Because of limited future bowl opportunities, the five smaller FBS conferences are starting new games in the Bahamas, Boca Raton, Fla., and Miami in 2014, sources told ESPN. The new bowls will be unique in that the five conferences (American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt) will provide the teams as part of a coalition, sources said. The bowls and five conferences will work together to determine which teams will play in the bowls each year. "The non-power leagues were denied opportunities in other bowls, so they had to create opportunities for their teams," a source said. "The new bowls are a result of existing bowls not entertaining opportunities for those five [non-power] conferences. "The old days for one conference to have a deal are dead. It will be very fluid." In August, the MAC and Sun Belt announced the creation of the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Ala., in 2014. That means there will be four additional games for a total of 39 bowls, including the College Football Playoff title game. The Miami Bowl, created by the American Athletic Conference, is expected to be held at Marlins Park, home of the Miami Marlins. The American Athletic will be the "anchor" conference, and its opponent would come from the other four non-power leagues, a source said. In August, ESPN reported that the Bahamas Bowl will be held at Thomas Robinson Stadium and would be the first postseason bowl played outside the United States since the International Bowl in Toronto (2007-10). A news conference will be held Oct. 14 to officially announce the Bahamas Bowl. All five non-power leagues will rotate in the game. The Boca Raton Bowl will feature teams from Conference USA, MAC and the American Athletic. The game will be held at FAU Stadium on the Florida Atlantic campus. FAU is a C-USA member. Besides the new bowls in the Bahamas, Boca Raton, Miami and Montgomery, another new game will be played in Detroit between the Big Ten and ACC in 2014. It will replace the Little Caesars Bowl, also held in Detroit. Of the 39 bowl games in 2014, at least 20 could exclusively pair "power five" league opponents (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC). The remaining 19 bowls would be either power five league opponents against non-power five league opponents or teams from two non-power five leagues playing each other.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 19:39:15 +0000
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