New ACC Bowl, Changes to Gator for 2005?

[Jim Johnson]

From the Winston-Salem Journal:

Atlanta officials hope to put together 2nd bowl for 2005

By Ray Glier

SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL

ATLANTA -- ACC football fans have turned blue in the cold of Boise, Idaho, to watch their team play in the Humanitarian Bowl on the blue field of Boise State.

They have shelled out money for expensive plane tickets and hotels in California for the Silicon Valley Bowl. They have gone coast to coast for the Seattle Bowl.

How about another bowl game that is a little warmer, a little cheaper, and a little closer?

The Atlanta Sports Council is attempting to put together a deal for a second bowl game in Atlanta to be played Dec. 27, 2005. The Sports Council is trying to match an ACC team with a Big Ten team in the Georgia Dome.

The city already is home to the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, which has been sold out with 72,000 fans in the Georgia Dome the last seven years. It will still be played on Dec. 31.

The payout for the new bowl game, which has yet to be named, will be approximately $1 million per school. A source close to the Sports Council said the deal looks imminent.

"We're at six (bowl games) right now and for a conference of 12, we believe it's important for us to have a seventh and possibly eighth tie-in bowl," said Ron Wellman, Wake Forest's athletics director. "We view that as critical to the future welfare of the conference."

Boston College, which has been to a bowl game the last five years, joins the ACC next season pushing membership from 11 to 12.

Before perennial bowl particpants Miami and Virginia Tech joined the conference, the ACC was tied in with the six postseason games: an automatic bid to a Bowl Championship Series game, the Gator Bowl, the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, the Continental Tire Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl (formerly the Tangerine Bowl), and the Humanitarian Bowl.

The ACC does not have a bowl tie-in with a Big Ten Conference team. Gary Stokan, the president of the Atlanta Sports Council, said the Big Ten is interested in a game in Atlanta.

Stokan met yesterday with ACC Commissioner John Swofford and proposed the Peach Bowl get the No. 2 ACC team and the new Atlanta bowl get the No. 4 or 5 ACC team.

The Gator Bowl currently gets the No. 2 ACC team for its game in Jacksonville, but Stokan said the ACC is holding its championship game in Jacksonville next year and the No. 2 team would presumably be the loser of the championship game. The school would likely not want to go back to Jacksonville for the Gator Bowl as the ACC No. 2 just three or four weeks after losing there. The host city would also probably object and Stokan feels that team should come to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl, which currently gets the third pick of ACC teams.

A spokesperson for Chick-Fil-A said the restaurant chain has not been notified officially there is going to be a second bowl game in Atlanta. He would not comment on what impact another bowl might have on its game.

Stokan said there is no deal yet for a sponsor, but a source close to the board of directors with the Sports Council, said Chick-Fil-A may even be involved in the second bowl game.

The NCAA certifies new bowl games each April.

The Atlanta Sports Council, which has attracted a Super Bowl, Final Four, PGA Championship, and All-Star Games in the NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball, is counting on football's popularity in the south to make the second bowl game a success.

Schools that participate in the Peach Bowl receive 20,000 tickets, with the other 32,000 tickets being sold to local fans. The same breakdown of tickets would be made for the new bowl.

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[GarySJ]

The ACC championship game is in Jacksonville, because FSU and Miami are the only teams that will ever appear in it.

But yeah, the Gator Bowl is really getting screwed in this deal. First, their Big East tie-in gets weakened when Miami and Va Tech leave. Now their ACC tie is weakened, because they can't really pick the team that just lost there three weeks previous. They'll have to pick some team that didn't even make the ACC championship game, to play the 2nd place team in a watered-down Big East.

You'd think the Gator would drop the ACC, and look towards getting a Big XII or Big Ten team instead. A 4th-place team from either of those leagues is probably a better traveler and a better team than the best ACC non-division winner.

[Jim Johnson]

The ACC championship game is in Jacksonville, because FSU and Miami are the only teams that will ever appear in it.

But yeah, the Gator Bowl is really getting screwed in this deal. First, their Big East tie-in gets weakened when Miami and Va Tech leave. Now their ACC tie is weakened, because they can't really pick the team that just lost there three weeks previous. They'll have to pick some team that didn't even make the ACC championship game, to play the 2nd place team in a watered-down Big East.

You'd think the Gator would drop the ACC, and look towards getting a Big XII or Big Ten team instead. A 4th-place team from either of those leagues is probably a better traveler and a better team than the best ACC non-division winner.

You may be right, but I think of the matchups:

Pittsburgh-Virginia Tech

Syracuse-Boston College

West Virginia-Virginia

South Florida-Maryland

[GarySJ]

Such matchups are nice to think about, but let's be realistic: a matchup of #3 ACC vs #2 NBE is just not that appealing when other NYD bowls have the Big Ten, SEC, and Big XII.

If it were played this year, the Gator Bowl would be the UofL-WVU loser versus the Virginia/Va Tech winner. Both teams would be ranked about #20, and would have medium-sized fan bases. Meanwhile, you've got Wisconsin-Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl, or even Iowa-Georgia in the Outback.

The Gator has got to be looking for some kind of upgrade here.

[USFFan]

Such matchups are nice to think about, but let's be realistic: a matchup of #3 ACC vs #2 NBE is just not that appealing when other NYD bowls have the Big Ten, SEC, and Big XII.

If it were played this year, the Gator Bowl would be the UofL-WVU loser versus the Virginia/Va Tech winner. Both teams would be ranked about #20, and would have medium-sized fan bases. Meanwhile, you've got Wisconsin-Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl, or even Iowa-Georgia in the Outback.

The Gator has got to be looking for some kind of upgrade here.

#1, I think the Gator Bowl people were involved in getting the ACC championship game to Jacksonville.  You reap what you sow.  

#2, your assumption of FSU/Miami may not be accurate.  Right now, FSU is on the outside looking in.  Who knows what will happen in the future.  

#3, if you were right, the Gator would jump on Virginia Tech.  They travel very well.  A VT/Notre Dame match-up (which I think is what will happen this year anyway) will more than hold its own on New Years Day.  

#4, TV sets are important, too.  I don't think there are that many more TV's in Wisconsin watching the Badgers play than TV's in New York watching Syracuse or TV's in Pennsylvania watching Pitt.  

USFFan

[GarySJ]

1. Don't know if this is true or not.

2. I think the last ten years, plus this year, have made it abundantly clear that programs like UVa are not remotely up to the level of UM and FSU. Va Tech, maybe in a good year

Even if a divisional rival like UVa manages to upset one of the Florida schools, to win the division they have not screw up and blow a game vs. someone else. Historically, "classic" ACC teams have not been good at this.

Even with the built-in one-loss handicap that the loser of the yearly FSU-UM cross-divisional game will get, a Florida team will win an ACC division 80% of the time. I'd bet that in five years, FSU/UM will have a combined 8 title game appearances, with 2 shared among the other 10 members.

So the ACC CG will either be (a) an FSU-UM rematch that will get less interesting every year a la the mid-90s run of UF-FSU bowl games; or ( FSU or UM in a pointless home-field coronation that the other ACC schools will get sick of having to play away all the time.

3. Va Tech-Notre Dame, for one year, isn't a bad bowl game. The problem is that they won't want it every single year. Bowls don't even like to invite the same team two years in a row, much less the same matchup. You start rotating in Pittsburgh-Virginia, Maryland-Louisville, and -- let's face it -- Boston College-USF, and the Gator Bowl quickly becomes a lot less appealing in the long run.

4. I think the Big Ten schools win out in TV sets as well. There may be more people in Pennsylvania and New York state, but a much higher percentage of those in Wisconsin will be tuned into a Badgers bowl game. At best, it's a toss-up where the NBE holds no advantage.

[Jim Johnson]

#3, if you were right, the Gator would jump on Virginia Tech.  They travel very well.  A VT/Notre Dame match-up (which I think is what will happen this year anyway) will more than hold its own on New Years Day.  

USFFan

Gary answered your post as I would...

I want to add that Notre Dame will NOT get an invite from the Gator Bowl.  They are 6-4 with a game left @ Southern Cal... figure a 6-5 Irish team won't be the matchup the Gator folks want like Pittsburgh or West Virginia.

[smazza]

miami should have never left big east

[smazza]

nad fsu should never have let miami come to acc

fsu should have bolted to big east