CBS announced its 6-year deal with the Mobil Cotton Bowl
yesterday, with the arrangement set to begin in '96. The Cotton
will join the FedEx Orange and the Dial Fiesta Bowls on CBS in
'96. NBC will finish a 3-year deal with the Cotton with this New
Year's game. On Tuesday, the Cotton "solidified a plan to keep
its ties" with SWC teams once the league fractures and four teams
join the Big Eight to form the Big 12, while three teams join the
WAC. The '96 Cotton Bowl will feature the SWC or Big Eight
runner-up against the WAC champion or Pac-10 runner-up. For the
next five years, the Big 12 runner-up will be the host team
against either the WAC champion or Pac-10 runner-up. The plan
was made possible by a deal with the Thrifty Car Rental Holiday
Bowl, which will take the two teams not picked by the Cotton for
a late-December game in San Diego. If the WAC champ or Pac-10
runner-up is in one of the Tier I bowl games, the Cotton or
Holiday may invite Notre Dame if it is not invited to the Tier I
games (Jim Baker, BOSTON HERALD, 10/27). Liberty Sports will
conduct ad sales for the game and will assure CBS "a sizeable
profit by buying time for an average of almost $800,000 a year"
(Rudy Martzke, USA TODAY, 10/27).
OTHER BOWL NEWS: The Hall of Fame Bowl is expected to
announce the details of a 6-year deal with the Big Ten and SEC.
Beginning in '96, the Fame Bowl will match the 3rd place teams
from the SEC and Big 10, with a payout of $1.5M to each school.
The game also renewed its contract with ESPN for the 11:00am (ET)
time slot on New Year's Day (Liz Robbins, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES,
10/27). One ESPN official promised to make the Hall of Fame Bowl
"the crown jewel of our Bowl Week presentation" (TAMPA TRIBUNE,
10/27).
