Thursday, June 29, 2006

Houston bowl game survives

A couple of months ago I noted that things didn't look good for the cash-strapped Houston Bowl. However, a new management group associated with the Houston Texans has jumped in to secure approval from the NCAA for a local bowl game, thus assuring that there will be a postseason college football game in Houston this December.

Technically, the NCAA did not actually recertify the Houston Bowl, but rather gave their blessing to a new, as-yet-unnamed bowl game that will replace the insolvent Houston Bowl. The game will be played December 28th at Reliant Stadium and will include teams from any two of the Big 12, Big East, Conference USA and Mountain West conferences. The bowl as of yet does not have a title sponsor, either.

While I guess it's good that Houston keeps its place at the increasingly-crowded bowl game table, I'm still wondering how this game will be able to avoid the same problems that plagued the Houston Bowl (and the Bluebonnet Bowl many years ago): poor local support, matchups between mediocre teams that neither draw well nor attract TV viewers, and its likely perception as a lower-tier, irrelevant bowl game. We'll see if things turn out differently this time.

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