What has been rumored the past several weeks - an agreement between the Big 10 and the Thrifty Car Rental Holiday Bowl - became official Saturday.
The Holiday Bowl will get the Big 10 runner-up this year to face the Western Athletic Conference champion and in 1992, '93 and '94 the third-place Big 10 team unless one of any number of provisions comes into play.The options occur because not only has the Holiday Bowl entered into an agreement with the Big 10, but so has the Florida Citrus Bowl.
The Florida Citrus Bowl will not have a Big 10 team in its bowl this year but beginning in 1992 will get the Big 10 runner-up through 1994.
Why is the runner-up going to the Florida Citrus Bowl and not the Holiday Bowl?
Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delany answered a reporter's question from the Orlando Sentinel this way Saturday:
"We had serious discussions with four or five bowls with whom we got into terms and conditions. We chose the Citrus, in part because of the ABC relation, because of its location, because of the way they have managed past games, their presentation and on what they could provide us."
It is also believed the Florida Citrus will pay out more than the Holiday Bowl. Both bowls paid about $1.2 million per team last year. The Holiday Bowl payout will escalate to $2 million in 1994, according to Bruce Binkowski, the Holiday Bowl's director of marketing and public relations. The figure for the Florida Citrus Bowl is expected to be closer to $2.5 million.
Binkowski thinks the initial look at the agreement regarding the third place Big 10 team going to the Holiday Bowl in '92, '93 and '94 is misleading because of the various provisions.
"The options are the great thing, and that's why this agreement is so appealing," Binkowski said.
Another 1984-type scenario, for example, cannot occur with the options, Binkowski said. That was the year that Brigham Young University was ranked No. 1 in the nation and wound up playing a 6-5 Michigan team.
If the WAC champion is in the Top 5 nationally and there is no consensus national championship matchup in another bowl game, the Holiday Bowl may invite the Big 10 team of its choice (excluding the Rose Bowl representative, of course) if it is in the Top 5. If there is no such Big 10 team available, the Holiday Bowl may invite a Top 5 team from outside the conference.
Also, the Holiday Bowl will have the option in 1993 and 1994 to select the Big 10 co-champion or runner-up if that team appeared in the Citrus Bowl the previous season.
Plus, if no available Big 10 team is able to meet a qualifying criteria of eight wins or Top 20 ranking after the Rose Bowl and Citrus Bowl representatives have been selected, then the Holiday Bowl is free to invite a team from outside the Big 10.
"Again, that's what makes this agreement so attractive, the options," Binkowski emphasized.
The Citrus and Holiday bowls' gains are clearly a loss for the major bowl alliance - involving the Orange, Cotton, Sugar and Fiesta bowls and the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Eight, Southwest Conference, Southeastern Conference, Big East and Notre Dame - which had hoped to be able to have the option of inviting the Big 10 runner-up to one of two available openings in its bowls. The agreement is also a blow to other upper-tier bowls like the Hall of Fame, Blockbuster and Gator.
A spokesman for the Big 10 commissioner's office had indicated to the Deseret News in August that the Big 10 wasn't exactly thrilled with the way the major bowl alliance was put together without input from the Big 10.
Nor, was the Big 10 happy with the special treatment given Notre Dame in the alliance.
"Why should a 7-4 Notre Dame be locked in (to a New Year's Day Bowl) and not the Big 10 runner-up?" stated Mark Rudner, assistant Big 10 commissioner. Rudner pointed out that before the major bowl alliance, the Big 10 wasn't putting its Big 10 runner-up in New Year's Day very often anyway, "one in the Cotton and one in the Sugar" in the 1980s, he said.
"We've just got to do what's best for our conference."
Penn State, which begins Big Ten football competition in 1993, will be included in the arrangement then. The Nittany Lions may play in one of the bowls in the major bowl alliance in 1991 and 1992.