Football: Florida could be hosting national bowl games

As if the prep football season isn’t long enough, now there’s a distinct possibility of Florida being the site for a series of national high school football bowl games to be televised the weekend after Christmas, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Paragon Marketing Group, which puts together high school events to be televised by ESPN Networks, is organizing the event that would match top football teams from Florida against other states on Dec. 27.

There would be three bowl games.

Of course, state organizations, such as the California Interscholastic Federation, would have to give approval for any team to participate.

“If I was a betting man, I don’t think our California schools would vote for it,” CIF Executive Director Roger Blake said.

The event proposal was discussed last week at a meeting of representatives from 11 Western states, according to Thom Simmons, the spokesman for the CIF Southern Section.

Would any CIF team really want to travel to Florida after playing its 15th game on Dec. 20 in the CIF state championship Open Division bowl game?

And is everyone forgetting that these are students first?

“I seriously doubt if Mater Dei would participate based on the holidays and the duration of the Southern Section campaign,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said

Twitter:@LATSondheimer