The Las Vegas Bowl would drop its current conference alignments and increase payouts to $800,000 a team under a plan to revamp a game that never caught on with local fans.
The NCAA will be asked next month to approve the new bowl concept, which would match the third-place Western Athletic Conference team against the best available opponent.The game would be moved from a Thursday night to a Saturday afternoon, and the guarantee for each team would be boosted from$150,000 to $800,000.
The bowl's sponsor, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, approved the new plan Tuesday, and it will be presented to the NCAA's Special Events Committee next month.
The game, which drew only about 12,000 fans a year since its inception five years ago, had pitted the winner of the Big West Conference against the Mid-American Conference champion.
For the last five years, the Las Vegas Bowl has been the first bowl game of the season but has not fared well at the gate. Last year's game between Nevada and Ball State drew only 10,118.
Problems for the past set up peaked after UNLV left the Big West last year for the WAC and the Mid-American Conference decided to align itself with the new Motor City Bowl.
The Las Vegas convention bureau's decision left the Big West Conference looking at Boise and expansion of the Boise State University stadium to relocate its bowl game.
For its new bowl setup, the convention bureau will have to get a waiver from the NCAA on its minimum bowl seating capacity of 50,000 but will no longer need a waiver of the NCAA's minimum $750,000 payout.
Sam Boyd Stadium, where the game has been held since it began, holds 32,000 but was expanded for last year's WAC title game to 41,000 with the addition of temporary end zone seats.
WAC commissioner Karl Benson, who has complained about the lack of bowl games for schools in his conference, said he was hopeful the plan would be approved by the NCAA.
"We continue to remain optimistic that the WAC will be part of the Las Vegas Bowl in 1997 and the future," Benson said. "We believe it's a good fit and it satisfies the needs of the WAC for more bowl games."