College Bowl Games...Where Everybody Wins

Bowl Games have been a part of college football for about 100 years. They have provided some of the greatest moments in college football history and add to the pageantry, color and excitement of the game.

This season twenty-seven communities throughout the U.S. and Canada will host thirty-two post-season college football bowl games where some 6,400 student-athletes, 12,900 college band members, 1,200 cheerleaders, up to 100,000 additional performers and about 1.7 million fans will take part in the "college bowl experience."

In fact, 53% of Division I-A teams will participate in this unique post-season experience, more than any other major NCAA sport.

The top two teams in the Bowl Championship Series rankings will square-off in the BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans, LA. However, thirty-two teams will become bowl champions and more than 100 division I schools will share to some extent in the revenues generated by the current bowl system.

"A lot of people came to town, soaked up some sun, ate some good food, had a ball. At the end of it all they play a football game and somebody wins. Actually, everybody wins. Imagine that." - Joe Henderson, The Tampa Tribune

Institutions Win...
"It's a worthwhile experience for the entire university community, especially in terms of prestige and recruiting." -- LaVell Edwards

College bowls will pay out a projected $220 million this season to NCAA schools. More than $1.6 billion has been paid out in just the past nine years and the bowls will conservatively pay out more than $2.4 billion over the next decade.

Almost all bowl games are non-profit organizations. The more revenue the bowl generates through ticket sales, sponsors, etc. the more money can be paid to institutions of higher education.

The excitement and visibility created by participating in a bowl game can generate increased donations, increases in licensing revenues, TV contracts, season ticket sales and other long term revenue streams.

Twenty seven communities hosting bowl games provide stability, funding and an unparalleled commitment to a quality experience to the teams and their fans.

The BCS also contributes millions of dollars in funding each year to non-BCS conferences and institutions in Division I-A and I-AA, the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame.

The Fans Win...
Bowl Games are expected to attract more than 1.7 million fans this year.

Stadiums at last year's bowls were filled to an average 87% of capacity. For the twenty bowls that have been in existence for at least eight years, last years attendance was 97 % of stadium capacity.

The combined TV audience for last year's bowls was an average of 134 million households.

"Memories of a lifetime, regardless of the score, make the bowls appreciated by all who attend." -- John Mackovic

The Regular Season Wins...
"I think college football has the most exciting regular season of any sport because there is not a playoff system. The whole season is a playoff system." -- Georgia Coach Mark Richt

Bowl games bring a measure of importance to the regular season not seen in other sports. No other intercollegiate sport plays as few regular season games as football and every game means something.

The top teams don't just play for seeds or to get into a post-season tournament, the road to the National Championship begins with the season's first game and continues every week of the season.

"The beauty of the current system is that every time a team takes the field, its national title hopes are at stake." -- Teddy Greenstein, Chicago Tribune

"Its (playoff) presence would diminish the entire regular season in the only major American sport where every week means something and the most critical game is always the next one on the schedule." -- Tim Guidera, Savannah Morning News

"In college football teams must strive for perfection each week. While the single-elimination nature of the NCAA basketball tourney brings great excitement to fans for a month every year, college football fans are treated to a single-elimination season." -- John Tamny, National Review

Communities Win...
College bowls generate an estimated $1.3 billion worth of economic impact for their host communities each year. This does not even count the vast exposure that showcases these communities.

Bowls are a tremendous source of pride for these communities as typically hundreds of local residents are involved as volunteers on various committees.

Bowls benefit not only NCAA institutions but local causes and charities. Many bowls contribute in excess of $100,000 annually to charitable causes and/or provide programs such as camps for disadvantaged youth.

"You can't buy this kind of publicity." -- Wit Tuttell, St Petersburg/Clearwater CVB

"The economic impact that these games and the Fiesta Bowl Festival bring to our state is remarkable, but even more important is the hundreds of thousands of visitors and our own citizens who will always carry warm memories of these events in Arizona." -- Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano

Student-Athletes Win...
"Bowls are a tremendous rewardÂ… It's an awesome, awesome thing. I love the bowls." -- Arkansas Head Coach Houston Nutt

Players take part in many diverse experiences and see may sights during their bowl trips. Players in Tampa visit the beaches and Busch Gardens theme park. In San Diego they have lunch on an aircraft carrier. Players visit the Alamo in San Antonio, tour historic Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Disney Theme Parks in Orlando, go snowmobiling in Boise, experience a luau and Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and much more.

"Every bowl game is a meaningful experience for student-athletes. It's what it should be. And at the end of the year you don't say only one team feels good about itself." -- Dr. John Peterson, President, University of Tennessee

"At some point you have to put the welfare of the players first. That should be our guiding light on all of our thinking. If we go down the playoff road, then we're not thinking that way. We're appeasing someone else, not the players." -- Iowa Head coach Kirk Ferentz