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Sun Bowl moving to 10:30am kickoff

NoNCAAWinsSince1992

MI Miner Maniac
Nov 12, 2019
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Breakfast tailgating? Man that sucks. And considering one of the teams is from the Pac-12, that means for west coast fans the game starts at 9:30 am! I hope this is a one time change only.
 
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Well, a little online research revealed that this year's College Football Playoffs semifinals games are on New Year's Eve. This may be the reason why the Sun Bowl was moved up.
 
CBSSN has 1st choice of cusa games and is obligated to take at least 9. They scheduled 14 plus the ccg. Only UTEP and UTSA were left out. I understand that UTEP needs to start winning to get attention from tv providers but UTSA was pretty good last season and is expected to be even better this year.
 
Has the Sun Bowl ever improved in the Bernie Olivas era?
The Sun Bowl still exists to this day, doesn't it? That's more than some bowls can say.

I'm not saying the Sun Bowl couldn't be better. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, back when there were only a handful of bowl games, the Sun Bowl was able to get two quality big league teams to come to El Paso. Some of the best Sun Bowl games I've attended were during this era, before conference tie-ins, the BCS and the College Football Playoffs.

Today everyone and their mother has a bowl game, with more seemingly being added every year. The product has diluted so much that now 6-6 and 6-7 teams can play in bowl games, and in some cases, even 5-7 teams, neither of which are deserving of a bowl game. In my opinion, if you don't win a minimum of 7 games against FBS opponents, you don't deserve a bowl game.

So how can the Sun Bowl improve? One word - money, and a lot more of it. Even with a network TV contract, corporate sponsorships, and the hotel/motel tax revenue, the Sun Bowl is still regulated to picking 7th in the Pac-12, and who knows where in the ACC (4th or 5th?). To move up in the pecking order, we need to increase the bowl payouts. Of course if that were to ever happen, the bowls above us will respond in-kind. It's like UTEP competing with Alabama, We're never going to out spend them, no matter what.

Oh yeah, Notre Dame landed in our lap back in 2010. Fancy that ever happening again. We actually had one of the most attractive bowl match-ups that season - on paper that is. Notre Dame vs. Miami, the renewal of the Catholics vs. Convicts rivalry. Not only was the game a dud, with Miami not bothering to show up to play, but the weather was freezing cold, around 9 degrees at kickoff. Not exactly promoting the "sun" in Sun Bowl that year! Even Mike Golic, Sr., who played for the Irish, said afterwards on his "Mike and Mike" morning show that the game was "El Crapo".

Let's also be honest about this too. El Paso isn't exactly the most favorable tourist attraction in the country. Most times when our own Chamber of Commerce promotes tourism in El Paso, they promote our close proximity to Mexico. I also honestly believe that when the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio began in 1993, that hurt the Sun Bowl significantly. Where would a conference rather send its teams to, the Sun City or the Alamo City?

As for the halftime entertainment, I could care less about it. I'm not there to watch the damn halftime performance to begin with. I'm there to watch a football game! Hell, why bother paying some who knows what entertainer to perform a 10 minute lip-synced routine? Do I care about Neil Diamond or Rhianna or anyone else for that matter? We use to stage a fine, quality halftime performance with our local high school bands and students. Let's get back to that. Most of the time, the people in the stands are in line to get beer or take a piss anyways.

So should we blame Bernie Olivas for the state of the Sun Bowl? Absolutely not. He can only work with what he has. If anything, he ought to be praised for keeping the game going. I'll still continue to support the Sun Bowl, but we can only hope that some day this bowl madness will be cleaned up. Reduce the number of bowl games, require a minimum of 7 wins against FBS opponents, and eliminate conference bowl tie-ins. Only in a Fringe alternate universe I suppose.
 
Sun Bowl is in its worst 5 year stretch in terms of Attendance, tv ratings, and match ups. The days of 50,000 showing up, because its the premier event in the city, are over. Despite the sponsorships, CBS Deal, and the Rental Car Tax infusion.....The Sun Bowl is now a 10:30am game. We once had the 3rd Place Pac 10 vs the 4th Big Ten. It was the little Rose Bowl.

When Olivas took the job, it was common for 2 loss teams to be in the Sun Bowl and 50,000 in attendance. Now we say the guy is doing a great job because Notre Dame rallied at the end of the season to go 7-5 a decade ago
 
Sun Bowl is in its worst 5 year stretch in terms of Attendance, tv ratings, and match ups. The days of 50,000 showing up, because its the premier event in the city, are over. Despite the sponsorships, CBS Deal, and the Rental Car Tax infusion.....The Sun Bowl is now a 10:30am game. We once had the 3rd Place Pac 10 vs the 4th Big Ten. It was the little Rose Bowl.

When Olivas took the job, it was common for 2 loss teams to be in the Sun Bowl and 50,000 in attendance. Now we say the guy is doing a great job because Notre Dame rallied at the end of the season to go 7-5 a decade ago
We've maintained Power 5 tie-ins and still get big name teams to play here. Our payout is competitive with other mid-tier bowls.

What more do you think Olivas should have done?
 
8 million dollar budget, 200 thousand dollar salary, and 5 consecutive years of a decline in peformance.....If this is one of our coaches, or you at your job, then people should question if a change needs to be made. There has not been a single time since he's had this job that the match up contract has improved. At least maintain the level and not get jumped in the pecking order by Brand New bowls.

I get that he's a nice guy, but we are a large city and that's a prominant job. Its a Premier event. Its the Television Event where the city puts tons of money into national ads.
 
Sun Bowl is in its worst 5 year stretch in terms of Attendance, tv ratings, and match ups. The days of 50,000 showing up, because its the premier event in the city, are over. Despite the sponsorships, CBS Deal, and the Rental Car Tax infusion.....The Sun Bowl is now a 10:30am game. We once had the 3rd Place Pac 10 vs the 4th Big Ten. It was the little Rose Bowl.

When Olivas took the job, it was common for 2 loss teams to be in the Sun Bowl and 50,000 in attendance. Now we say the guy is doing a great job because Notre Dame rallied at the end of the season to go 7-5 a decade ago
As for the 10:30 am time slot, see my post #4 in this thread. This should be a temporary change. Nowhere have I seen this is permanent moving forward.

As for everything else, see my post #11 in this thread.

FYI, the last 2 loss team to play in the Sun Bowl was UCLA in 2005. Not exactly common as you stated.

And attendance has been consistently above 40,000, with the exception of 2017, and that wasn't by much. Compared to other mid-tier bowl games, that's a pretty good track record.

It also doesn't help that the game has been shown locally on TV. There was a time that the game need to sellout 72 hours in advance in order for it to be shown live locally.
 
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8 million dollar budget, 200 thousand dollar salary, and 5 consecutive years of a decline in peformance.....If this is one of our coaches, or you at your job, then people should question if a change needs to be made. There has not been a single time since he's had this job that the match up contract has improved. At least maintain the level and not get jumped in the pecking order by Brand New bowls.

I get that he's a nice guy, but we are a large city and that's a prominant job. Its a Premier event. Its the Television Event where the city puts tons of money into national ads.
But what more should he have done? If new bowls have higher payouts, how does Olivas prevent them from jumping us? There are plenty of other new bowls that have not jumped us, but Las Vegas with their new NFL stadium is loaded with money and Vegas is a more attractive tourist destination than El Paso. How could Olivas have prevented that?
 
As for the 10:30 am time slot, see my post #4 in this thread. This should be a temporary change. Nowhere have I seen this is permanent moving forward.

As for everything else, see my post #11 in this thread.

FYI, the last 2 loss team to play in the Sun Bowl was UCLA in 2005. Not exactly common as you stated.

And attendance has been consistently above 40,000, with the exception of 2017, and that wasn't by much. Compared to other mid-tier bowl games, that's a pretty good track record.

It also doesn't help that the game has been shown locally on TV. There was a time that the game need to sellout 72 hours in advance in order for it to be shown live locally.

I said when he took the job the teams had much better records. You actually proved my point, been 15 years. He's been with the Sun Bow a LONG time. And I said the last 5 years of attendance is the worst 5 year run in history. The Stadium has its lowest 5 years in % of capacity since the game moved from Kidd Field to Sun Bowl Stadium.

I don't understand that the same excuses that bail out Olivas don't bail out Football and Basketball coaches. We aren't on TV, Our stadium sucks, this isn't a destination, not enough money, fans have better options, blah blah blah.
 
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As for the 10:30 am time slot, see my post #4 in this thread. This should be a temporary change. Nowhere have I seen this is permanent moving forward.

As for everything else, see my post #11 in this thread.

FYI, the last 2 loss team to play in the Sun Bowl was UCLA in 2005. Not exactly common as you stated.

And attendance has been consistently above 40,000, with the exception of 2017, and that wasn't by much. Compared to other mid-tier bowl games, that's a pretty good track record.

It also doesn't help that the game has been shown locally on TV. There was a time that the game need to sellout 72 hours in advance in order for it to be shown live locally.
You do not know that the time change is temporary. If this year’s game has better ratings than previous years, CBS might want to keep it at 10:30. We will see how the ticket buyers respond this year. If only 20,000 show up and ratings are better, they will keep the 10:30 am kickoff.
 
But what more should he have done? If new bowls have higher payouts, how does Olivas prevent them from jumping us? There are plenty of other new bowls that have not jumped us, but Las Vegas with their new NFL stadium is loaded with money and Vegas is a more attractive tourist destination than El Paso. How could Olivas have prevented that?
It is becoming more and more difficult for the Sun Bowl to try and keep up with the Joneses. Unless you want to splurge on Mexican food and like hearing Spanish all day, why would anyone want to visit El Paso over Las Vegas???

Does anyone think that a large majority of college kids want to go to the boot factory over the LV Strip? El Paso and the Sun Bowl are kind of lucky they’re similar to bowls in LA and Las Vegas. However, that doesn’t mean that Bernie has done a great job.
 
You do not know that the time change is temporary. If this year’s game has better ratings than previous years, CBS might want to keep it at 10:30. We will see how the ticket buyers respond this year. If only 20,000 show up and ratings are better, they will keep the 10:30 am kickoff.
And you don't know that the time change isn't temporary. See how easy it is to play this game? :rolleyes:

It was an assumption based on online research which seemed logical. Also, no other bowl games can occupy the same time slots as the College Football Playoffs. That's in the contract with ESPN, who paid a boat load of money for the broadcast rights. You can do your own research on this.

And even if there wasn't, would you want to broadcast your bowl game during the same time one of the playoff games was on? It makes sense to move up the game earlier in the day.
 
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And you don't know that the time change isn't temporary. See how easy it is to play this game? :rolleyes:

It was an assumption based on online research which seemed logical. Also, no other bowl games can occupy the same time slots as the College Football Playoffs. That's in the contract with ESPN, who paid a boat load of money for the broadcast rights. You can do your own research on this.

And even if there wasn't, would you want to broadcast your bowl game during the same time one of the playoff games was on? It makes sense to move up the game earlier in the day.
Yeah. I didn’t say you were wrong, but the 1030 kickoff could become more than just “temporary” if it has good ratings.
 
And you don't know that the time change isn't temporary. See how easy it is to play this game? :rolleyes:

It was an assumption based on online research which seemed logical. Also, no other bowl games can occupy the same time slots as the College Football Playoffs. That's in the contract with ESPN, who paid a boat load of money for the broadcast rights. You can do your own research on this.

And even if there wasn't, would you want to broadcast your bowl game during the same time one of the playoff games was on? It makes sense to move up the game earlier in the day.
Going from the KVIA article posted on the other thread, this is type of bullshit fans like me hate.


Executive Director Bernie Olivas and CBS administrators said they decided to move the kick-time up from the original 12 p.m. (MT) kickoff due to the College Football Playoff Semifinal games being played on the same date.


“The earlier stating time of the 2021 Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl will benefit both our local audience and our national TV viewers. Locally, our fans will be able to attend one of El Paso’s premier events, and still be able to get home to watch the semifinals of the College Football Playoff,” Olivas said. “Nationally, the CBS broadcast of the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl will allow viewers an opportunity to see both our 87-year-old tradition before tuning into the CFP semifinal.”

Here you have spin doctor Bernie saying it was a Sun Bowl and CBS decision and not that they were basically forced by ESPN to not televise during the playoff.
 
CBS will dictate the game time. Bernie ( or any one else) can put their two cents in, but wouldn’t make a difference. It was smart to get the earlier start time. No way can they compete with the playoff games.
Ever since the bowls went to conference tie ins we have the short end of the stick.
Ironically, if my memory is correct, the sun bowl was one of the first to do it.
Not a big Bernie fan as I don’t seem him as very aggressive or creative. I’m probably wrong just the impression I get from the same old same old concerning the bowl game, basketball and golf tournament.
 
CBS will dictate the game time. Bernie ( or any one else) can put their two cents in, but wouldn’t make a difference. It was smart to get the earlier start time. No way can they compete with the playoff games.
Ever since the bowls went to conference tie ins we have the short end of the stick.
Ironically, if my memory is correct, the sun bowl was one of the first to do it.
Not a big Bernie fan as I don’t seem him as very aggressive or creative. I’m probably wrong just the impression I get from the same old same old concerning the bowl game, basketball and golf tournament.
You guys probably know more than me but who does he answer to? We should be grateful they have two P5 conference teams every year which is more than a lot of bowls can say but I am sure there are other bowls in bigger cities aiming to leapfrog The Sun Bowl. The bowl game and the city are having to compete with bigger/more exciting cities meanwhile we can’t get our crap together to build an arena.
 
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