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In the least secret secret negotiations ever, it appears that the Alamo Bowl is about to ditch the Big Ten for the Pac 10. The San Antonio-based bowl has already moved its game into January and is increasing its per-team payout to $3 million. If the rumored plan is true the Pac 10's No. 2 team would head to San Antonio to play the Big 12's No. 3. Currently the Pac 10's runner-up plays in the Holiday Bowl.
As a college football fan, I can only applaud the move. It's been no secret that the Pac 10's bowl tie-ins have been, how shall we say, a little weak. Maybe it's because they don't play any games outside their home territory, apart from the Sun Bowl in that well-known media hotspot El Paso.
But isn't this a huge insult to the Big Ten?
On the one hand, yes, it is. The Big Ten has been a partner of the Alamo Bowl since its inception in 1993. When the conference's tie-in with the Sun Bowl ended in 2006, the Alamo Bowl became the Big Ten's only bowl game in Texas. You might have heard that a lot of good football players come out of Texas, so having a postseason presence in the state helped keep the Big Ten on the minds of recruits.
On the other hand, when you get down past the second-tier bowls, it's best to shake up your arrangements once in a while. In sixteen seasons, eight of the Big Ten's teams have made at least one appearance in the Alamo Bowl. Iowa has been there so many times there might as well be a University of Iowa at San Antonio. You can't expect fan bases to keep going back to the same city over and over again without losing some enthusiasm for the prospect.
The Big Ten wants to continue playing bowl games in Texas, however, so don't be shocked if they work something out with the Texas Bowl, who would love to step up their game's profile as well. That would preserve a Big Ten-Big 12 matchup within Big 12 territory as well, assuming the Big 12 retains the tie-in.
Many of the Big Ten's other bowl arrangements will be up for grabs shortly, so we probably aren't done seeing changes. I personally hope that something can be done to correct what seems to be a glaring gap in the bowl system. There's no game where a Big Ten team faces a Big East team, even though the conferences have considerable geographic overlap. Cast off your chains, Papajohns.com Bowl; you can do better than the SEC's ninth-best team.
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