Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin
The Big 12 has announced agreements with six bowls and another new agreement with a new bowl game in New York City.
The conference’s new bowl order will include the BCS with an anchor tenant with the Fiesta Bowl at the top. In order, the conference’s teams will go to the Cotton, Alamo, Insight, Holiday and Texas with the New York City bowl sponsored by the New York Yankees baseball team at the bottom.
Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said he was pleased that he was able to command higher payouts for his conference than in the last series of contracts, which will expire with this year’s game. The conference’s new deals for the non-BCS games will result in an increase of about 33 percent from previous levels.
“We’re excited about this,” Beebe said.”In this economy to be able to command those payouts shows the attractiveness of the teams in our conference.”
The biggest winner appears to be the Alamo, which trumped the Insight and Holiday for the Big 12’s No. 3 team. The San Antonio-based bowl will now feature the No. 3 Big 12 team against the No. 2 team from the Pacific 10 Conference – the Holiday Bowl’s former matchup.
“It’s hard to have that for a bowl we’ve worked with as long as we have with the Holiday Bowl,” Beebe said. “But the Alamo Bowl was able to get the commitment from their sponsors where they were able to attract those teams.”
Beebe said he is pleased that his conference was able to continue an association with the San Diego-based bowl for the fifth team.
The geographic distribution of the Big 12’s partners also was attractive for Beebe.
“Considering the areas we are in –- with two bowls in Arizona and one on the East Coast -– we have about as good of distribution of teams as any conference,” Beebe said.
Here are the matchups for the Big 12’s partners and their opponents: BCS - Fiesta Bowl or national title game, Cotton vs. Southeastern Conference, Alamo vs. Pacific-10 Conference, Insight vs. Big Ten, Holiday vs. Pacific 10, Texas vs. Big Ten and New York Yankees vs. Big East.
Bowl sources indicate the conference could announce another deal with a bowl to take care of one more team. Among the bowls the conference could be considering are the proposed new bowl at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C.