Bowl free agent gamble

http://www.vanquishthefoe.com/byu-football/2016/12/14/13958784/should-byu-football-be-a-bowl-free-agent-in-2017



I know there was a discussion somewhere but don't know which thread it was.

2016 Hawaii Bowl, St. Petersburg Bowl, Heart of Dallas Bowl, Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl had opening. Cactus was an opening.

2015 AutoNation Cure Bowl, Foster Farms Bowl, Quick Lane Bowl had openings

2014 No opening. Hawaii might had been. There were 2 less bowls that year.

2013 No opening. There were 5 less bowls that year.



I am all for rolling the dice to try to find a better bowl. The last 2 years would had worked out for us.

I'm all for doing everything we can to have a deal with the Las Vegas Bowl every 3 or 4 seasons.

Cactus pays $3M I heard. We should had been there. As a free agent, we get to choose our bowl and ESPN could try to get a good match up for us.

scott715 wrote:
Cactus pays $3M I heard. We should had been there. As a free agent, we get to choose our bowl and ESPN could try to get a good match up for us.

Not true; we have to be invited by a bowl.

I would think all of the open bowls would want us so I think we get to choose with ESPN's input.

scott715 wrote:
I would think all of the open bowls would want us so I think we get to choose with ESPN's input.

We also would think we're a no brainer for the Big 12 but obviously not, so we can't necessarily say we would be the first choice for any bowl that can't fill it's normal slot.

The other choices would be 5-7 teams ranked by their APR. I think we would be at the top of the list.

Bowl's have to take 6-6 teams or better over 5-7, whether they want to or not.



But that doesn't mean that in the event that there is a 7-5 or 8-4 BYU team and a 6-6 team vying for a $3m bowl next year that the bowl won't take the 6-6 team over BYU. I imagine Tom Holmoe has some idea about how much bowl's really want BYU.

I imagine during the last week of the season that BYU fans would be watching scores to see what bowl slots will open up for us. It would also be a good thing if a few teams were bowl ineligible to open a few more spots.

scott715 wrote:
2016 Hawaii Bowl, St. Petersburg Bowl, Heart of Dallas Bowl, Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl had opening. Cactus was an opening.

2015 AutoNation Cure Bowl, Foster Farms Bowl, Quick Lane Bowl had openings

2014 No opening. Hawaii might had been. There were 2 less bowls that year.

2013 No opening. There were 5 less bowls that year.



I am all for rolling the dice to try to find a better bowl. The last 2 years would had worked out for us.

Here are the bowls BYU might have played in without a bowl affiliation the past 4 years.



2016: Heart of Dallas vs Army or Hawaii Bowl vs Hawaii

Perhaps the Cactus bowl doesn't sign a contingency with the MW and we get the Cactus bowl vs Baylor.



2015: Arizona Bowl vs Colorado St or AutoNation vs Georgia St

The bowls stuck with their contracts with conferences despite records <.500 so I'm not sure FF takes BYU over Nebraska or the Quick Lane bowl over Minnesota.



2014: No bowl



2013: No bowl



Nobody can really fault Holmoe for signing contracts with all of the bowl games at the times he did. He couldn't have any idea how things would change.



The way things work now I would favor signing contingency deals with bowls that invite two P5 teams like the Cactus bowl (PAC vs B12), the Quick Lane bowl (ACC vs B1G), or the Heart of Dallas bowl (B1G vs B12 some years). If they could get a second contingency with the Poinsettia bowl if they don't get one of those bowls I'd be really happy.

Not a bad idea for contingency agreements.

http://espn960sports.com/byu/byu-football-bowl-game-2017/



Here are the seven bowl games and their payout that had to go to a secondary plan.



Las Vegas Bowl: Houston was the replacement team vs. San Diego State and the payout is $1,350,000



Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Idaho was the replacement team vs. Colorado State and the payout is $325,000



Bahamas Bowl: Old Dominion was the replacement team vs. Eastern Michigan and the payout is $450,000



Armed Forces Bowl: Louisiana Tech was the replacement team vs. Navy and the payout is $675,000



St. Petersburg Bowl: Mississippi State (losing record) and Miami (OH) were the replacement teams and the payout is $537,500



Cactus Bowl: Boise State was the replacement team vs. Baylor and the payout is $3,325,000



Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii qualified with a losing record and is playing Middle Tennessee State and the payout is $650,000





"bowl games have backups with other leagues and a bowl would likely still take its conference affiliated team even though BYU might have a better record. "



So TH needs to make some backup deals with some bowls next year to give us an option to get invited.

So only two of those bowls paid out more than the Poinsettia's $800K (plus rumor is that Holmoe negotiated for a % of the ticket revenue on top)??



How do you pick which bowls to negotiate a back up contract with? You'd have to have a good idea of which conferences won't have enough teams to fill their slate, and that requires voo-doo foresight.



I prefer the idea of locking in a bowl bid again in 2017 instead of hoping for a 2/7 chance to get something bigger when things fall apart for the conferences.



If BYU wants to make money, they need to get Vivint and ESPN in the same room and figure out a way to get a middling bowl (Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, anyone?) to relocate to LES with a BYU tie-in. BYU then pockets a fee for use of stadium every year and the years BYU does play at home for the bowl game, you're likely to see a sellout or near to it and take higher gates.



Just have to accept that no alcohol will be sold on the premises and BYU will want to control the advertising/media in the stadium...that's what's killed the idea in years past, but that was pre-indy and pre-ESPN partnership.

I think you just negotiate the BYU would be the backup plan if we are available. You could even stipulate that we have to have 8 wins or some other number. If we are not available then their other negotiated backup plan can be the next option. We just need to get ahead of other small conferences.

For 2017, if possible, I'd try to get backup deals with some of the following P5 bowls...those most likely to not have sufficient eligible participants:



- Cactus (B12 #6 v. PAC#7)[Phoenix, AZ - $3.3M payout]

- Foster Farms (PAC v. B1G #7)[Santa Clara, CA - $1M payout]

- Armed Forces (B1G #9 v. Army)[Ft. Worth, TX - $1.2M payout]

- Quick Lane (ACC #9 v. B1G #8) [Detroit, MI - $1.2M payout]

- Independence (ACC #8 v. SEC #9)[Shreveport, LA - $1.1M payout]

- St. Petersburg (ACC #10 v. AAC)[St. Pete, FL - $500K payout]



For 2019 and on, I really think BYU should try to affiliate with Army and the AAC. There is synergy to improve the AAC lineup and BYU's bowl options.

BYU has agreed to play in one of ESPN's 13 bowl games next year. Specific bowl not inked yet.