Delany: "Conference bowl lineup to become more national"
Stewart Mandel offered an interesting article today:
Delany is on the move again. I don't really disagree with it either. I definitely would not mind seeing a tie in with the Holiday bowl or some bowls in Arizona as I have no desire (see: lazy) to travel to Florida every year.
We already know bowl attendance was down but I thought it was interesting to see Michigan's game with South Carolina drew one of the largest ratings in ESPN network history for a non-BCS game.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:08 PM ^
YESSSS!!!! More national probably means California. That's great news. For the record, I would also love the Holiday Bowl. Never a bad reason to go to San Diego, greatest city in the country.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:12 PM ^
Under the new system it's going to be very rare that a Big Ten team plays in the Fiesta bowl so would love to see them do a Pac12-Big Ten Holiday bowl tie in. San Fran or Vegas wouldn't be bad locations for a 3rd tier Big Ten bowl game either.
January 11th, 2013 at 10:41 PM ^
I am ALWAYS excited to go to Vegas. Bowl games would be a great excuse to head out that way for a little while. I imagine many fans (college-aged and beyond) would feel the same.
January 11th, 2013 at 11:11 PM ^
I’m onboard the Bay Area Bowl train! Fursure!
January 11th, 2013 at 7:13 PM ^
Really? I'm seriously asking, can you give reasons (other than weather, ocean, women (which are all great, btw))? I've never been there...
January 11th, 2013 at 7:20 PM ^
craft brew scene in America. So there's another reason. Also, Tijuana.
January 12th, 2013 at 12:10 AM ^
Are Marines still prohibited from traveling to Tijuana because of the violence?
January 12th, 2013 at 3:30 AM ^
But as long as Portland, Oregon is still a city, no other place gets to claim having the best craft brew scene in America.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:34 PM ^
January 11th, 2013 at 7:45 PM ^
Yes - those first three are all great reasons, but it does go beyond that. I've been to SD as both a young single guy and as a parent with my toddler, and it's great for both. There is both beachy nightlife and downtown nightlife not very far apart. The gaslamp district has great bars and restaurants of all kinds, and Pacific Beach has a lot of the board shorts and flip flops types of hangouts. Past that, Mission Bay park is great time too, great for kids, and close to Sea World, and La Jolla is one of my wife's favorite areas - good shopping and lots of restaurants with incredible views of the ocean and cove. You can grab a beer while watching the seals.
All of those things complement the weather and the ocean. It's never too hot, but almost always warm and sunny, everything is close to the ocean, and not too expensive (at least for California). And yes, there are beautifil women everywhere.
January 11th, 2013 at 9:20 PM ^
Is just a ride over the bridge and Hotel Del. The food scene in National City, the golf courses(Steel Canyon is my favorite)
January 11th, 2013 at 9:45 PM ^
Plus the train is actually reasonably priced and goes many of the places you'd want to. (Not Coronado, though.) I think I remember paying $5 for a day pass. Old Town is neat, kind of a Mexican-themed Mackinac Island if you will. With margaritas the size of a toilet bowl. I would never want to live in San Diego being more of a cold-weather, change-of-the-seasons kind of guy, but I've visited four times, and done different stuff every time and never not enjoyed myself.
January 11th, 2013 at 10:08 PM ^
of this message....let's just say I am a big fan of my home town.
There's a reason our motto is "Finest City in America"
Been to a couple of Holiday Bowl's including the 1994 win over Col St.
January 11th, 2013 at 11:51 PM ^
January 12th, 2013 at 12:01 PM ^
I currently live in San Diego, and I agree with everything that WolvinLA2 said. I've lived all over the country, in many different states, and San Diego is incredible. I've even lived in Santa Barbara for awhile, which is awesome too, and I've lived in Malibu, LA, etc. All are great places, depending what you're into, but overall as far as big cities go, San Diego tops the list.
January 12th, 2013 at 5:41 PM ^
Everyone who replied. I love how this board is willing to go so far off topic for interesting cultural stuff. Great info...
January 12th, 2013 at 9:58 PM ^
January 11th, 2013 at 11:32 PM ^
Depends what you're interested in. It's easy living for all the obvious reasons, but it lacks the breadth and depth of culture in big American cultural centers. Their best high end restauranteurs, for instance, ditch the place for a more vibrant scene once they prove they can run a shop ably. The same is true for music, comedy, etc. It would be less of an issue if SD were farther away from the gravitational pull of LA. You really have to prefer the said obvious stuff to culture to want to pass up LA or SF for SD, hence the state of affairs.
Why this is not true of the beer I have no idea. It is fantastic. It's also probably a significant part of the reason why SD is starting to come into its own as a "real" city, culture-wise.
Also, yes, this is for a given definition of culture. Pacific beach bros certainly have their own collective culture that they find very satisfying.
January 12th, 2013 at 9:30 AM ^
also world class zoo and wild animal park (puts the zoo to shame)
January 12th, 2013 at 9:30 AM ^
also world class zoo and wild animal park (puts the zoo to shame)
January 11th, 2013 at 7:22 PM ^
Please please please do this-
January 11th, 2013 at 9:32 PM ^
January 11th, 2013 at 10:22 PM ^
Fiesta/BW3 Bowl is still in AZ so you have a risk of that with the illegal trash living in AZ.
January 11th, 2013 at 10:49 PM ^
Points return after national signing day.
January 11th, 2013 at 11:13 PM ^
I guess I deserved that? I'll be boarding the flight right now....
January 12th, 2013 at 1:13 AM ^
Retruning from Bolivia?
January 12th, 2013 at 4:42 PM ^
Actually El Paso iirc is the safest city in the country.
January 11th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^
But, I like your enthusiasm! Would be nice to spread the B1G love around the country a little. Show us West Coast wolverines some love here and there too! How about a game in the new 49ers stadium? I'll swing by on my way home from work!
January 11th, 2013 at 10:28 PM ^
Just FYI, both the Cotton and the Chick-fil-A will almost certainly be part of the new BCS lineup starting in the 2014/15 season, so there is only one more year that either of them will have a conference tie-in of any kind. They will then become "Access Bowls" and host BCS at large teams 8 of the next 12 years, hosting a semifinal the other 4 years.
Also, the Chick-fil-A is one of the only December bowls that doesn't want to upgrade their conference tie-ins right now; they are perfectly happy with the SEC and ACC.
January 12th, 2013 at 1:09 PM ^
With at least 14 members in the B1G by 2014, and with no signs of the # of the bowls decreasing, the conference will probably average 10 eligible teams a season.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:28 PM ^
Wait a second. You don't think Delany is doing this to secretly help the recruiting efforts of MSU do you? A national bowl tie-in seems to be a perfect fit for their national recruiting efforts.
Damn it. I KNEW dad liked little brother better.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:37 PM ^
I think you are thinking too small. Delany's tie in inquiry to the Mos Eisley Cantina Sandstorm Bowl on Tatooine would fill MSU's intergalatic recruiting.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:31 PM ^
just as long as you don't have 3 games going on at the same time on Jan 1 i'll be happy.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:44 PM ^
And this year it was actually four - Neb/Georgia, Michigan/SCar, Purdue/Okla. St, and Northwestern/Miss. St. all started between noon and 1 EST.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:35 PM ^
January 11th, 2013 at 9:15 PM ^
It makes no sense for the Big Ten to beat its head against the wall every year against a bunch of SEC teams. Let them play one or two, but let them play some other conferences, too. It would improve the bowl record while still giving opportunities to beat the SEC.
January 11th, 2013 at 10:02 PM ^
You cite two losses to the SEC as progress, which says something.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:39 PM ^
My favorite city is San Francisco, so hopefully the Kraft Fight Hunger will be elevated to BCS status soon.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:40 PM ^
January 11th, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^
And this year it was actually four - Neb/Georgia, Michigan/SCar, Purdue/Okla. St, and Northwestern/Miss. St. all started between noon and 1 EST.
January 11th, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^
January 11th, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^
January 11th, 2013 at 7:56 PM ^
A California bowl would do very well with a Big Ten team, because there are tons of Big Ten alumni out here who don't want to travel three time zones to see their team play. If the Big Ten picked up the Holiday Bowl, I promise the game would be sold out every year for at least a decade, unless it was the same teams going all the time.
And it terms of travelling to California - it's not much more expensive than travelling to Florida for most, and San Diego is a much more exciting destination than anywhere in Florida not named Miami.
January 11th, 2013 at 10:45 PM ^
I wish there were more quality bowl games for the BIG in Cali!!! FYI I hate 12:00 and 3:30 kick off est because drinking before noon is rough
January 12th, 2013 at 6:44 AM ^
January 11th, 2013 at 11:48 PM ^
January 11th, 2013 at 8:03 PM ^
"According to one source, the conference collaboration Delany speaks of may consist of a format like this: Over a six-year cycle, the Big Ten and Big 12 might share spots in the Holiday (San Diego) and Kraft Fight Hunger (San Francisco) bowls, with each league playing three seasons in both."
Something like this would be nice for a conference like the Big Ten that, while in the Midwest, had a sizeable West Coast alumni / alumnae base and fan following and probably would therefore increase attendance. Right now, I believe that the Big Ten's tie-ins include three bowls played in Florida and two in Texas, among others, and there's no reason that they couldn't agree to at least one closer to larger pockets of fans, I would think. Going to where the demand likely is would help to mitigate the issues with eating the costs associated with ticket guarantees too, if they place these games within easy reach of more likely audiences. The distribution of the games is one thing I never understood in comparison to where many schools have large concentrations of alums and fans.
January 11th, 2013 at 8:28 PM ^
I especially like the rotating venues aspect of it, so we aren't going same bowl all the time.
January 11th, 2013 at 8:16 PM ^