UCLA’s Alliance Bowl Bid Is Sugar-Coated

A scenario has been suggested to put UCLA into the Sugar Bowl game, and suddenly the Bruins and Pacific 10 Conference have become Auburn fans.

Or Texas A&M; fans.

Or both, for a day, anyway.

It all comes down to money, and the Pac-10 is willing to put up as much as $4 million to get the Bruins to New Orleans.

The Sugar Bowl is a bowl alliance game and pays $8.47 million to its participating teams. So after expenses, according to the Pac-10’s revenue-sharing formula, each conference school would earn about $750,000 for UCLA’s presence in the game.

Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen said Thursday that the conference’s athletic directors had agreed to subsidize trips for Bruin fans to the Sugar Bowl to sway the game’s organizers to offer UCLA a bid.

The idea is that they could get $300,000-$400,000 from an alliance bowl after the subsidy, or the money could go to the Big Ten, which has had Ohio State in the driver’s seat for the Sugar for several days.

The league has put together a $499 package for the trip, including air fare, three nights of hotel accommodations and a game ticket.

The Pac-10 is soliciting bids from travel companies to determine what the entire package would actually cost, and Duane Lindberg of the conference office indicated the price probably would run $800-$900.

That would mean a subsidy of $301-$401 per fan, and New Orleans organizers have been told to expect as many as 10,000 from a team that has never sent more than 4,000 to an out-of-town bowl game.

“We’ve talked about that,” said Hansen, “and we reminded them that we’ve never had a team in the Sugar Bowl. And we’ve only had one team in the Orange Bowl, Washington in ’84.”

They have caught the Sugar Bowl’s attention.

Paul Hoolahan, executive director of the New Orleans game, said Thursday that Sugar Bowl officials have been favorably impressed by people aligned with the Pac-10 and UCLA in the game, and he presented the bowl committee with several possibilities at a Thursday night meeting.

One of those would have Auburn playing the Bruins on New Year’s night in the Sugar if the Tigers are able to beat Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday in Atlanta. That would put Nebraska and Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

Another would have UCLA playing Texas A&M; in the Sugar if the Aggies can beat Nebraska. Florida State would move to the Orange Bowl to play Tennessee.

Should both Auburn and Texas A&M; win, there’s a strong possibility that Florida State would move to No. 2 in the polls and UCLA to No. 3, with the two meeting in the Orange Bowl.

“It’s obvious that the Pac-10 has decided to put its best foot forward in an effort to get UCLA in our game,” Hoolahan said. “Big things have happened here. There’s nothing set, yet, but big things have happened.”

As it currently stands, if Nebraska and Tennessee win conference championship games Saturday, they will meet in the Orange Bowl.

That scenario puts Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, probably against Ohio State, and UCLA playing Texas A&M; in the Cotton Bowl.

At issue is the ability to fill New Orleans’ hotel rooms and restaurants, which is part of the charter given the Sugar Bowl organizers.

Auburn would bring thousands of fans to New Orleans, making it possible for the Sugar to take a chance on UCLA.

But Florida State would not travel well to New Orleans, because of its proximity to the city, and that would demand a proven bowl draw, probably Ohio State.

To sweeten the Bruins’ case for the Sugar, the Pac-10 and UCLA have put together a package on UCLA showing that:

* The Bruins drew 85,697 for their game against Washington in the Rose Bowl.

* UCLA’s game at Stanford drew about 10,000 more than the Cardinal’s game against Oregon four weeks before at Palo Alto.

* The Bruins’ average attendance, 54,588, was the second-largest of any season since 1967 in which they didn’t have USC for a home game.

* UCLA has 5,000 alumni in Louisiana and Texas, and 14,000 in the Southeast.

* UCLA has never played in a bowl, other than the Rose, in which it had longer than a two-game winning streak. The fifth-ranked Bruins have won nine consecutive games.

Should UCLA be invited to the Orange or Sugar bowls, it would start a chain reaction throughout the Pac-10 and its bowl commitments.

Arizona State would move to the Cotton Bowl, playing either Kansas State or Texas A&M; Washington to the Sun, against either Notre Dame or Iowa; and probably USC to the Aloha Bowl, playing Michigan State.