Hawaii officials
favor addition of
a fifth BCS bowl gameFrazier says the football team 'could lobby for such a game' if the Warriors run the table
News that the Bowl Championship Series will likely add a fifth game in 2006 -- creating more opportunity and potential financial rewards for so-called mid-major schools and conferences -- was greeted with positive reaction at the University of Hawaii athletic department yesterday.
"Obviously, what you have here is some pretty reasonable and educated people discussing why not add a fifth game and make it easier for teams not currently in the power structure to have an opportunity to play in a big bowl game," UH athletic director Herman Frazier said. "I knew there were some discussions going on behind the scenes with (Tulane president) Scotty Cowen representing the have-nots, the institutions with limited access to the BCS games."
That includes Hawaii, which plays in the Western Athletic Conference, a league that is not among the six that now comprise the BCS.
The champions of the current BCS conferences will maintain automatic berths in one of the five games. The remaining four spots will be at-large berths.
The BCS bowls generate more than $110 million a year for the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern and Pacific-10 conferences. The smaller conferences -- Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt and the WAC -- receive about $6 million annually.
"If we get in a position where our football team achieves the kind of success we think it can and runs the table, I think now we could lobby for such a game," Frazier said.
Warriors coach June Jones wasn't aware of details, but was happy about the developments.
"That would be pretty good I would think," Jones said. "But we still just have to take care of winning games and it sorts itself out."
Hawaii has gone 28-12 the past three years and played in two bowl games.
Even in if the Warriors don't improve enough to eventually play in a BCS bowl, the new deal could significantly help UH's finances if a fellow WAC member gets into such a game.
It is undecided which bowl will be the fifth BCS game, and the game will have to be determined financially feasible for network TV.
