The American announced this morning that there was a new bowl game starting next season, the Miami Beach Bowl. It takes place at Marlins Stadium, which is stands on the old Orange Bowl. They are very proud that the field fits in the baseball stadium. They even tweeted out a picture of it, via College Football Talk:
This is another in a line of destination bowl games that the American has signed up for. We've seen the formation of the Boca Raton Bowl, the Bahamas Bowl and the American taking the spot of someone in the Hawaii Bowl. They are also tied in to the Military Bowl in Washington DC, the Armed Forces Game in Ft Worth and the lovely BBVA Compass Bowl in the picturesque town of Birmingham, Alabama.
The American is slated to take on a combination of the MAC, Sun Belt and Conference USA in the Miami Beach Bowl. The MAC will play in the game in 2016 and 2018. There is a provision where if whatever league doesn't have bowl eligible teams, that "Institutions from other conference across the country will also have the ability to participate." How thoughtful.
The Bahamas Bowl will be an American game in 2014, 16 and 19. That is a primary MAC bowl game.
The Boca Raton Bowl is the opposite of the Bahamas Bowl. Conference USA has the first crack in 2014, then the American in 2015 and 19. The Sun Belt is also involved.
These 3 bowl games have especially been created so the teams left out of the automatic bid into the playoff will still have bowl games and still be on TV. This means 76 teams will be featured in bowl games next year. That is a shit load. But hey, the league has to stay relevant, at least try, as much as they can. Playing on TV is very good at that. I'm assuming all these games end up on some kind of ESPN network.
The top bowl games for the American are the Beef O'Brady's Bowl and the BBVA Compass Bowl. I'm going to assume the Compass Bowl is the top bowl because that one is always going to be an SEC team. The BOB Bowl rotates between ACC and C-USA. The American rotates on some of the other bowls.
Well, this is the reality we are facing for the future. They might be crap bowl games, but at least you will get to take a trip to Hawaii or the Bahamas or Boca Raton or Miami or lovely Birmingham if you are so lucky. It could be worse, the bowl games could be held in Alaska.
Wait, there has just been a press release where the American and Conference USA have agreed to the first ever Royal Cruise Alaska Bowl. Well, shit. Don't ever say things could get worse.
That was a joke by the way, don't believe everything.
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