Kick out the Fiesta Bowl from the BCS?

The Game Room
#1

There is a movement inside the NCAA to kick out the Fiesta Bowl from the BCS.

However, like anything with the NCAA, I smell something funny.

The University of Texas did NOT join the Pac 10 during the conference shake up. There happens to be a nice big stadium in Arlington, TX that is capable of holding a BCS bowl. This stadium also wants to restore its image after a botched Super Bowl.

Anyone else think there is a movement to give a BCS bowl game to Big 12 territory and take it away from Pac 10 territory?

Also, do you support taking away a BCS game from the Fiesta Bowl? I can’t think fans would really rather go to Dallas in January, where the weather can be very unpredicatable, instead of usually warm and sunny Phoenix.

#2

I hadn’t heard about this – what is the justification for dropping the Fiesta?

#3

The Fiesta has been hit hard with allegations of misusing funds. Strippers, political lobbying, bribes, all that jazz.

#4

Stories on SI.com about the scandal:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/ncaa/03/29/fiesta-bowl-junker/index.html?eref=sihp
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/ncaa/03/29/fiesta-bowl-junker.ap/index.html

#5

This. The CEO of the Fiesta Bowl was just fired for a bunch of things, the worst of them probably being that he used the bowl’s money to reimburse employees for donations to politicians.

#6

I think this is less about re-elevating the Cotton Bowl (although, I think that would be the top choice to replace the Fiesta Bowl if the worse case cames down) and more about the BCS wanting to get as far from this scandal as possible.

I think it is fair of the BCS to require the Fiesta Bowl to defend why it shouldn’t be dropped as a BCS bowl.

#7

The Pac-10 would still have the Rose Bowl. They should replace the Fiesta with a bowl game in Big 10 country. The, uh… Motor City Bowl! That’s the ticket! And you’ll be helping revitalize a struggling city.

Ok, seriously, the Cotton Bowl is probably a better choice if for some reason you don’t want to go to Detroit in the middle of the winter.

#8

I humbly submit my suggestion of the Penske Auto Brickyard Bowl, to be held in Indianapolis.

#9

Bah. Just trash the BCS entirely, and recognize the SEC Champion as the National Champion. What is it now…Five in a row?
:smiley:

#10

What was the most recent national championship game, a 3 point, last second win by the SEC champ over the PAC 10 champ? Only a fool or an SEC partisan would draw a lasting conclusion out of that. :wink:

#11

Ah yes, Auburn, a wholly legitimate national champion with absolutely no suggestions of impropriety. :rolleyes:

#12

I would like to blow up the BCS as well.

I want my Big Ten vs Pac 10 Rose Bowl back!!!

The rest of you can all go to heck. :wink:

#13

That Rose Bowl is bogus anyway. It used to pit the best team in the east against the best team in the west.

Let’s go back to that.

And screw the fiesta bowl, anyway. Bring back the Cotton and have only 4 major bowls, like it should be. Rose, Sugar, Cotton and Orange Bowls. Except the actual Orange Bowl is now gone. demolished.

#14

The Fiesta Bowl has no affiliation with the Pac-10. In fact, the last time a Pac-10 team played in the game was in 2002.

The fact that the Cotton Bowl (Cowboys Stadium version) wants and will likely be included in any shake-up of the BCS bowl system has absolutely zero to do with the Super Bowl. The simple fact is that the Cotton Bowl is a historically more noteworthy game. They have wanted the game back long before the “botched Super Bowl”.

Also, considering the Cotton Bowl this year had better attendance than any Fiesta Bowl in history despite it being a lower tier bowl, I’d say it will do just fine attendance wise. Personally, I doubt either Phoenix or Dallas are top destinations for fans. I’ve been to the Fiesta Bowl back when it was in Tempe and now that it is in Glendale. I’ve been to the Cotton Bowl at the Cotton Bowl stadium and now at Cowboys Stadium. The best location for an overall fan experience to me is the old Cotton Bowl by far. With any of the other locations you have to deal with the significantly annoying factor of the stadium being too damn far away from where people stay or go out at night.

Finally, the Fiesta Bowl has been mired in fraud for a while now. It really has no business being a top tier game. The Cotton Bowl isn’t perfect, but it is a far better choice.

#15

Lest we forget, prior to the 1986 college football season, the Fiesta Bowl was a MINOR bowl game.

How did it surpass the Cotton Bowl to become one of the BIG games? Well ,the Southwestern Conference had been in decline for quite a while, so the Cotton Bowl was sliding toward irrelevance to begin with. But the big thing is, in 1986, the two best college football teams were undefeated Penn State and undefeated Miami, which were both independent schools in those days.

Back then, all the major bowl games gave automatic invitations to one of more conference champions, which meant that NONE of the major bowl games could give America the championship matchup we all wanted. That left an opening for a formerly minor bowl game that had no ties to any conferences.

The Fiesta Bowl was able to pit Penn State against Miami, and that was a game EVERYONE watched. That game put the Fiesta Bowl on the map, and made it a huge game.

#16

Also, it needs to be pointed out to the OP that the NCAA has absolutely nothing to do with the BCS and its bowl system. They make no money from it, do not decide what teams go where, and are not a part of the system that rotates the national championship game. That is all done by the BCS which is made up of the big six conferences plus Notre Dame. The non-BCS bowls make their own selections of teams to compete (admittedly, there are some rules regarding what teams are eligible *vel non *to play in a bowl, such as a minimum number of wins and NCAA sanctions).