New Orleans Bowl Pairs C-USA Team, Sun
Belt Champ
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Conference USA signed a four-year New
Orleans Bowl deal that bowl officials believe will bring something that was
missing from the first game — fans.
Conference USA replaces the Mountain West Conference, which
supplied the visiting team for December's inaugural game. The league will
supply a ``selected team'' as the opponent for the host Sun Belt champion.
``This bowl has an opportunity to be a very important
bowl,'' said Conference USA commissioner Mike Slive. ``And it's very
important in the galaxy of Conference USA.''
Conference USA, which has 10 football-playing schools, is
now affiliated with four bowls — Liberty in Memphis, GMAC in Mobile, Houston
Bowl, and New Orleans Bowl. The conference champion goes to the Liberty
Bowl. Other than that, the league's goal is to partner teams with regional
bowls so fans can more easily attend games, Slive said.
``We have six schools within 500 miles of New Orleans,''
Silve said. ``If you think of our conference as a galaxy, New Orleans is the
center of that galaxy.''
C-USA schools within 500 miles of New Orleans are Houston,
Louisville, Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulane and Alabama-Birmingham. The
conference would like to see one of those schools play in the New Orleans
Bowl if it is bowl-eligible. C-USA has had success with such arrangements in
the past, drawing big crowds when Cincinnati went to Detroit for the Motor
City Bowl and TCU to Houston.
``It makes sense for schools to play close to their
fan-base,'' Slive said.
Colorado State beat North Texas 45-20 in the first New
Orleans Bowl and drew 18,898 fans. Adding a Conference USA team should boost
attendance, Sun Belt Conference commissioner Wright Waters believes.
``I think the schools the conference will be sending to the
bowl will bring fans with them,'' Waters said. ``I think this is the next
big step for our conference and our bowl.''
The Sun Belt, which added football last year, must upgrade
attendance during the season to comply with upgraded NCAA standards. Among
the new requirements the NCAA is expected to adopt is a home game attendance
average of 15,000. Last season four of the league's seven football-playing
teams did not meet that requirement.
``The new I-A criteria will be very helpful to us,'' Waters
said. ``It's going to force us to do some things that we need to do.''
But until the Sun Belt teams can draw big crowds to the
conference's bowl, the league is counting on the C-USA teams to do it.
``We have formed a true partnership,'' Waters said.
The partnership extends to the financial arrangements for
the bowl as well, Waters said.
``We're equal partners,'' Waters said. ``We have put our
arms around each other and committed to making this work.''
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Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
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02/23/2007 10:47:51 AM
