Posted on 03/10/2010 12:59:57 PM PST by MplsSteve
The first Pinstripe Bowl will be played at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 30 and will be televised by ESPN.
The game will include the No. 3 team in the Big East and the No. 6 school in the Big 12, excluding Bowl Championship Series participants.
"I think no matter what the sport, every kid who grows up wants to play at Yankee Stadium," Yankees president Randy Levine said Tuesday.
If the bowl had been played last season, the Yankees said Rutgers and Texas A&M would have been the participants. If one of the conferences cannot fill its bowl slot, Notre Dame could be considered.
ESPN agreed to a six-year contract to televise the first bowl in the Northeast since the 1981 Garden State Bowl at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. This will be the first bowl game at Yankee Stadium since Nebraska defeated Miami 36-34 at the old ballpark on Dec. 15, 1962.
"It does give us instant credibility and instant recognition," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said.
New Era Cap Co. Inc., known primarily as the supplier of major league caps, agreed to a four-year deal to be the title sponsor in its most notable venture outside baseball.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
I may be in the minority on this one but I'm not totally opposed to it. I do enjoy a number of these games. In fact, a case could be made that some of the lower-tier bowl games were more exciting the mid-sized and large bowl games.
The marketplace will decide whether these lower-tier bowl games can succeed economically. In the case of the Pinstripe Bowl, one of the conferences will be the Big East. Most of those schools are geoghraphically close enough to NY so they can travel easily.
Comments or opinions - anyone?
College Football PING?
Sure to be a cold one!
“I think no matter what the sport, every kid who grows up wants to play at Yankee Stadium,” Yankees president Randy Levine said Tuesday.
Good Grief. The NY’ers are so full of themselves. I do not like NY and would never want to go there. Ever.
Now Wrigley Field, maybe.
Gonna look very weird from the air. That stadium is NOT shaped well for football.
ML/NJ
Good Grief. The NY’ers are so full of themselves. I do not like NY and would never want to go there. Ever.
The only reason to go to Yankee Stadium is to beat the Yankees like a rented mule.
While by and large I agree with you Steve, I’ve never felt too comfortable with having a rash of 6-6 teams going to bowl games. The thinking here is that it perhaps is a reward for mediocrity and average play. As you said though, the market will ultimately decide if bowl games like these will pan out in the long term.
In my neck of the woods, the Humanitarian Bowl might not survive beyond this season as none of the conferences in this half of the country want to send their schools here outside of the WAC, so you’re going to have a team from the other side of the country come here and they won’t bring any fans out here.
The first biography I ever read was on Lou Gehrig. They should sell pickled eels at the game.
I agree.
Last year’s Humanitarian Bowl was a classic example. I’d have been surprised if even 10% of ticket sales were from Miami of Ohio fans/alumni.
Why wouldn’t the Mountain West be interested in a possible tie-in with the Humanitarian Bowl?
Geographically, it makes sense. Some of these bowls need to think more regionally if possible. For example, a tie-in with the Mountain West Conference might not be a bad thing for the Humanitarian Bowl. It’s better than inviting (for example) Ball State or NC State.
gnip
A lot of the fans in our conference have complained vociferously about the current bowl tie-ins the MWC has and the league actually had a tie-in to the H-Bowl last year, but due to TCU going to the BCS, the MWC didn’t have enough bowl eligible teams, so that left the MAC to bring one of their schools out here. But I did hear from a lot of the league’s fans out in cyberspace that they wanted nothing to do with the Humanitarian Bowl. (The program and athletic depts. themselves thought otherwise though. Fans will be fans I guess).
I don’t think a lot of the fan bases are big enough—or will travel well enough—outside of the Utah schools to bring enough fans. Wyoming would probably travel very well here, but I’m not entirely sure about anyone else, as the MWC would indeed be sending a 5th place team. That having been said, if TCU hadn’t played in a BCS game in ‘09 and Wyoming had come here to play Idaho, there would have been a huge crowd for that game, I would assume.
Well I think there is a real chance the International bowl wont survive. Unless Buffalo starts making bowls every year they just can’t get the draw.
Thats on reason the MAC jumped all over the humanitarian bowl even though its a pretty expensive proposition for MAC fans to travel to Boise..
“Last year’s Humanitarian Bowl was a classic example. I’d have been surprised if even 10% of ticket sales were from Miami of Ohio fans/alumni.”
Me too, especially considering it was Bowling Green representing the MAC..
The bowl did great on TV and really, thats a home game for Boise/WAC, even if you had the MWC or PAC10 or Big-12 if Boise is not in a BCS bowl, they can play the H-Bowl and sell it out for their own colors.
DOH! I meant to say Bowling Green, not Miami of Ohio.
Hell, both schools are geographically close to one another so I do get a half point of credit for being close...don’t I? :)
These lower-tier bowls will be great for the first round of playoffs when the NCAA finally adopts a playoff system.
That’s one theory that has been bandied around if the NCAA would switch to a play-off format.
And all in all, it’s not a bad idea.
On a side note, there is a group that would collectively hold a Jonestown-style mass suicide if a play-off system were ever implemented. Take a look at this site:
http://www.footballbowlassociation.com/
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