Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408260031
SECTION: COLLEGE FOOTBALL PAGE: FB6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Neither the coalition nor the alliance includes the granddaddy - and sugar daddy - of them all, the Rose Bowl, which in January split $13.3 million between the Big Ten and Pacific-10 conferences. So, what's the big deal about the coalition, which used to be called the bowl alliance at times, becoming the College Football Bowl Alliance?
It's the money. By changing its scope and keeping New Year's Day from being bowled over, the major Division I-A conferences - that's the CFBA Committee - have created something television networks love. That would be a sports attraction with exclusivity in a time period. That means higher ratings. That means more advertising dollars, money that will be passed on to the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls, then passed on to the competing conferences and independents - or at least one independent, Notre Dame.
The increased opportunity for a national championship game - it remains a mythical championship because coaches' and media polls still will anoint the alliance pecking order - is another reason the networks are paying bigger bucks.
NBC paid the Orange Bowl a $7 million rights fee in January for what became the Florida State-Nebraska national title game. It went against Florida-West Virginia in the Sugar Bowl on ABC. When the alliance starts at the end of the 1995 season, there should be no competition in the time slots occupied by the three alliance games.
That's why, with network money, the Fiesta bid $116 million, the Orange $101 million and the Sugar $98 million - over six years - to be the alliance's rotating national championship hosts.
The Orange Bowl paid the ACC and Big Eight $4.28 million each for FSU and Nebraska's participation. The per-team payout in an alliance title game figures to be more than twice that amount, with the other two bowls paying about $1 million more per team than they will this year.
The only way a national championship game could be worth more to the schools is with a one-game playoff after the bowls or a tournament, but that concept has been tabled by the pooh-bahs. Most athletic directors and coaches are against the playoff system, because it would trim the number of bowls and there would be fewer teams receiving a postseason reward.
Before going back to the future, a refresher on the coalition is a good idea, although after this season, you can forget it.
Tier One of the coalition includes the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Cotton bowls, and the champions of the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Southeastern, Southwest and Big Eight conferences and Notre Dame. The Big East and ACC champs will fill two slots in the Orange, Sugar or Cotton, unless they are ranked 1-2 (not likely this season), in which case they meet in the Fiesta Bowl.
The Big Eight champ is host of the Orange, the SEC the Sugar and the SWC the Cotton. Notre Dame, if it wins seven games - and unless Gerry Faust has moved back from Akron it will - is guaranteed one of those spots, too. The highest-ranked ``host'' among the trio plays the highest-ranked ``visitor'' from among the ACC, Big East and Notre Dame.
The Rose Bowl, outside the coalition, still has the Big Ten and Pac-10 champs - a situation that will continue to exist next year, despite the other changes to the alliance format.
Like last year, Tier Two of the coalition includes second teams from the ACC, Big East, SWC and Big Eight and the Pac-10 runner-up. The highest-ranked two of those will fill the two vacant slots in the Tier One bowls. The remaining three will fill, in order, one berth in the Gator Bowl against the SEC's third-place team and both spots in the John Hancock Bowl.
Hypothetically, using the preseason USA Today coaches' poll to make pairings, the 1994 bowl coalition games are: Sugar (Florida-Florida State for the national title), Orange (Nebraska-Notre Dame), Cotton (Texas-Miami), Fiesta (Colorado-Southern California), Gator (North Carolina-Tennessee) and Hancock (Virginia Tech-Baylor).
The alliance, beginning with the 1995 season, removes some obstacles and the potential for not-so-appetizing matchups. There are no host teams locked into alliance bowls. The six alliance slots go to the champions of the ACC, Big East, SEC and Big 12 (the merger of the Big Eight and four SWC teams, beginning in 1996), and two at-large selections. One of those is likely to be Notre Dame most seasons. In the first year, the other at-large spot belongs to the dissolving SWC.
The Fiesta, Orange and Sugar will have the choice of the top teams. ``The great thing is, there's no more passing,'' said Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, not referring to anyone's air game but to a school's opportunity to pass on a bowl bid for one more lucrative or to avoid a particular matchup.
``If Alabama is No.1 and Miami No.2, they go play in whichever bowl is designated the `A' bowl that year,'' Tranghese said. ``There's no more trying to be the local team in a bowl. If you're picked, you go.''
Logically, after Nos.1 and 2 fill a bowl, the ``B'' bowl picks the third-best alliance team available and gets the fifth-pick as a foe, after the ``C'' game selects No.4 to play the last choice. The plan is for each of the games to air unopposed in its time slot. The Fiesta, as the high bidder, gets the first alliance ``championship game'' to finish next season.
The ``C'' game will be played New Year's Eve in prime time or at 1 p.m. New Year's Day. The Rose Bowl keeps its traditional late-afternoon Jan.1 spot, and then the ``B'' alliance game follows. The ``A'' or national championship bowl will be played Jan.2 or Jan.3 in prime time. CBS lured the Fiesta and Orange from NBC with bigger bucks. The Sugar stays on ABC, with the Rose.
The big loser is the Cotton, which has been one of the traditional New Year's Day games and already is mourning the passing of its longtime ``pardner,'' the SWC. The Cotton is uncertain about its future, although the stadium on the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas is likely to be the site for the Big 12 championship game each December, starting in '96.
While one of the at-large alliance slots is likely to be occupied by Notre Dame, others may be filled by a Big Ten or Pac-10 team, or perhaps even the Western Athletic Conference champ. There also is some talk about the WAC champ moving from the Holiday Bowl to the Cotton in the future.
There are some potential problems for the alliance, but the removal of Tier Two is a plus.
``What people have liked about the coalition has been what's happened in the upper tier,'' Tranghese said. ``The second tier has brought more anguish than anything.''
The alliance committee hasn't finalized all details and has purposely held off cementing some of its concepts. For instance, what's to keep the Peach or Alamo bowls from deciding to go head-to-head with one of the three alliance games?
``If they want to, they can't be stopped,'' Tranghese said. ``That's antitrust.''
And that's why the College Football Bowl Alliance Committee has retained the services of an antitrust lawyer.
What Tranghese didn't say is the alliance-creating conferences could simply refuse to allow their teams to play in any games that would challenge the time-period exclusivity of an alliance game. It also is likely any maverick bowl invading alliance space would lose big in the TV ratings.
And while no team can pass on an alliance selection - which West Virginia did last year to get $1.28 million more from the Sugar than it would have received from the Cotton - an alliance bowl may pass on a team.
The first time the Fiesta, Orange or Sugar snubs a No.4 Nebraska for a No.6 Notre Dame and higher TV ratings, the screaming will be loud and long. The dollars in the second and third alliance games in any year, however, will be virtually the same.
All 18 major Division I-A bowls were asked to bid to be part of the alliance. Nine did. The Alamo, Peach and Citrus were eliminated, and the final decision was made among the three winners and the Cotton, Gator and Carquest.
The bowls outside the alliance are busy seeking commitments from conferences for second and third teams. Tranghese said the Big East's interest is rooted in Florida games (Citrus, Gator, Carquest and Hall of Fame). Among the bowls sanctioned for 1994, only the Liberty appears to be in danger of extinction. And most conference and bowl officials believe that many of the bowls will be able to raise their payouts simply by avoiding a glut of games on any one date.
It's too early to say if that will happen. And the alliance, like the coalition, still isn't a perfect world.
It's just smaller, and richer, and probably better.
by CNB