Bowl four out of the last five years. I appreciate the upgrade in the bowl. Tempe is a pretty good place to go for New Year's Eve, especially the Mill Avenue area. The games have generally been pretty good, although I've seen the Big Ten lose the last three (Minnesota twice, Indiana once).

As you point out, Notre Dame's non-BCS bowl selection just got a bit worse given their relationship with the Big East. Besides no New Year's Day games, Notre Dame now only gets to replace a BE team at a specific bowl site once every four years and not twice. So much for ND adding value / leverage to the Big East in terms of the post-season.

With the Gator Bowl coming into play, it means up to five Big Ten teams can play on New Year's Eve (Insight) / New Year's Day (Rose, Capital One, Outback, Gator). With the agreement surrounding the Rose Bowl, it means a Big Ten team might be set aside for a non-BCS program.

John M

August 17th, 2009 at 2:04 PM ^

I have been to the Gator Bowl, and Jacksonville isn't that bad. First, the average temperature of 55 is a bit deceiving: that's based on a high of 64 and a low of 45. San Antonio's averages for January 1 are 64/39, so it's actually a slight advantage for Jacksonville. There is an area downtown, not far from the stadium, called the Landing. It's certainly not Bourbon Street or the Riverwalk, but is it that hard to have fun drinking beer on New Year's Eve? Plus, it's Florida. There's good golf nearby, there's the beach (although it's too cold to swim) and you can drive a couple hours south for better weather. Certainly, it's not San Diego or Miami, but it's certainly much better than anyplace in the Big Ten footprint in the dead of winter.

Seth

August 17th, 2009 at 5:25 PM ^

Capital One = "Citrus"
Chick-fil-A = "Peach"
Champ Sports = "Tangerine" = "Citrus Jr."
Outback = "Hall of Fame" "Outback"

Why Outback gets the love, I've never quite discerned. I guess I'm good at fruit. Also, if you want your brand to stick in my head, make sure you have fewer syllables than the old bowl's name.

Good: Ford Bowl, Chevy Bowl, Pizza Bowl, Manute Bol.

Bad: Bowl of the Yushityu 2007 Mimetic-Resolution-Cartridge-View-Motherboard-Easy-To-Install-Upgrade For Infernatron/InterLace TP Systems For Home, Office Or Mobile [sic]

Brodie

August 18th, 2009 at 3:12 AM ^

I agree with this. I have no problem with things like the Emerald Bowl or the Insight Bowl where the sponsor name sounds real, so to speak. I'm also fine with presenting sponsors like the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, because it's not really supposed to be referred to that way.

And yes, the Champs Sports is the Tangerine Bowl. Though if you really want to go back, it was called the Sunshine Classic originally when it was based in Miami.

Elise

August 17th, 2009 at 3:37 PM ^

I'm not feeling all the Alamo Bowl hate, aside from the weird matchups I guess. If you went, San Antonio is a really cool place to visit. I could have spent hours upon hours on the riverwalk in addition to the amount of time I did spend down there. I will admit I also thought the Alamodome was pretty cool from the inside, even though it wasn't too full on the upper deck (fault of the bowl prestige and proximity to NE/MI, not the city).

Then again, I have no idea what Jacksonville is like other than that a football team exists there, so maybe I don't know what we're all missing.

umtailgate

August 17th, 2009 at 9:21 PM ^

I cannot for the life of me figure out how the Citrus Bowl has managed to keep the top spot all these years. The Outback Bowl is far superior from a fan's perspective. Those that have been to the Citrus know that it is a run down stadium in a run down area. The food is the leftovers from the Champs Sports Bowl, and it's questionable whether or not it has even been refrigerated in the week between the bowls. Flat out nasty.

The Outback is at a nearly new NFL stadium. Everything about it is better...food, seat comfort, locale. You're still close enough to make the Disney trip if you have kids...AND you've got Mons Venus. Ybor, while somewhat falling apart over the years, has maintained a few decent bars, and they are still grouped together which makes for a decent "hopping" experience on New Year's Eve.