ESPN driving decision according to article. From the article... ...
• • •
Of the five bowls in which Conference USA held a guaranteed berth, four are owned and operated by ESPN Events (essentially, a newer name for ESPN Regional Television). Besides the Boca bowl, ESPN owns the Heart of Dallas, New Mexico and Hawaii bowls. The Bahamas Bowl is C-USA's other partner this season.
The point here: Marshall didn't have the lone say when it came to its bowl destination.
ESPN has a big hand in the expansion of the bowl roster, as it owns and operates 11 of them. And why shouldn't they? The games draws bigger ratings than anything else they can plug into 3 ½ hours of a December night.
Alfred White, senior associate commissioner of C-USA, said bowl discussion begins on the first Tuesday in November with the first of a series of teleconferences. Commissioner Britton Banowsky is the ultimate liaison between the schools, the bowls and the TV partners.
As schools fail to become bowl-eligible and the time for the bowl version of Selection Sunday draws closer, the process gains steam.
White described it: "We ask our schools to give preferences and then we ask our bowl partners to give preferences, with everybody having a full understanding that the our bowl partners' preferences probably have priority over the schools' preferences."
"Then the third part is the whole business aspect, of whether or not a team flies or drives, or whether a team can have their fans getting to the site of the bowl, and sell tickets. It's really why the business aspect is such a major part of it. As a group, our athletics directors talk, and they want the ability to have revenue at the end, to distribute amongst the entire membership.
"So you can make everybody fly, and you don't give the schools' fans a chance to buy tickets; at the end of the day, no money to distribute to the schools. And it's not a good business decision for the conference in general, and the schools in particular."
To translate a little: With C-USA flying a team to Hawaii and a team to the Bahamas, it made sense to send Texas-El Paso to Albuquerque and Louisiana Tech to Dallas, both within a few hours by bus.
That left the Boca Raton Bowl, and the opportunity to put together an intriguing matchup of conference champions, Marshall and Northern Illinois. The schools were enthusiastic, yes, but ESPN may have been happier.
"I think ESPN wanted to have a champion-vs.-champion matchup in one of their games," White said. "Having a business partner like them is very valuable to us. There wasn't substantial pushback so we were good with making our partner happy."
The rest of the article...
http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141218/GZ02/141219197/1144
• • •
Of the five bowls in which Conference USA held a guaranteed berth, four are owned and operated by ESPN Events (essentially, a newer name for ESPN Regional Television). Besides the Boca bowl, ESPN owns the Heart of Dallas, New Mexico and Hawaii bowls. The Bahamas Bowl is C-USA's other partner this season.
The point here: Marshall didn't have the lone say when it came to its bowl destination.
ESPN has a big hand in the expansion of the bowl roster, as it owns and operates 11 of them. And why shouldn't they? The games draws bigger ratings than anything else they can plug into 3 ½ hours of a December night.
Alfred White, senior associate commissioner of C-USA, said bowl discussion begins on the first Tuesday in November with the first of a series of teleconferences. Commissioner Britton Banowsky is the ultimate liaison between the schools, the bowls and the TV partners.
As schools fail to become bowl-eligible and the time for the bowl version of Selection Sunday draws closer, the process gains steam.
White described it: "We ask our schools to give preferences and then we ask our bowl partners to give preferences, with everybody having a full understanding that the our bowl partners' preferences probably have priority over the schools' preferences."
"Then the third part is the whole business aspect, of whether or not a team flies or drives, or whether a team can have their fans getting to the site of the bowl, and sell tickets. It's really why the business aspect is such a major part of it. As a group, our athletics directors talk, and they want the ability to have revenue at the end, to distribute amongst the entire membership.
"So you can make everybody fly, and you don't give the schools' fans a chance to buy tickets; at the end of the day, no money to distribute to the schools. And it's not a good business decision for the conference in general, and the schools in particular."
To translate a little: With C-USA flying a team to Hawaii and a team to the Bahamas, it made sense to send Texas-El Paso to Albuquerque and Louisiana Tech to Dallas, both within a few hours by bus.
That left the Boca Raton Bowl, and the opportunity to put together an intriguing matchup of conference champions, Marshall and Northern Illinois. The schools were enthusiastic, yes, but ESPN may have been happier.
"I think ESPN wanted to have a champion-vs.-champion matchup in one of their games," White said. "Having a business partner like them is very valuable to us. There wasn't substantial pushback so we were good with making our partner happy."
The rest of the article...
http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141218/GZ02/141219197/1144
