New bowl game in Austin ... to include AAC?

[The PonyGrad]

It really increases the incentive to schedule down.

[mrydel]

Lets get rid of the 3 or 4 lower level basketball tournaments at season end that allow about 250 teams to play and then we can talk about bowl saturation.

What is wrong with awarding a hard working athlete with a year end "fall break"? That is the way you have to look at it. You still strive to be in the big boy pants bowls but the lower level are just reward bowls. As long as I am not paying for them I think it is great. The option is to stay home, get no practice, get no swag, get no publicity, and listen to recruits that want to go to schools that have a year end game to play.

[stc9]

What is wrong with awarding a hard working athlete with a year end "fall break"? That is the way you have to look at it. You still strive to be in the big boy pants bowls but the lower level are just reward bowls. As long as I am not paying for them I think it is great. The option is to stay home, get no practice, get no swag, get no publicity, and listen to recruits that want to go to schools that have a year end game to play.

I hear what you are saying, but as members of the G-5 I think we need to be very wary. With more and more bowl opportunities, the higher paying bowls can squeeze out the G-5 schools into the lower paying bowls. This will create a bigger disparity in cash payouts. There was also a push by the P-5 to make more of their teams bowl eligible to satisfy contracts with their conferences. Further, how much publicity or brand growth would a G-5 school get from playing another G-5 school either before Christmas or lost in the shuffle amongst the others.

I like the idea of our kids getting more opportunities, more practice and some swag. I just think we need to consider the realities that this might not be in our best interest in the long term.

[Topper]

I'm not s sure what kind of local corporate support a bowl played in Austin could count on. They will have to rely almost totally on large national brands to foot the bills. I don't see local companies sponsoring anything that isnt UT related. Plus hipsters buy Arcade Fire tickets, not 3rd rate bowl game tickets. But I guess it has been done in more provincial places than this.

[smupony94]

Arcade Fire is so 2012

[mrydel]

That is what makes Little Rock a good pick. A small time bowl would be big time for Little Rock. Plus you have corporate sponsor opportunities with WalMart, Tyson, JB Hunt and Riceland Rice which has already been in talks for the Rice Bowl.