COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Major Bowl Games Have No Plans to Eliminate Conference Ties

In the giddy pursuit of better--and more profitable--college football match-ups, loyalty still counts with the New Year’s Day bowls. So far.

Despite the hype surrounding this year’s Jan. 2 Fiesta Bowl between two independents, the Rose, Orange, Cotton and Sugar bowls say they have no intention of eliminating their conference ties.

No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Penn State could not meet in the four traditional New Year’s Day bowls because each is committed to a designated conference champion.

“I haven’t heard of any bowl that is even considering severing their conference tie-in,” says Cotton Bowl Executive Vice President Jim Brock, whose game annually features the Southwest Conference champion. “Our contract with the SWC was entered in 1941, and we never even look back. Over the years, this game has meant $34 million to the conference schools. We’ve had our share of great teams in here and our share of title games. The Miami-Penn State match-up is a unique situation. Who knows when it’ll happen again?”

Bruce Skinner, executive director of the Fiesta Bowl, is thrilled it happened even once. Because of the interest generated by this unofficial college Super Bowl, the game has been pushed back a day to Jan. 2 and will be played during prime television hours.

“Right now, I think this championship match-up of independents is a one-year thing,” Skinner says. “A lot of conference champions are gonna end up No. 1 in the future and a lot of this business is sheer luck. I saw Penn State play three games--Notre Dame, Maryland and Cincinnati--it could have lost this year.

“If Penn State isn’t undefeated, then we don’t have this game. Being able to create our own match-ups without conference ties has given us great stability and flexibility. We feel the independent field is strong enough so we will always have a good match-up.”

This year’s Fiesta match-up was also coveted by the Florida Citrus Bowl and the Gator Bowl. But Fiesta officials doubled the payout to $2.4 million per team and accommodated a change of date.

“I don’t think this year’s situation will have one iota of effect on conference tie-ins,” says Charles McClendon, executive director of the American Football Coaches Assn. “This is one of those unusual situations that happen once in a while. I guess every 100 years we can afford it.”

The Rose Bowl, which can afford to triple the Fiesta payout, could not bid for the Miami-Penn State championship game. The Rose Bowl’s contract with the Pac-10 runs through 1992, and the Pac-10 has its own contract with the Big Ten.

“History will tell us if independents will again be No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation,” says Jack French, executive secretary and manager of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn. “Our game annually means 500-600 thousand to every team in the Pac-10 and the Big Ten, and we’re the only bowl on an annual basis that has two conference champions playing each other. We’re also tied into two of the largest television audiences in the country--the West Coast and the Midwest.”

The Orange Bowl, matching Big Eight champion Oklahoma against SWC runner-up Arkansas, has produced the national champion three of the last five years. The contract with the Big Eight runs through 1990.

“Since our tie-in with the Big Eight Conference, we’ve boasted a team ranked in the top three about 70% of the time, and that’s the type of team we’d go after in any occasion,” says Pete Williams, chairman of the Orange Bowl Selection Committee.

“We feel the conference tie-in is advantageous to us and to them. It assures the Big Eight of national exposure in a major bowl and we try to provide a worthy opponent for them. This championship game match-up runs in cycles, and each bowl gets its own heyday. We have been riding high this decade.”

Sugar Bowl Executive Director Mickey Holmes says the odds are stacked against two independents meeting in a national title game.

“The last time two undefeated teams without contractual ties met in the bowls came in 1973 when Notre Dame and Alabama played here in New Orleans,” Holmes says. “I don’t think there’s any reason to overreact.