Wednesday, April 28, 1999
Bowl Games of
Hawaii raises payout
The head of the isle
By Paul Arnett
bowls foresees no problem
winning approval
Star-BulletinBowl Games of Hawaii upped its payout to $800,000 as it made its presentation to an NCAA Certification sub-committee this morning in Dallas.
If all goes as planned, the Aloha and Oahu bowls will receive tentative approval to do business on Christmas Day.
"We won't receive official approval until the NCAA Championship committee meets in July," Bowl Games of Hawaii chief executive officer Lenny Klompus said last night. "But we don't anticipate any problems."
The committee also is reviewing possible bowl game sites in San Francisco, Houston, Toronto, San Jose, Calif., and Mobile, Ala. But Klompus said that Mobile was the only one expected to be approved this year.
"It's going to be called the Mobile Mardi Gras Bowl," Klompus said. "My understanding is it will have the second pick in the WAC against the second pick from Conference USA."
Bowl Games of Hawaii is still talking to the WAC about having a team from that league for one of its games. But officials are also looking at teams from the Big East and the Big 12. At this point, the Aloha Bowl would match the fourth choice of the Pac-10 against an at-large selection. The fifth pick of the Pac-10 would face an at-large team in the Oahu Bowl.
"We have a lot of options available to us," Klompus said. "I think one of the interesting things is the Mountain West doesn't really have a bowl site for its champion."
Right now, the Mountain West champion is loosely tied to the Holiday Bowl, but more than likely, it will be a Big 12 team involved in that side of the formula. The Mountain West would love to have Hawaii in its equation, but given the political landscape, that would seem unlikely.
Sources in Las Vegas said that bowl is not tied down to the WAC as originally reported. Bowl officials turned in a report today to the sub-committee saying that the two teams would be at-large vs. to be determined. WAC commissioner Karl Benson believes his league's champion could end up there if everything else falls through.
"There have also been a couple of new sponsors added this year," Klompus said. "The Alamo Bowl will be sponsored by Sylvania and Wells Fargo is taking over at the Sun Bowl.
"We're also excited about upping our payouts to $800,000. We'd like to get to a million someday, but you have to take it one step at a time. Our presentation is (today), but we don't expect any snags."
