Why should a university play in a football bowl game?
For school spirit? Not when a high proportion of students here and at other schools don’t know there is a football team, or don’t care if there is one.
For a big paycheck? Not when the University returns from the Sun Bowl $50,000 in the red, as reported in the Eugene Register-Guard. The profits go to the promoters of the games (32 of them!), TV networks that make big money and have little interest in school spirit or funding.
For publicity? Not for the loser of the game, nor for the winner when it is meaningless like all but five or six traditional games.
Some of this year’s “bowl” teams wound up with losing records. Keep this quiet – but I know of one school that went to bowl games each of the last two years after having lost its last three regular season games both years.
Ssshhhh.
George Beres
Former sports information director for the University’s athletic department