A record 23 college bowls scheduled for this year and three new bowls on deck for 2000 have college sports leaders wondering whether postseason I-A football is being spread too thin.
On one side are bowl proponents such as Conference USA Commissioner Michael Slive who like the recent bowl expansion. He said a bowl game in every state would not be excessive. New bowls provide opportunities, particularly to universities that have been shut out of postseason competition in the past.
"I think we should expand the bowls as much as the market will bear," Slive said. "For every community that has a bowl, it brings excitement and exposure. That game is the center of the universe at that time."
On the other side is Len DeLuca, ESPN senior vice president for programming development. He's concerned that college bowl games are approaching a saturation point.
Television coverage is crucial to a bowl game's success, and late December schedules are full, especially at ESPN and ABC-TV, which will carry 19 of this year's 23 bowls.
"We have successive nights of football from Dec. 20 through Jan. 4, including pro and college," DeLuca said. "We are very happy with the evenings we have, and there is not much more room at the inn."
He said too many bowls could compromise the overall quality of postseason college football.
"There is no reason to add bowls for bowls' sake," DeLuca said. "Right now, I think every new bowl should apply a three-point assessment. They need to assess whether it is a quality game, whether it will attract an audience and whether the advertising and sponsorship community will support it."
SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer said he is not worried about the bowl schedules becoming cluttered. "There has always been some self-regulating in the bowl system," he said. "Bowls are a business by nature, and at times they come on the scene and disappear."
Kramer said room is always available for well-run, well-supported bowl games.
Good examples are the new Mobile Alabama Bowl, which plays its first game Dec. 22, and the proposed Silicon Valley Bowl, which will hold its first game in 2000, according to Kramer. He said the Mobile Alabama Bowl is backed by a strong commitment from the city, and the Silicon Valley Bowl benefits from a community that is an economic powerhouse.
"As long as they are structured well and the organizers are realistic about what they can be, it can work," Kramer said. "Some bowls get into trouble by overextending themselves."
The other bowls aiming for the 2000 season are the Freedom Bowl and the Houston Bowl.
The Freedom Bowl, which was last held in 1994, is moving from Anaheim to San Francisco. The Houston Bowl will be a rebirth of the Bluebonnet Bowl that ran from 1959 to 1987.
Western Athletic Conference Commissioner Karl Benson is delighted with the Mobile Alabama Bowl and the Silicon Valley Bowl because they create opportunities for WAC members.
"The WAC has always had deserving teams not go to bowl games," he said. "Other conferences have taken up those spots with fifth- and sixth-ranked teams, while we have had our No. 2 and No. 3 teams stay home."
The Mobile Alabama Bowl has a one-year contract with the WAC and a five-year contract with Conference USA. The teams participating in the bowl will receive a minimum of $750,000 each from a game that will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Benson said he hopes new bowl games continue forming, but he also believes that only a limited number can be successful. "The saturation point will be whether there are television windows," he said.
Kramer said he doesn't believe television coverage will be limited.
"Twenty years ago we were all watching the same three channels, and now how many are there?" he said.
Kramer said a bowl game can be successful without featuring marquee teams during prime time. He said last year's Sanford Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., between Ole Miss and Texas Tech is a good example. The game earned a modest 2.7 Nielsen rating, but Ole Miss brought 16,000 fans to Shreveport.
"We are not trying to create a master system that leads to national recognition," Kramer said. "We want to create positive experiences for teams that have successful seasons."
