Bowl Week is one of the highest rated weeks on the year for ESPN as they produce unique match-ups between teams and conferences that don't often play in the regular season.
After another exciting regular season where every game is important from August to December, 24 communities around the nation will host 28 post-season bowl games this year, producing memories that will last a lifetime for fans, community members and student athletes and their universities. 5,600 student-athletes, 11,000 band members, 1,100 cheerleaders, 50,000-100,000 performers and 1.4 million fans will take part in the bowl experience.
In addition to 90+ years of tradition and community involvement, guaranteed revenues are another compelling reason why bowl games are one of the most important features of the college football calendar.
This year, college bowl games will pay out more than $187 million to NCAA schools throughout the United States. More than $820 million has been paid out in just the past five years and the bowls will conservatively payout more than $2.1 billion over the next ten years. The Valero Alamo Bowl will payout a minimum combined $4.5 million to the two participating teams.
“The Valero Alamo Bowl is probably the largest convention of the year, every year,” said Derrick Fox, MasterCard Alamo Bowl President/CEO. “You figure that there will be at least 25,000 people who come here every year for our game. But rather than have a keynote speaker, we have a football game. It really fills the gap in that tourism window, let alone the residual effect you get from the national television exposure and the media writing about San Antonio in their respective markets. That’s worth a lot as far as future tourism or business goes.”
Bowl games also provide opportunities for more schools to participate in the overall bowl experience, creating a lasting impression "one last time" for thousands of college seniors who will never have the opportunity to play professional football. And the experience doesn't start with the kickoff and end with an official's whistle. Bowl games offer the competing teams and student-athletes a chance to experience the unique attractions offered by their host communities.
In San Antonio, teams have visited the Alamo and the Riverwalk and done team-building on a working Texas ranch.
San Antonio is a prime example of a host community with a lot to offer visiting teams. The Alamo, the Riverwalk and the historic Market Square are just some of the attractions on offer to fans and participants
Perhaps the best part of the bowl experience is that it is not limited to athletes. Hundreds of thousands of cheerleaders, band members, halftime performers, administrators, alumni and college football fans nationwide also share in the experience. 79 (out of 117) different Division IA schools have participated in at least one bowl game in the past five seasons. Add this to the fact that each year 28 of the 56 teams are guaranteed to finish their season as a champion, and you have the right mixture for an incredible recipe. In addition, 56 teams enhance their recruiting, fund raising and season ticket sales as a result of being a bowl participant.
For more than 90 years, bowl games have been a part of the college football experience, providing many of us with some of our fondest moments in sports. Bowl games have also proven themselves to be as much a part of the tradition of college football as any other aspect of the game.
Finally, the fact that bowl games are an integral part of American culture, is proved by their popularity. A record 1.45 million fans attended bowl games last year. The average capacity of stadiums hosting bowls was 89 percent and 15 bowls were 90 percent filled. Thirteen bowl games were at least 99 percent filled. The combined TV audience for these games was over 117 million households nationwide.
