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Show Viewpoint Bowl games mean big money, prestige, lucky referees Phil Oyler, American Fork Junior High Principal, was Utah's bowl game representative this year. Oyler worked the Sun Bowl in El Paso on Christmas Day. By JACK HILL College bowl time is great for football fans. Seems like there is a game on T.V. nearly every night and, of course, New Year's Day is a channel switcher's delight. Teams get in bowl games by winning their conference or by being "invited." The Orange Bowl takes the Big 8 winner and invites one team. In Pasedena, the oldest j bowl, the Rose Bowl, matches the winner of the Big 10 and PAC 10. The Southwestern Conference winner goes to the Cotton Bowl, the Southeastern Conference champion is in the Sugar Bowl and the Western Athletic Conference winner goes to San Diego and the Holiday Bowl. Other bowl committees, Fiesta, Citrus, Aloha, All-American, Peach, Sun, etc., invite the best teams they can get. Money, prestige and recruiting are motives to participate in a bowl game. Rose Bowl teams will take home $6 million each, that's tops. California Bowl teams, champions of the PCAA and Mid-American Conferences, each get $175,000. That's the bottom. Sugar, Cotton, Orange and Fiesta, each pay about $2.5 million dollars. The money goes to the participating schools with a share to the other schools in the conference and a share to the conference office. Although the Rose Bowl is the "big money" game, the battle for the mythical National Championship Cham-pionship will again be in the Orange Bowl. Oklahoma plays Miami with the winner a sure bet to be named Number One. Southern California and Michigan State will play in the Rose Bowl for $6 million and the right to say "we're number 6." Efforts to get a national playoff system in place to name a true National Champion fall short because of the money involved in the established bowl system. In every bowl game, neutral officials are assigned with the exception of the Rose Bowl. Big 10 and PAC 10 officials are assigned that game with no explanation available to the general public as to why. When all of the bowl slots are filled, the College Football Supervisors meet and assign the officials to the games. Because the WAC had three bowl teams this year, BYU, Wyoming and Air Force, the WAC officials got two bowl games to officiate; the Sun and California Bowls. With the exception of the PCAA, the conference supervisor determines deter-mines which of his officials will work a bowl game. The PCAA claims that it "determines bowl officials with its rating system." The PCAA sent three officials to the Aloha Bowl this year. Just like the teams, being in a bowl game is the goal of the officials. of-ficials. The prestige is more important im-portant that the game fee, expenses and round trip air fare to the game. It is viewed as an honor. |