Disney Playoff Rejected : College football: Glitzy presentation touting Orange County as a permanent host to gamedoesn’t sway NCAA panel.

Despite heavy lobbying by the Walt Disney Co. and a host of high-power backers, the NCAA has vetoed a proposal aimed at making Orange County the permanent site of a Division I-A championship football game, it was disclosed Wednesday.

The NCAA has quelled further discussion for now of a Division I-A final in Orange County or anywhere else, said Jack Lindquist, the retired Disneyland president who heads efforts to create the bowl game.

The game would have featured the two top-ranked teams in a nationally televised showdown every January at Anaheim Stadium. Now, the soonest that such a game could be staged would be 1998, he said.

In the interim, Lindquist said his group will create a Disney Classic centered around another sport, possibly soccer or basketball, so that the group will be well-positioned against competing venues in case the NCAA reconsiders the issue.

“We can have an event, and we can demonstrate that Orange County can really put on a show like this and bring it off better than anywhere else,” Lindquist said.

Disney organized a sophisticated push for the “Disney Classic,” rounding up support from leaders in the arts and business.

A video produced in conjunction with ABC Sports, which wanted to televise the game, featured Disney Chairman Michael Eisner making a pitch to college presidents. In addition, The Times’ marketing department produced a special, full-color newspaper circular that was sent to the colleges outlining plans for the event.

ABC and The Times were joined as co-sponsors by prominent Orange County companies such as engineering giant Fluor Corp., and developers Irvine Co. and C.J. Segerstrom & Sons.

To make the event more palatable to the majority of universities that are not major football powers, Disney proposed a week or more of events showcasing artists, musicians and scholars from all of the schools. Each of the 104 Division I-A schools would also be guaranteed at least $75,000 in proceeds.

“We’ve offered a platform for Division I universities to talk about their whole stories. The game is an important part of that, but not the whole story,” said Steve Clark, a Tustin-based themed entertainment consultant and former Disney executive working with Lindquist.

Still, it was the game that attracted the NCAA’s attention. An NCAA committee chaired by UCLA Chancellor Charles Young considered the issue last month in Kansas City, but never resolved the issue that has been a matter of controversy for decades. “It may take a little time, or a lot,” Young said.

Only Division I-A football, unlike any other college or professional sports, decides its champion through polls.

The television and attendance revenue alone from championship games is staggering. The bowls collectively earned $36 million from TV rights and $88 million in gross receipts last season.

Yet colleges are clearly divided on the issue.

The Disney proposal was aimed at bridging the gap between Division I-A powers and lesser teams. Yet even with the extraordinary organizing effort and a package that gave a little to everybody, the Disney-backed proposal didn’t fly when an NCAA committee of athletic directors met last month in Florida.

It was there that the Disney Classic executives learned their ideas would not be considered at the NCAA convention, which meets in January, said Troy Lindquist, son of Jack and the group’s marketing director.

That led to the current fallback position of going ahead with the Disney Classic in another form, and holding out hope that it could make Orange County a leading contender to have the matter reconsidered by the NCAA.

Possibilities include a championship soccer game at Cal State Fullerton’s new stadium, or a national college basketball game at The Pond of Anaheim, home to the Mighty Ducks. The arena already will be home to the John Wooden Classic, which will pit Kentucky against UCLA and Kansas against Massachusetts on Dec. 3.

Jack Lindquist said the college arts and scholastic events would still be held in conjunction with the championship game. But the scaled-backed athletic event would not generate as much money, so the budget would have to be pared.

“We certainly would not have the TV blockbuster we did,” he said. “ABC is going to have to look over the sports package we bring them and determine what it’s worth.”