Holiday Bowl Guarantees Participants $1 Million

The Holiday Bowl announced Monday a guaranteed payoff of a minimum of $1 million to each participating team in this year’s game, an increase from 1988’s payoff of $907,613 to Oklahoma State and Wyoming.

In 1978, the Holiday Bowl’s first year, Navy and Brigham Young each received $218,645.

Bruce Moore, 1989 Holiday Bowl President, also announced a new agreement with ESPN which extends the original deal with the network through 1993. The Holiday Bowl and ESPN originally signed a three-year deal in 1987.

No terms of the new television contract with ESPN were disclosed. Last year’s game earned a 6.1 rating on ESPN, making it the second-most watched event outside of NFL games in the history of the network.

Finally, Moore said that the 1989 Holiday Bowl is sold out--the earliest sellout in the 11-year history of the game. More than 40,000 tickets have been sold, and the Holiday Bowl is required by the NCAA to hold 20,000 tickets for the participating teams.

This year’s game will match the champion of the Western Athletic Conference with an at-large team.