A New Sun Rises: ACC Returns To El Paso As Bowl Shuffle Continues

The ACC "replaces the Big East and Big 12 conferences as a Sun Bowl participant" beginning with the '10 season, according to Bret Bloomquist of the EL PASO TIMES. The four-year deal, which Sun Bowl Exec Dir Bernie Olivas indicated could be signed early next week, will see the ACC send its No. 5 team to play against the Pac 10's No. 4 team. Sun Bowl Chair John Folmer said "it was an unanimous vote" to select the ACC. Bloomquist wrote money was "at the heart of the change, as the Sun Bowl scrambled to hold its place in the bowl hierarchy." Competing bowl games "increased their payouts to levels that the annual El Paso event could not match." The Sun Bowl "will continue to pay" $2M per team, and Folmer said that "needs to go up after the end of this deal." But he added that "more money would have to come from corporate sponsors" (EL PASO TIMES, 8/20). ESPN.com's Brian Bennett wrote with the Sun Bowl affiliation eliminated, the Big East now "needs a spot for its No. 3 team to go." The Big East's No. 3 team currently goes to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, and the conference "could keep that current arrangement when the new deals begin after this season, but the league would like to upgrade if possible." An "advantage that the Big East has is that it can include Notre Dame in its deal for the No. 3." If the Big East "has to stay in Charlotte with its No. 3 team, then Notre Dame would not be involved in that deal" (ESPN.com, 8/20).

EAST COAST OFFENSE: In Orlando, Andrea Adelson reported the Big East and Notre Dame Tuesday "officially joined the Champs Sports Bowl lineup" with a four-year deal starting with the '10 season that "will send its No. 2 team to Orlando." The bowl "will be allowed to select Notre Dame just once in the four-year period." Florida Citrus Sports CEO Steve Hogan "wouldn't reveal the opponent for the Big East." The Champs Sports Bowl has had an affiliation with the Big Ten and ACC for the last four years, but it is "believed the Big Ten will jump to the Gator Bowl." The Big East now "will be the only BCS conference without a tie-in for a New Year's Day game." But Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said, "We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish based on the criteria. The fact it's not on New Year's Day is not a negative" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 8/19). More Marinatto: "The idea of playing on New Year's Day is so different than it was 20 years ago. There are 34 postseason bowls, and obviously most of them are not played New Year's Day" (ESPN.com, 8/18).

LOSE ALL BOWL AFFILIATIONS: In Jacksonville, Scott Kendrick wrote the bowl system "needs something more radical than conference affiliations." Kendrick: "Why do bowls have to be locked into these league arrangements? ... Pick it like the NCAA basketball committee, with athletic directors and bowl administrators in a room picking between great matchups and teams that will fill the grandstands and get the TV ratings. That's probably wishful thinking, but it would breathe new life into an antiquated system" (JACKSONVILLE.com, 8/20).