Other Bowls Seem Impressed, Not Threatened by Fiesta’s Coup

If they weren’t doing somersaults in Miami or Dallas or New Orleans or Pasadena Monday, then neither were they forecasting doom and gloom.

On the whole, the folks in charge of college football’s traditional big four bowl games--the Orange, Cotton, Sugar and Rose--accepted with equanimity, if not with glee, the Fiesta Bowl’s apparent coup in landing what probably will be the national championship game between Miami and Penn State Jan. 2.

In fact, the executive directors of at least two of the major bowls said that the Fiesta Bowl, and NBC, would help them by moving the game off New Year’s Day.

As for the long-term meaning of the Fiesta Bowl’s action, whether it marks the first crumbling in the traditional bowl structure, whether it promotes the cause of collegiate playoffs and whether it will lead to a bidding war in years to come, none of the four persons contacted appeared particularly concerned.

That’s because they see this year as a one-shot deal, the result of a unique set of circumstances that has allowed two independent schools to rise to the top of the collegiate football pile.

Only Jim Brock, executive president of the Cotton Bowl, seemed in the least bit perturbed.

“I’m not sure it’s in the best interests of college football,” Brock said by telephone from the Cotton Bowl offices in Dallas.

“We feel like it has some possible effect on the present bowl structure, particularly if the playoff talk gets started up again.

“We as a bowl group are totally opposed (to playoffs), but you can’t keep your head in the sand forever. I’m not saying that’s good or bad. I just can’t imagine anyone in their right mind wanting to destroy a bowl system that has been so good to college athletics.”

Is the present bowl structure really threatened?

“I don’t think so,” said Mickey Holmes, executive director of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. “I don’t think so at all.

“I don’t think (the Fiesta Bowl attracting the top two teams with an offer of $2.4 million apiece) is a trend-setter when you stop and look at it from a law-of-averages standpoint.”

Holmes pointed out that the four big bowls have contracts tying them to various conferences, meaning that teams in the Pacific 10, Big Ten, Southwest, Southeastern and Big Eight conferences already are committed. The chances are better than average that the prospective national champion--and hence the most attractive bowl team--will come from one of those conferences, Holmes said.

“You’re talking about 47 (teams) right there,” he said. “And year in and year out, there aren’t going to be but a couple or three really hot independents or free-lance-type situations.

“I don’t think this is going to stampede any one of the four of us into discontinuing the relationship with our conferences.”

Similarly, Jack French, executive officer of the Rose Bowl, doubts that the Fiesta Bowl’s coup will substantially increase the drive for a playoff in college football.

“That threat has been there for many years,” he said. “A lot of people talk about it. I don’t think the Fiesta Bowl’s action in this case is going to affect that one way or the other. I don’t think it’s going to have that much of an impact.

“It’s simply a circumstantial thing that’s going to resolve a lot of problems for (Fiesta Bowl officials) this year and for Penn State and Miami.

“As far as going to Jan. 2, we think it’s absolutely a brilliant idea on the Fiesta Bowl’s part. It takes their game and separates it from the rest of the New Year’s Day games. I think NBC likes it because there’s less competition. It’s sitting out there all by itself in a national championship setting.

“(But) the chances of it ever happening again are pretty slim, at least on a regular basis.”

Both French and Holmes said switching the Fiesta Bowl to prime time on Jan. 2, where it will have no significant network competition, suits them fine, but for different reasons.

“It’s conceivable to me that it could have benefited us,” Holmes said of the Sugar Bowl game. “Sure, we’d like to have the ballgame, but we couldn’t pursue it because we’ve got a contract with the Southeastern Conference that we like very much.

“We tried our darndest right up until the end to split one or the other (Miami or Penn State) out and get them. But the Fiesta was open on both ends and they had the wherewithal to put it together. They put it together and they should be congratulated.

“The fact that it is on Jan. 2 in a way could help us because with our time slot (on New Year’s Day) we would have been up against the last quarter of that ballgame. That could have hurt from a ratings standpoint.”

And from the Rose Bowl’s French: “It means that NBC is going to be able to give us a full pregame show, and they’ll be able to start our kickoff right on time at 2 o’clock. It means that they will probably promote our game independently.

“I guess there is a downside of it, too. The Fiesta Bowl audience has traditionally given us a good lead-in audience to our game. On the other hand, we were upset when the Fiesta Bowl came onto New Year’s Day and came up ahead of us.”

That the Fiesta Bowl has offered a $2.4-million payoff to each team has not upset big four officials as much as the offering of less money to participants other than Miami and Penn State. All four were unanimous in deploring that.

Said Pete Williams, chairman of the Orange Bowl’s team selection committee: “I hope that we’re not getting into a bidding war.

“I think it’s beneficial to collegiate football if the bowls pay more money. I’m not opposed to that as long as the colleges and the universities and the administrations and athletic departments use the money wisely, which in my opinion is for the benefit of the athlete students.

“Therefore I can’t be opposed to somebody paying the equivalent money we do. I would feel better if everybody announced what they were doing and not make it contingent upon (which teams are playing).

“I’m very much opposed to paying some teams X number of dollars and other teams less. That’s insulting. That should not be a part of collegiate football.”

College football, money and television are so inextricably intertwined now, however, that only the naive believe the situation will ever reverse itself. Money is what it’s all about.

“I think we’ve been living with that for a long time,” the Rose Bowl’s French said. “As long as the (television) rights fees are significant in nature, that’s going to be with us ad infinitum. “

Or ad nauseum , depending on your viewpoint .