Cotton Bowl in Arlington
Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 3:14 pmSince it moved it is hard for me to call it the Cotton Bowl. The announcers said the CB wants to become a BCS bowl. What are the chances and what will it take?
Should have read the DMN
AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic sees clear skies ahead
Not that Rick Baker cares anymore.
"Let it snow," he sniffed.
Until this year, Baker cared more about the state of the weather than all of Pete Delkus' dependents put together. Baker started checking a month out from the Cotton Bowl. The week of the game, he got weather updates every hour. When you're president of a bowl played outdoors in North Texas in early January, you'd like to know as soon as possible how much firewood you'll need.
Of course, today's game between Oklahoma State and Ole Miss marks a new era. And not just a 72 degree one, either.
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AT&T Cotton Bowl
Oklahoma State vs. Mississippi
1 p.m. Jan. 2, Arlington
Ch. 4
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Moving from Fair Park to JerryWorld wounded traditionalists, of which I count myself a member. But it was the right thing to do, and the first step toward making the Cotton Bowl Classic a major player again.
Next step: Joining the BCS rotation when all the planets realign in four years.
If a playoff isn't on the horizon – who'd have thought health-care reform would come first? – you might as well get a title game in your backyard every four or five years.
The reason the Cotton Bowl Classic didn't make the BCS rotation in the first place was because of its stadium. Now that the roof is taken care of, the hardest part's over.
But it's not as simple as crashing a White House dinner party, either.
Essentially, one of the following must take place when the next four-year deal is up after the 2014 bowl season:
•A bowl has to drop out – Forget the Rose or the Orange, both tradition-rich and in good health. The Sugar? New Orleans' ongoing recovery makes it vulnerable, but the SEC would secede from the Union before it allowed the Sugar to fall.
And that leaves the Fiesta, which was just cleared in an ethics probe by Arizona's former attorney general. Nothing like an impartial judge. But would a guilty verdict have mattered? Hardly. This group is tighter than a bee colony.
•Rotation adds a fifth member in the current format – Here's the best argument against it: If you could host the lucrative title game once every four years, or once every five, which would you vote for?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
•Rotation adds a fifth in a plus-one format – The best compromise between the current system and a playoff is a plus-one, with a title game a week after all the BCS bowls play. With 10 teams in the BCS, you'd need another bowl to accommodate the set-up. The ACC and SEC are already on board, and the Big 12 would go along if it meant the Cotton Bowl was added.
•Rotation adds a fifth for Mountain West – TCU, Utah and BYU have proven that the MWC deserves an automatic BCS bid, and Air Force didn't hurt its argument with a convincing win over Houston. With at least two more teams added to the BCS, the system would require another bowl.
If you're wondering why the Cotton Bowl would be the first choice in an expanded BCS, let's talk geography.
The Cotton Bowl would be the most centrally located of the BCS bowls, making it the easiest commute. Fans could get in and out easily. Texas also is a football state, which should count for something.
And then there's a matter of balancing the scales. In BCS history, a Big 12 team has made the title game six times. In four of those games (Oklahoma-Florida State, '01 Orange Bowl; OU-LSU, '04 Sugar Bowl; Texas-USC, '06 Rose Bowl; and OU-Florida, '09 Orange Bowl), the Big 12's opponent hosted a virtual home game.
The Big 12 not only has earned a potential home-field advantage, too, it's fairer than giving the SEC states a third BCS bowl with Atlanta or Orlando, the Cotton's biggest rivals.
The push should start in earnest the summer of '12. The Cotton's future starts today.
You'll know the bowl staff at JerryWorld. They'll be wearing Hawaiian shirts.
"Finally," Baker said, "we're a warm-weather site."
