7/7 Roundtable - The 5th BCS Game Will Be ...

7/7 Roundtable - If the BCS adds another game, which bowl deserves it? It's the Tuesday topic in the CFN Daily Roundtable Discussion.

CFN Daily Roundtables

July 7

If the BCS adds another game, which bowl deserves it?

Over the next several weeks, as part of the CFN 2009 Preview, we'll examine some of the key questions going into the year with a daily discussion of the big topics.

Past Roundtables
July 6 Should the SEC get the benefit of the doubt?
July 3 Why there should be a playoff
July 2 Why there shouldn't be a playoff?
July 1 The most unbreakable record is ... ?
June 30 Does it matter that the BCS is going to ESPN?
June 29 What's the best non-BCS program?
June 26 What rule would you like to see changed?
June 25 What is wrong with the Big Ten?
June 24 The 3 big non-conference games
June 23 The Coach On The Biggest Hot Seat Is ... ?
June 22 The No. 5 team will be ... ?
June 19 The most underrated team will be ... ?
June 18 The most overrated team will be ... ?
June 17 The sleeper national title teams
June 16 Do 40 times really matter?
June 15 Does college football need a Rooney Rule?
June 12 Should Alabama vacate wins?
June 11 Should college football players be paid?
June 10 Is the recruiting hype too much?
June 9 If you were starting an NFL team ...
June 8 Where would you take over as head coach?
June 5 Who does the least with the most?
June 4 Who does the most with the least?
June 3 The star players of September
June 2 The star teams of September
June 1 The coach you'd want for one game
May 28 Should the Big Ten expand, and if so, then what team should be added?
May 27 Should the Pac 10 expand? If so, then what two teams should be added?
May 26 Chizik, Kiffin or Mullen?
May 25 Heisman race sleepers 
May 22 2009's most interesting teams
May 21 Is Tebow the best QB ever?
May 20 When should preseason polls come out?
May 19 Does 2008 Utah have a beef?
May 18 No BCS, No Weis?

Pete Fiutak, CFN

Yes, I'm part of the problem. You can check me out at twitter.com/CFN_Fiu and find out future roundtable topics and other random musings.

Q: If the BCS adds another game, which bowl deserves it?

A: The obvious choice is the Cotton Bowl, with a perfect mix of tradition to go along with Jerry Jones' new funhouse, but that's probably never going to happen as long as Fox has the broadcast rights. Besides, it's not always warm in Dallas in January.

The next best option would seem to be the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, but what's the point in having another BCS game in the south if it's going to be in a dome?

The Holiday Bowl in San Diego might be perfect. Ask anyone who covers the NFL what their favorite Super Bowl destination is, and if they've been doing the job long enough to have gone through the experience of dealing with Super Bowls in Miami and New Orleans, they'll take the winter trip to San Diego every time. However, I have a better option.

Personally, I'd like to see a new bowl created and have it rotate among northern cities. The media would whine, but the media always whines. However, it would give more fans a chance to see a big college game.

The NFL plays playoff games in the cold, so why can't there be a BCS game in Soldier Field in Chicago? How about in Giants Stadium outside of New York City? A dome could be an option in Indianapolis or Detroit, while weather might not come into play if a BCS game was played in Seattle.

If you believe the southern teams have an advantage by playing BCS games, or bowl games in general, in the south, and if there's an advantage for USC to play in the Rose Bowl, then why shouldn't a Big Ten team get a BCS game in the north once in a while? How about a Big East champion getting to play in New York or Philadelphia? Especially in today's day and age and with economics being what they are, there's a huge segment of fans that would love to see a BCS game closer to where they live. That might create a bit of a home field advantage to even things out, whether the advantage is real or not.

Another option would be to rotate the game among the minor bowls. Basically, this would call out the BCS for its own rhetoric. There can't be a playoff because it would hurt the minor bowls, right? Then how about throwing those precious non-BCS bowls a bone and giving the fifth BCS game to the Humanitarian one year, the Las Vegas another, the EagleBank another, and so on.

Or there could simply be a playoff played over three weeks, but that, or course, would just be silly.

Richard Cirminiello, CFN

Q: If the BCS adds another game, which bowl deserves it?

A: Now that it’s finally moving out of its old relic of a home and into the state-of-the-art Cowboys Stadium, I’d give the nod to the Cotton Bowl.

The Cotton Bowl is a game steeped in history, with a tremendous following, and an ideal location for a marquee college football event. The BCS already hosts games in two of the three biggest hot-beds for the sport, California and Florida, so adding Texas would sort of be a logical fit. If you can somehow incorporate a team from the Big 12, even better. Honestly, I’d love to see one of these major games take place outside in less than perfect conditions. I mean it is football, right? Now, you’re not likely to get a frost in Dallas in early January, but there could be a little nip in the air. And if you’re lucky, maybe game officials wouldn’t close the retractable roof.

A genuine sleeper in this group is the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Yeah, the name doesn’t exactly scream tradition, but these guys know how to throw big events and have gotten fan satisfaction down to science. Plus, the game takes place in Atlanta, which is one of the best places in America to host a college sports event.  

Matthew Zemek, CFN

Q: If the BCS adds another game, which bowl deserves it?

A: Darn. This question was so easy to answer in the past, but now it’s a lot tougher to grapple with. In seasons past, the Cotton Bowl—long a traditional and decorated New Year’s Day classic—would have deserved to regain top billing as a BCS bowl. The game that provided a grand stage for countless football heroes from the state of Texas (not to mention Arkansas), plus the likes of Roger Staubach (Navy, 1964), Joe Montana (Notre Dame, 1978-’79), and Dan Marino (Pitt, 1983), gave the Cotton Bowl the kind of cachet that could rival the Rose, Orange and Sugar spectaculars. As long as the venerable outdoor stadium of the same name hosted this pigskin pageant, the BCS deserved to include the duel in Dallas.

Now? Ugh.

Alongside George Steinbrenner, Bud Selig, Clay Bennett, and a select few others, Dallas Cowboys Emperor Jerry Jones stands as one of the most corrosive and counterproductive forces in the world of big-time sports. From the way he insulted (and fired) Tom Landry, to his meddling with head coaches, to his allowance of over-the-top behavior from big-name players, the Jones era in Big D has been a study in wretched excess and dysfunction. Were it not for the grand heist of the Minnesota Vikings and a sucker named Mike Lynn in the early 1990s, the Jones years would still be Supe-free. As it is, there’s even more reason to find disfavor with Mr. Jones; the new $1.15 billion (and counting) football stadium that will now host the Cotton Bowl is every bit the monument to sickening profligacy that the new Yankee Stadium is. Jones asked for (and received) $325 million from the people of Arlington, Tex., for the project, despite all the money he’s raked in as Grand Poobah of the Cowboys. Why would I, or any other sane person, want to give this man a BCS bowl game now? Sorry.

A certain bowl game in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome would make sense, it being another longstanding postseason game with an appreciable amount of history. But could the local company that airs lots of commercials with cows parachuting into seats at least rename the game “The Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl?” If not, no deal. The other established New Year’s Day games aren’t the Citi Bowl (Rose), the Allstate Bowl (Sugar), the FedEx Bowl (Orange), or the Tostitos Bowl (Fiesta). At least sneak the Peach back into the Peach State, and we can work with a new addition to the BCS rotation.

As a third option, the Holiday Bowl would work, but darnit, that bowl’s reputation has been made as a late-December prime-time treat with second-place teams from major conferences. Putting it in the daytime would be as sacrilegious as the decision to turn the old (read: REAL) Cotton Bowl from a game with a 12:45 p.m. local kickoff in Dallas (on CBS) to a 10:10 a.m. local kickoff (on FOX).

Hunter Ansley, Publisher, DraftZoo.com

Q: If the BCS adds another game, which bowl deserves it?

A: I think you have to narrow down the choices.  Throw out the games like the Las Vegas Bowl and the Motor City Bowl.  The only games with a chance are the big New Years bowls that already have some tie-ins. 

So you’re left with the Gator, the Chick Fil A (I know it’s not on New Years Day, but it’s close enough), the Capital One, the Cotton and the Outback.  I’m axing the bowls named after restaurants and banks, leaving just the Gator and Cotton.

Now, of the two, the Cotton has more tradition.  It’s a game that has decided national championships in the past, and it’s got a great fan base of its own.  The Gator, on the other hand, has been around for a while too, but it’s lacking the same nostalgic value.

Then there’s the difference in the cities.  Jacksonville’s nice, but it’s not Dallas.  The city’s bigger, it has more money, and it would draw a larger crowd.  Plus, with the game moving to the new zillion dollar Cowboys stadium, it has even more appeal.  Of course, the game made a bid to become a part of the BCS, but that was scrapped when ESPN got the BCS.