Cotton Bowl on the BCS campaign trail

By Marc Hudgens  |   Friday, June 08, 2007  |  Comments( 1 )

College Football
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One of the most revered and hallowed bowls in NCAA history is finally making a move to regain its elite status -- where it should have been all along.

But instead of the massive marketing campaigns that most big-money types kneejerk into doing, Cotton Bowl president Rick Baker and his staff have embarked on a whistle-stop tour of all the conferences and schools to spread the good word about their desire to be a BCS bowl.

It's slow, deliberate, and apparently winning some people over.

With their rich 70-year history and future plans in their briefcases, the Cotton Bowling Team is knocking on doors and telling school and conference officials about its innovative moves in hopes that, if the BCS decides to expand its number of bowls, the BCS officials will consider them first.

The punch of their sales pitch is their impending move to the new $1 billion, 100,000 maximum seat capacity Dallas Cowboys Stadium, currently under construction in Arlington, Texas. If all cards are played right and on time, the Cotton Bowl will debut Jan. 2, 2010.

Already, the NFL chose this new stadium as the site for Super Bowl XLV in 2011, and Arlington will be hosting the Big XII championship game for '09 and '10. Therefore, the snowball effect is already in full force.

Baker and his people have already shook hands with and briefed officials of Notre Dame, Pac-10 schools (including Pete Carroll himself), and Big XII schools. The SEC and Big Ten will be next on Baker's hit list.

With the average January temperatures in Dallas being anywhere between 36 and 55 degrees, weather has played an important factor in the Cotton Bowl's status. No team wants to play a bowl game in those cold elements, and fans, particularly those sitting in the nosebleed seats, don't really prefer that either. Oregon's Mike Bellotti can vouch for that given the intense weather his team endured there in 1996. So the move to this new indoor stadium will be more attractive to teams, fans, bowl officials and sponsors.

Don't take this to mean the Cotton Bowl will be a BCS bowl once it's in the new Cowboys Stadium. The decision to bring it in is entirely up to the BCS officials. If they don't want to expand the number of BCS bowls, the Cotton Bowl is out no matter the venue.

Given its history and heritage, it's common sense that the Cotton Bowl would fit in nicely with the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta bowls. Many great games have been played there, including 1939, when St. Mary's upset undefeated Texas Tech 20-13; 1940, when Frank Howard's Clemson shocked Boston College 6-3 and spun off several Cotton Bowl appearances by the Tigers under Howard; 1963, the No. 1 Texas Longhorns capped off an undefeated season by beating a Roger Staubach-led, second-ranked Navy; and, Notre Dame's famous comeback in 1979 to defeat Houston 35-34.

The Cotton Bowl has also been the stage for some of the greatest quarterbacks ever (Bart Starr, Roger Staubach, Joe Theismann, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Doug Flutie, Troy Aikman and Eli Manning to name a few).

Entering the BCS picture would be fitting for the Cotton Bowl. That would then mean five BCS bowls plus the BCS championship. That's six elite bowl games with 11 Division I-A conferences and four independents. This would mean only conference champions, plus the best independent, are allowed into these six bowls. There wouldn't be at-large berths that set the stage for shunning strong champions of non-BCS conferences like Boise State or BYU.

There would have to be some realignment, to be sure. Because now the Cotton Bowl has Big XII and SEC tie-ins, and the Big XII champ is already tied to the Fiesta, and the SEC winner is already tied to the Sugar. For any one conference to have two BCS tie-ins would be controversial, considering all the others have one. So the SEC and Big XII would have to choose either their original BCS bowl or the Cotton.

There's no rush, though, and Rick Baker knows it. That allows him to take his time, and to divide and conquer. Nonetheless, the Cotton Bowl becoming a BCS bowl would be good for the schools, the fans and college football in general. It's long overdue.

Keep track of the Cotton Bowl's quest to become BCS worthy at RealFootball365.com
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About Marc Hudgens

Marc Hudgens has been with RealFootball365 since 2007, covering college football, specifically Clemson and Oregon. He also writes for SouthernPigskin.com covering the ACC. He enjoys the acidic wit of Hunter S. Thompson, is a freelance graphic designer and has written several screenplays. He...
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