College Football Notebook – May 23, 2013

This will likely be a light notebook post today as I am working on some assignments and web site maintenance, but here we go.

Chris Ault honored by Nevada

Chris Ault will forever be a Nevada man. Photo: Getty Images

As he should be, Chris Ault will be honored by the University of Nevada by having the football field named in his honor. For a guy to stick with a program like Nevada for as long as Ault did is truly remarkable. I would like to think that Ault had some opportunities to take on a higher profile job at some point during his 28-year coaching career, but he managed to make Nevada football something worth watching. A two-time WAC coach of the year and a College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Ault is also credited with the invention of the Pistol offense, which continues to create an impact not only at the college level but also in the NFL to this day.

On a related note, while looking up something on Ault’s career I was reminded that there was once a bowl game called the Salad Bowl. Nevada played in the 1948 Salad Bowl (during the 1947 season) and defeated Lone Star Conference champion North Texas State Teachers College, 13-6. You know North Texas State Teachers College today simply as North Texas. That was the first bowl game Nevada participated in, but they almost did not participate. The team voted not to play in the game for reasons I am unable to verify, but they ended up playing in the game after a threat of a lawsuit (at least according to Wikipedia). If there are any historians out there who can shed some light on this, I’m all ears. … Continue Reading

Worth the Wait, Northwestern’s Gator Bowl rings

It had been a painfully long time coming for the Northwestern Wildcats. Northwestern had not won a bowl game since the 1948 season, with a Rose Bowl victory. Since then the purple cats had been 0-9 in postseason games before last season. Northwestern’s 34-20 Gator Bowl victory over Mississippi State was a fitting way to snap the drought after some close calls the previous seasons. Who more fitting to lead Northwestern to the end of that drought that Pat Fitzgerald, Mr. Northwestern? Of course he should feel a great sense of pride in the accomplishment.

On Wednesday morning Fitzgerald showed off his newest prized possession with great pride.

Northwestern’s 2013 Gator Bowl championship ring.

College Football Notebook – May 22, 2013

The American wants a bowl game too

If baseball won’t fill the seats, might as well give football a shot.

The SEC and Big 12 have their deal with the Sugar Bowl. The Big Ten and Pac 12 have the Rose Bowl. The ACC has a deal to stay in Miami with an Orange Bowl spot reserved. Now The American wants to stay in Miami as well, despite being essentially locked out of the Orange Bowl. With no spot available in the Orange Bowl, The American is looking to create a brand new bowl game, with Marlins Park potentially serving as the host site according to a report by Tampa Bay Times reporter Greg Auman.

The idea would mean we would have four bowl games being played in baseball stadiums. The Pinstripe Bowl (Yankee Stadium), Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl (Tropicana Field) and Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (AT&T Park) have proven that hosting bowl game sin baseball venues is possible, and Marlins Park should be more than big enough to host a football game if this plan gets that far.

But two bowl games in Miami? That is an idea that may need a little more support from the city, although multiple bowl games in the same city is certainly nothing new. New Orleans will host up to three bowl games in some years between the Sugar Bowl and New Orleans Bowl and a BCS Championship Game every now and then. Orlando also has hosted multiple games with the Russell Athletics Bowl and Capital One Bowl. The odds of playing a second bowl game in Sun Life Stadium, the home of the Miami Hurricanes, Miami Dolphins and the Orange Bowl, are probably slim. This makes Marlins Park the obvious choice.

It also makes it the most likely to receive support from the city of Miami, which forked over a large sum of tax payer dollars to construct a baseball stadium that struggles to see 14,000 fans show up on a  regular basis. If baseball is not going to fill the seats, you might as well find as many ways to pack the seats as possible.

Whatever happens with a bowl game in Marlins Park, please do not let Jeffrey Loria have any role in it. … Continue Reading

An ACC-Big Ten Challenge in the Pinstripe Bowl? Sign me up!

Yankee Stadium should be a destination for the ACC and Big Ten. Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

The College Football Playoff is just around the corner and conferences from coast to coast are working to find strategies to bolster schedule strength and conference profile. Other than moving to nine-game conference schedules, conferences are looking to lock in future bowl partners. It is the closest we may get to free agency for conferences now that realignment seems to have been put on ice, unless we want to dive in to recruiting.

The Big Ten is among those conferences looking to secure future bowl partnerships to compliment deals in place with the Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowl. While some may feel the game is worthless, the Pinstripe Bowl should now be a destination for the Big Ten and ACC every postseason.

The Pinstripe Bowl, played in not-so-historic Yankee Stadium, looks like an obvious choice for the Big Ten. It is played in cold weather, which the Big Ten should embrace. It is played in the New York market, which is certainly a factor with the addition of Rutgers in 2014. And it is played in Yankee Stadium, the symbol of royalty in baseball and the sporting world. Yankee Stadium is everything the Big Ten represents: Bigger is better, and richer.

Fortunately, it appears as though this bowl is gaining momentum to join the Big Ten line-up. But which conference will line up on the other side of the field on an annual basis? The Big 12 and the Big East have participated in the past three Pinstripe Bowls, with the Big East owning a possibly surprising 3-0 record. This may lead the Big 12 to get out of sending one of their teams in to the cold of the Bronx every December and maybe look for another bowl tie-in a little closer to home. Hey, trips to New York are nice but at what expense? Three straight losses to the conference that has been picked apart by national pundits on an annual basis for years as conference realignment tears it from limb to limb?

Speaking of which, would the Pinstripe Bowl have much interest in continuing their relationship with the Big East as they switch conference identity to The American. The American is losing Syracuse and Pittsburgh this season to the ACC, and Louisville will join them in 2014. Rutgers is joining the Big Ten at the same time. The American will be bringing in some new blood over the next couple of years to replace those departing members, but it will take time to rebuild any sense of a national brand the conference once had. I would suspect the Pinstripe Bowl will replace The American first, and the Big Ten should be at the top of the list.

If the Big 12 remains on the line-up, that would be fine. In fact, the Big 12 would probably be more inclined to stay on board with the Pinstripe Bowl if the Big Ten did replace The American. I am just going to guess the Big 12 will leave their spot vacant.

This is where the ACC needs to jump in. … Continue Reading

Racer Kraig Kinsler has an Indiana Hoosiers helmet

They’re back! College-themed race helmets!

Previously on the site we have shared a look at auto racing helmets honoring the Oregon Ducks and Alabama Crimson Tide. Today we were made aware of an Indiana Hoosiers inspired helmet being worn by driver Kraig Kinser. Indiana may be a basketball school but we will give Kinser a thumbs up here for emulating the look of Indiana’s football helmet, straight down to the face mask. That is just cool.

… Continue Reading