Yankee Bowl likely to have Big 12 ties / LJWorld.com

Archive for Saturday, September 19, 2009

September 19, 2009

The Big 12 Conference more than likely will add a bowl game to its slate next season at Yankee Stadium in New York.

All that’s waiting is approval from the conference’s board of directors, Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda said. The approval could come in the next fall meeting at the end of October.

“It’s a bowl that we have interest in,” Burda said of the Yankee Bowl. “We are going to present it to the board of directors for a potential partnership.”

The Yankee Bowl would feature the seventh selection from the Big 12 against the third or fourth selection from the Big East.

The seventh selection in the Big 12 last season was Kansas University.

“I think it would be exciting to play there,” KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said. “We had a great time in Arizona last year, and we won a bowl (Insight), so that was something everyone enjoyed, but certainly the prospect of adding the Yankee Stadium bowl to the lineup is exciting.”

The N.Y. bowl likely will have Big 12 ties through the 2013 season. This is the fourth and final season of the current cycle of bowl contracts in the Big 12. The conference is in the process of negotiating for a new contract, which will run from 2010 through 2013.

“Membership has an interest in bowl arrangements to extend our reach and have a presence along the eastern seaboard, and this opportunity provided that chance for us,” Burda said.

The Big 12 currently has agreements with eight bowls, and it’s expected to stay that way in 2010, even with the addition of the Yankee Bowl. The Sun Bowl no longer will be affiliated with the Big 12 starting in 2010.

Therefore, the conference will have the following bowl ties: BCS, Cotton (Dallas), Holiday (San Diego), Alamo (San Antonio), Insight (Tempe, Ariz.), Yankee (New York), Texas (Houston) and Independence (Shreveport, La.).

Every bowl listed above is a warm-weather spot even in the winter, with the exception of New York.

“You pack a couple of extra sweaters, hats and gloves and prepare for weather that’s going to be colder than Miami or Tempe, but it would still be a great experience,” Marchiony said. “Every bowl site offers its unique attractions, and you can say the same thing for New York.”

Yankee Stadium has already made plans to host other college football games at its $1.5 billion facility. On the future slate: Notre Dame-Army (2010), Army-Rutgers (2011), Army-Air Force (2012) and Army-Boston College (2014).