The Sun Belt Conference is aiming to double its bowl tie-ins starting in 2014, and Little Rock could end up being one of the benefactors.
The Sun Belt’s annual spring meetings wrapped up Wednesday in Destin, Fla., with the league announcing that it expects to operate in 2014 with 11 football members, which means it would not host a conference championship game.
Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson also addressed the league’s future bowl tie ins, an area in which the league has a few more options now that the NCAA no longer controls certification of new bowl games.
Starting with the 2014 season, conferences control bowl arrangements, meaning the only thing needed for a new bowl is a pair of conferences willing to provide teams, a venue to host the game and a television contract to broadcast it.
The Sun Belt has indicated it would like to have a bowl game at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium in December 2014.
If the Sun Belt can find another conference to agree to send a team - the top contender right now is the Mid-American Conference - and a network willing to air it, it would give the league a third bowl tie-in, adding to agreements with the New Orleans Bowl and the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
“I am confident that we will have three and/or four guaranteed spots for 2014,” Benson said Wednesday on a teleconference wrapping up the league’s meetings. “… I would be surprised if we were not able to announce something before the start of the 2013 football season.”
Benson said it was “too early to get specific” on another possible site, but one is being promoted by an “organization that has been in place for a couple of years.”
He also said that the Sun Belt’s additional bowl tie-ins won’t necessarily be in Little Rock or the unnamed city, but that it could be both.
Benson visited War Memorial Stadium in December and UALR Athletic Director Chris Peterson, who is leading the charge from central Arkansas, said MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher is scheduled to tour the site in mid-June.
If Steinbrecher likes the site, the next step is securing a television contract, then forming a committee.
“We’re a long way away from solidifying any deal,” Peterson said Wednesday. “But those are two conferences that have a strong interest in locking in on a joint bowl agreement. We’re a ways away, but the Sun Belt sure liked what they saw.”
The most recent talks of a bowl game in Little Rock began in February 2012, when Peterson and Kevin Crass, chairman of the War Memorial Stadium Commission, said they were interested in getting a bowl with Sun Belt tie-ins to the stadium.
But that was when bowl games still needed to be certified by the NCAA and when it had set a four-year moratorium on new licenses.
Neither is the case now, meaning the hoops through which local organizations need to jump are fewer. For instance, in the past, the number of bowls conferences could agree with was based on an average of bowl-eligible teams. That’s no longer the case.
“It’s two conferences and a site to come together on an agreement on what you’re trying to accomplish,” Peterson said. “Then it’s getting a TV rights holder to buy into it.”
The Sun Belt had a record four teams play in bowl games last year, but five were eligible.
Arkansas State won the GoDaddy.com Bowl and Louisiana-Lafayette won the New Orleans Bowl, while the Sun Belt was able to get Louisiana-Monroe in the Independence Bowl and Western Kentucky in the Little Ceaser’s Pizza Bowl because conferences tied to those games didn’t have enough eligible teams.
But the Sun Belt couldn’t find a spot for Middle Tennessee, which finished 8-4.
“It could have just as easily been Arkansas State. We just don’t want to do that to any of our bowl-eligible teams,” Arkansas State Athletic Director Terry Mohajir said. “It would be tremendous to have as many bowl tie-ins as possible.”
Regarding a bowl in Little Rock, Peterson said not much more can be done until Steinbrecher’s visit next month, but Benson spoke optimistically of the possibility on Wednesday.
“The Sun Belt Conference is very, very interested in Little Rock as a bowl site,” he said. “We know that there are conversations ongoing with some of the ‘powers that be’ within the corporate community in Little Rock. … I think the Sun Belt is very, very bullish on Little Rock as a potential bowl site for us.”
Other items decided at the conference’s spring meetings were:
The men’s basketball tournament next season will include the league’s top eight teams based on overall record. The Nos. 1 and 2 seed will receive double byes into the semifinal, and the Nos. 3 and 4 seed will receive byes into the quarterfinals.
The move was pushed by the league’s basketball coaches after the top seed has failed to win the conference tournament in each of the last three seasons.
The women’s tournament will also include the top eight teams, but no byes will be awarded.
All men’s and women’s teams will continue to play home-and-home games with each league member.
The football schedule will include eight conference games starting in 2014, when the Sun Belt will have 11 football members.
Sports, Pages 19 on 05/23/2013