Coach Says He’s Burned by Bowl Selection Process

Tom Kinnard worked for most of two years setting up last year’s Chevron-Mechanics Bank Bowl at the Contra Costa College campus in San Pablo, Calif.

The football coach wanted the bowl game to bring pride to the community in which he was raised. He got big-money sponsors. He got a game.

He says he got burned.

“It was disasterous,” Kinnard said. “What happened is the state playoff committee wanted us to take all the risk and for them to call the shots. They went into a bowl concept with a state playoff foundation.”

The state selects its bowl teams based on a list of six criteria. Overall finish is the top consideration; location is another.

Kinnard, like Pierce’s Bob O’Connor, wanted the bowl to be for local teams. He got half of his wish.

Laney, a third-place team from the Golden Gate Conference, was invited. Contra Costa, which finished third in the Camino Norte Conference--losing the championship in its final league game--was not. Nor were any other teams from the local vicinty.

Instead, Sacramento City College, perhaps the best team in Northern California, second-place finishers in the CNC and 80 miles away, got the invitation.

“As soon as they named Sacramento as Laney’s opponent, it killed the game,” Kinnard said. “Laney had a good team, but they weren’t in Sac City’s class. People turned off to the game because it was a total mismatch.”

The numbers back Kinnard. Sacramento City opened a 35-0 lead in the first period, and won, 42-13, in front of less than 1,500 fans.

The bowl will be played again this year, but Kinnard won’t be involved. “I’ve detached myself from the whole thing,” he said. “I want to play in the game, but it looks like I’m promoting the game for us, which I’m not.”