Delany: Big Ten faces geographic disadvantage in bowls

Florida defensive end Jarvis Moss (94) forces a fumble against Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith (10) in the BCS title game at Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

The Big Ten has lost its last six Bowl Championship Series games by an average score of 17.3 points.

The Big Ten is 6-16 in bowl games over the same three-year period. The league won only one bowl last year in Iowa’s 31-10 thrashing of South Carolina in the Outback Bowl.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has not shied from controversy, especially when it relates to his conference’s bowl record. After a 2-5 bowl showing following the 2006 season, Delany took exception to a story that discussed the league’s lack of talent. He even wrote a letter on the league’s Web site that touted the Big Ten’s strengths against the Southeastern Conference.

When discussing the league’s potential for changing its bowl lineup, Delany said the league is almost at a disadvantage when playing bowl games from a geographic perspective.

“I know that from time to time people say you haven’t won enough bowl games,” he said. “Well, not everybody is playing Pac-10 champ in Pasadena. Not everybody is playing the SEC in Orlando and Orlando (Capital One and Champs) and formerly in Nashville (Music City). Not everybody is playing the Southwest Conference (former Big 12 teams) in Texas and Arizona. So it’s been part of our brand to play the best, and just let the chips fall where they may.”

Delany also said competition remains the key factor, not the final result, in picking bowl locations.

“I think opponents are almost one, and location two,” he said. “While these are away competitive locations, they’re not away in terms of where our alums have chosen to retire. They’re not away in terms of where recruiting advantages lie. They’re not away with regard to where our fans like to spend four or five days. But they are away competitively.

“Our teams are built for September and October and December, but they’re also built for late October and November. I think our teams have very good speed, whether or not they have the best speed that you might see in places where the game is always played in good weather.

“I think that if you look at NFL rosters, half of the NFL is played in cold weather, while the bowl games are not. There’s certainly a case to be made by anybody who’s playing for the Cleveland Browns, the Giants, the Patriots, the Packers, etc., on the value of playing in both weather climates.”

Big Ten officials will discuss the league’s bowl lineup this week in their annual meetings. Five of the league’s bowl contracts expire after the season. Those include the Capital One,  Outback, Champs, Alamo and Motor City bowls. The league has four years remaining on contracts with the Rose and Insight bowls.

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Big Ten officials to assess bowl lineup

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz answers questions from the media during a press conference December 29, 2006 in San Antonio. Iowa and Texas played in the 2006 Alamo Bowl.

CHICAGO — The Big Ten’s future bowl lineup could receive a radical — or reserved — makeover this week when league officials, administrators and football coaches conduct their annual meetings.

Five of the league’s seven contracted bowls are up for renewal following the 2009 season. League officials plan to discuss each bowl this week, and Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said the league will “explore the (bowl) landscape.”

“We keep in touch with our incumbents,” Delany said. “We really can’t engage in negotiations with others normally under most of the agreements until we engage in good faith negotiations with the incumbents. We can look around, chit chat, find out if there are others that might be interested, but we can’t engage in any sort of serious discussion on business issues until we go through the process with our own.”

The Big Ten has agreements with the Rose Bowl and the Insight Bowl (Phoenix area) until 2013. Bowls up for renewal after the 2009 season include the Capital One and Champs Sports (Orlando, Fla.), Outback (Tampa, Fla.), Alamo (San Antonio) and Motor City (Detroit). The Big Ten’s champion automatically qualifies for the Bowl Championship Series, which includes the Rose Bowl. The league’s runner-up — if it does not qualify for a second BCS bowl — is designated for the Capital One Bowl. The Outback Bowl receives the third team, followed by either the Alamo Bowl or Champs Sports Bowl, then the Insight and Motor City bowls. Last year’s bowls totaled nearly $35 million in revenue for league schools.

The Big Ten last renegotiated bowl contracts in 2005 when it added the Champs and Insight bowls and dropped the Music City (Nashville, Tenn.) and Sun (El Paso, Texas) from its bowl lineup. Delany said at the time the league wanted to add destinations that cater to alumni, many of whom live in Arizona and Florida.

“I have to say we love our alignment,” Delany said. “It’s been good to us. We’ve adjusted from time to time, and even when we’ve adjusted in the past it’s always difficult.

“We never really had a bad bowl relationship. It’s just whether or not find better ones, whether you can improve your lot.”

The Big Ten became one of the first leagues to secure a tie-in for a non-champion when it sent its runner-up to the Holiday Bowl in 1986. The league ended that agreement in 1994, the same year it secured Capital One and Outback bowl agreements. The league began its relationship with the Alamo Bowl one year later.

The league’s contract with the Capital One Bowl earns the league nearly $4.25 million, the top payout among non-BCS bowl games. But Orlando’s 73-year-old stadium’s potential $175 million renovation has stalled, according to the Orlando Sentinel.  The paper reports a slowdown in tourism taxes have placed the project on that community’s back shelf for possibly 10 more years. The Champs Bowl also is played at the same stadium.

“The first thing the commissioners told me was ‘I thought you guys had approved renovation of the stadium. I don’t think you guys realize how important this is for us,'” Florida Citrus Sports chief executive officer Steve Hogan told the paper. ” … I didn’t expect to be shocked as I was about how pointed and concerned our existing sponsors are right now.”

 “We’ve been watching it for a long time,” Delany said. “We’ve been encouraging the city, the bowl, the Florida Citrus Association just to make progress, to move forward, because anybody that follows the college game, whether it’s in urban areas or on campus, facilities have been improving over the last 10, 15, 20 years. We’ve been encouraging that. That will be a factor. How big a factor? It’s to be determined.”

Alamo Bowl continues climb to prominence

Iowa quarterback Drew Tate (5) congratulates Texas quarterback Colt McCoy (12) following Iowa's 26-24 loss in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 30, 2006 in San Antonio, Texas. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

The Alamo Bowl annually picks fourth or fifth among the Big Ten and Big 12’s bowl-eligible teams. But some of those middle-of-the-road school have produced top-tier performances in television viewership and attendance.

In 2006, the Iowa-Texas game posted the best TV ratings of any non-BCS bowl game that season. It was a Saturday night contest and posted a bowl-record 5.99 rating for ESPN, less than 1 full point behind the Orange Bowl that season.

In 2005, the Nebraska-Michigan game also earned the top TV ratings for any non-BCS bowl game in 2005. Both years, the Alamo Bowl blasted past New Year’s Day tradition-rich bowls such as the Cotton, Capital One, Outback and Gator in TV ratings.

The Alamo Bowl now will parlay those impressive ratings into an even better time slot. The Alamo Bowl has joined the New Year’s lineup, playing its game at 7 p.m. Jan. 2, a Saturday. There are five bowl games on Jan. 1 — Outback, Gator, Capital One, Rose and Sugar. Four bowl games are scheduled for Jan. 2 — Cotton, International, Papajohns and Alamo. There’s no BCS bowl scheduled that night, which gives the Alamo the entire spotlight. Only an NFL scheduling curveball could keep the Alamo Bowl from record-breaking ratings.

“This year’s calendar has provided us an excellent primetime Saturday time slot that will allow the Valero Alamo Bowl to reach a wide audience,” said Alamo Bowl President Derrick Fox. “The January 2 date should also work well for people traveling to the game as they can celebrate Christmas at home and then spend a long weekend ringing in the New Year in San Antonio.”

Iowa has played in the bowl four times since its debut in 1993. Iowa has beaten Texas Tech twice (1996, 2001) while losing to California (1993) and Texas in 2006.

The placement appears to be a win-win for the bowl and the participatory leagues in terms of exposure. Past Big Ten schools, such as Northwestern in 2008, looked at the Alamo Bowl as slap. Now, with a primetime slot in January, the Alamo Bowl seems more equal with the Big Ten’s other slotted bowls.

Look for the bowl to push both leagues for marketable teams, both geographically (Big 12 South) and from a national television perspective (say, Wisconsin or Iowa over Northwestern or Purdue). If the bowl can get a high-profile matchup, like in 2005 or 2006, it may be hard to bump the Alamo Bowl from the New Year’s Day lineup.

Primetime games in Iowa football’s forecast; Angerer up for award, Alamo now January bowl

University of Iowa students cheer for their team while they walked off the field after Iowa played Ohio State on Sept. 30, 2006.

Iowa officials say at least two Iowa football games this fall are being considered for primetime on ABC.

The two mentioned include Iowa’s Sept. 19 game against Arizona and then Sept. 26 game at Penn State, Iowa officials have said. The official primetime schedule has not been released.

Iowa (9-4 last fall) likely will have day games at home against Michigan (Oct. 10) and at Wisconsin (Oct. 17). Both games are homecoming matchups, and the schools avoid primetime for homecoming week, the officials said.

Of Iowa’s 13 games last year, only one — the regular-season finale at Minnesota— was played in primetime. Iowa played seven games on the Big Ten Network, four games on the ESPN family of networks and twice on ABC. This fall, Iowa hosts seven games and travels for five. Iowa has played in primetime four times since 2006 – twice on the Big Ten Network and twice on ABC. Two of those games were at Kinnick Stadium.

 As for Iowa’s schedule, it rivals many of the toughest in the nation. Iowa’s opponents finished 87-67 last year. Iowa faces seven bowl teams, including three on the road that played in January 1 or BCS bowls. Iowa plays only three teams with losing records last year — Iowa State, Michigan and Indiana — all of whom have beaten Iowa at least once since 2006.

Iowa opens against Northern Iowa (12-3 last year), which lost in the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals last December. It’s possible Iowa may win the game but not by a comfortable score to secure a high poll position.

Iowa then travels to Iowa State (2-10), a place Iowa had not won since 2003. Iowa has lost four of its last five at Iowa State.

“We pick up UNI, which obviously is a good football team,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “We just have to look back to 2005 (a 45-21 Iowa win). They were a tough, competitive team and had great success and continue to have great success. Iowa State is always a tough game for both teams.”

Iowa then host Arizona(8-5), which beat a 10-3 Brigham Young team in the Las Vegas Bowl. Iowa’s final non-conference game — which comes one week after the Big Ten opener — is against Arkansas State (6-6), which upset Texas A&M last year.

Iowa hosts Northwestern (9-4, Alamo Bowl), Minnesota (7-6, Insight Bowl), Michigan (3-9) and Indiana (3-9) in Big Ten play. Iowa’s road Big Ten schedule is treacherous, where teams went 37-15 last year. Iowa plays at Penn State (11-2, Rose Bowl), Ohio State (10-3, Fiesta Bowl), Michigan State (9-4, Capital One Bowl) and Wisconsin (7-6, Champs Bowl). Iowa has lost the last five at Ohio State, last four at Michigan State and its last game at Penn State and Wisconsin, respectively.

Ferentz said he hasn’t thought much about the schedule.

“The Big Ten is always going to be a challenge,” he said. “Right now, I’m not too worried about it. We’ll move into that once we get through spring ball.”

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The Alamo Bowl announced today it will play in primetime on Saturday, Jan. 2 on ESPN. The San Antonio-based bowl now makes four Big Ten bowls on either Jan. 1 or Jan. 2.

“This year’s calendar has provided us an excellent prime time Saturday time slot that will allow the Valero Alamo Bowl to reach a wide audience,” said Derrick Fox, Valero Alamo Bowl President/CEO. “The January 2 date should also work well for people traveling to the game as they can celebrate Christmas at home and then spend a long weekend ringing in the New Year in San Antonio.”

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Iowa middle linebacker Pat Angerer was named to the 2009 Lott Trophy Watch List. The Lott Award is given to the nation’s best defensive player.