MOBILE, Ala. — The Sun Belt Conference, which includes South Alabama, will gain a third bowl tie-in beginning in 2014 after ESPN Regional Television announced the creation of the Camellia Bowl, to be played at the renovated Cramton Bowl in Montgomery.
The new game will match a Sun Belt team against an opponent from the Mid-American Conference. Johnny Williams, the former athletics director at Troy, will serve as the bowl’s executive director.
Third Bowl in Alabama
The Camellia Bowl becomes the state’s third bowl game, joining the GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile and the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham.
The Legends Bowl Group had earlier expressed interest in developing a bowl game at Alabama State, but the group shifted its focus to an effort in Charleston, S.C., after ESPN moved forward with the Montgomery game.
With the Camellia Bowl, ESPN Regional Television now owns nine bowl games. The company added the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, Idaho, to its lineup last week. Its other games are the BBVA Compass Bowl, the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla., the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, the Las Vegas Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, the Texas Bowl in Houston and the Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu.
Benson: ‘An Immediate Good Business Deal’
Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson said the game’s location and ESPN’s involvement made Montgomery a sensible choice as the conference’s third bowl partner.
“The fact that ESPN is involved in the game from a business standpoint makes the bowl an immediate good business deal,” Benson said. “It eliminates the investment that the Sun Belt has had to make in other bowls.”
“Some of these deals in the past were advertising a $750,000 guarantee (to schools) and be required to buy $750,000 in tickets,” Benson said. “What we expect out of Montgomery is a business model that will actually guarantee the Sun Belt and the MAC some revenue that isn’t tied to ticket sales. There will be more revenue on the front end.”
Under the agreement, the Sun Belt will guarantee the purchase of 2,500 tickets. Smaller conferences, which will receive more revenue under the new College Football Playoff contract, have been seeking additional bowl tie-ins, and recent agreements have required conferences to buy fewer tickets.
Little Rock Still a Possibility
The Sun Belt’s current primary bowl tie-ins are the GoDaddy.com Bowl and the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. Benson said the conference is still interested in a fourth tie-in in Little Rock, Ark.
“We haven’t given up on Little Rock yet,” Benson said. “The Sun Belt is still very interested in Little Rock, but we obviously need to have an opponent. I think Little Rock, for some of the same reasons that Montgomery worked, makes just as much sense as a game in Memphis or Shreveport or Birmingham or anyplace else in the footprint.”
Two other prospective bowl sites, Orlando and Charleston, have also shown interest in the Sun Belt. Charleston is currently under an NCAA ban on hosting championship events because the Confederate flag remains on display on the South Carolina State House grounds.
About the Cramton Bowl
Montgomery has spent about $10 million renovating the Cramton Bowl, which opened in 1922 and has a listed capacity of 25,000. The stadium hosts the Raycom College Football All-Star Classic each January and was home to the Blue-Gray Football Classic, an all-star game usually played on Christmas Day, from 1939 through 2001.
South Alabama Becomes Eligible
South Alabama begins its first season as a full member of the Football Bowl Subdivision this fall, making the Jaguars eligible for bowl selection for the first time. The Jaguars, coached by Joey Jones, play their home games at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
