Article on Navy's potential impact on bowls

[tulaneoutlaw]

In summary, the folks in charge of bowls are pulling against Navy in the AAC championship game. If Navy wins, there's a strong chance many bowls would have to hold off on announcing matchups until after Army-Navy which would have a domino effect on travel arrangements and the bowls' bottom lines.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/st ... owl-system

[PeteRasche]

Same story, different year.... Darn one of the service academies being bowl eligible, don't they know ESPN needs them to stink?

[MNAlum]

Go Navy!

[Baywave1]

Army and Navy are not changing the date of the game without a big carrot. Too many pesos involved. (Hey who did they learn that from? The G5 and ESPN and its network brethren?)

For tons of reasons. Go Navy. Put maximum stress on the current rigged system and maybe we'll see real reform and access sooner rather than later.

[ml wave]

Same story, different year.... Darn one of the service academies being bowl eligible, don't they know ESPN needs them to stink?

Struggling to find the connection to ESPN? Why do they care if travel for the teams is more logistically difficult/expensive? Frankly, I don't think anyone would benefit more from this scenario...another full week of everyone arguing who goes where, etc.

[doncecco]

What's stunning is that the big, mighty bowls and networks put themselves in this position. All they had to do was tell the Academies that if you wish to play on the 2nd Saturday in December, you will not be eligible for a Top 5 bowl or CFP. Period. What would they really have done?

So they kind of get what they deserve for not taking care of this when they established the latest format.

[Baywave1]

Same story, different year.... Darn one of the service academies being bowl eligible, don't they know ESPN needs them to stink?

Struggling to find the connection to ESPN? Why do they care if travel for the teams is more logistically difficult/expensive? Frankly, I don't think anyone would benefit more from this scenario...another full week of everyone arguing who goes where, etc.

Are you sure ESPN doesn't care? They literally own many of the minor bowls. Presumably they have some interest in maximizing attendance to reduce financial risk. I'm sure they do their best to lay off that risk on the teams and other local sponsors but in these days of its hemorrhaging subscribers and parent Disney demanding sustained profits from its sub, ESPN, i don't see how this benefits ESPN as the bowl's owner and promoter.

[Poseidon]

Yeah this is really a ESPN vs CBS(who airs the Army-Navy game) tiff.

[ml wave]

Same story, different year.... Darn one of the service academies being bowl eligible, don't they know ESPN needs them to stink?

Struggling to find the connection to ESPN? Why do they care if travel for the teams is more logistically difficult/expensive? Frankly, I don't think anyone would benefit more from this scenario...another full week of everyone arguing who goes where, etc.

Are you sure ESPN doesn't care? They literally own many of the minor bowls. Presumably they have some interest in maximizing attendance to reduce financial risk. I'm sure they do their best to lay off that risk on the teams and other local sponsors but in these days of its hemorrhaging subscribers and parent Disney demanding sustained profits from its sub, ESPN, i don't see how this benefits ESPN as the bowl's owner and promoter.

Sure, ESPN owns some minor bowls...because it's cheaper for them to own the bowl than pay the rights to broadcast them. Marginal attendance increases from travelling fans would be nice, but that's not what they're going after--if it was, they wouldn't own bowl games tied to CUSA, Sunbelt, etc. The real revenue from these games comes from the sponsorship and the (full price) ticket guarantees made by the participating teams.

If any of these bowls are affected by Navy, it is possible that travelling attendance could suffer (I'd assume local attendance wouldn't change). So, for instance, if Tulane made the Hawaii Bowl and the announcement were delayed and due to the short time schedule I decide I can't attend...what does ESPN lose? I would buy my ticket from Tulane's allotment which is fully guaranteed by Tulane to ESPN anyway.