[NU Sports] Phillips eyeing Chicago venues,

[Mike Nolan]

> According to todays Tribune:
> 
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/chi-nus-phillips-eyeing-chicago-venues-yankee-stadium-for-football-20120516,0,748236.story

I wonder about the line "Fitzgerald, like many coaches, does not [favor the 7 win bowl requirement]"

Has there been a formal survey of the FBS coaches about the 7 win requirement?

I suspect coaches may favor the 6 win requirment for multiple reasons:

1.  There's a 'bowl game incentive clause' in their contracts, so they get money for making a bowl game.

2.  The extra practices that bowl teams get.

3.  The extra exposure for recruiting purposes.  

I tend to agree that schools in the minor bowl games probably lose money on them, and not just
because of 'ticket fatigue'.  (It also sucks that the tickets allotted to schools are usually 
the worst ones in the stadium.)  How often on this list have people bemoaned the prospect of
NU going to a bowl game in Detroit?   

I am, sadly, inclined to agree that there are too many bowl games, even though I love watching bowl
games.  It amuses me that  ESPN still calls it 'bowl week' even though it now spans closer 
to three weeks.  

But I don't think that's the reason the Big Ten hasn't done well in bowl games lately,
I think our bowl committments disfavor us as a conference.  If Jim D. is looking at revising the
Big Ten's bowl committements, including more geographic variance in bowl sites, I could live 
with a 7 game win requirement.

I would hope, though, that the Big Ten looks into advancing NCAA legislation giving all FBS 
teams the option to have post-season practices, not just the bowl-eligible ones.  This is a
'haves' vs 'have-nots' situation already, as over half of the teams in FBS go to bowl
games.  Reducing the number of bowl-eligible teams just from the Big Ten will disadvantage 
several mid-tier Big Ten teams during subsequent regular seasons.
--
Mike Nolan