Bad Connection: Bowl Game’s Deal With Alltel Falls Through

The Fort Worth Bowl is “still seeking a corporate sponsorship after an agreement with Alltel ... fell apart,” according to Wendell Barnhouse of the FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM. Two sources said that the NCAA “balked at Alltel’s plans to hold a contest for naming rights” to the game. The NCAA has listed “Alltel Wireless” as the game’s corporate sponsor on its Web site. ESPN Regional negotiated the deal. But “an impasse was reached” when Alltel said that it “planned to hold a contest in which fans could enter to win a chance to have the [bowl] named after themselves or a person of their choosing” (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 8/8).