Guess this can be considered bad news for fans of the Holiday Bowl, but good news for fans who might want to hit the occasional new bowl destination every December: The Big Ten announced today a bit of a restructured bowl lineup, coming to terms on six-year contracts with the Belk, Cheez-It and Las Vegas Bowls. The conference also announced six-year extensions with the Citrus, Music City, Outback, Quick Lane and Redbox Bowls. It also extended its agreement with the Pinstripe Bowl, the annual battle at Yankee Stadium, through 2025.
The changes take effect after the 2020 season.
In essence, the Belk, Cheez-It and Las Vegas Bowls replace past tie-ins with the Holiday, TaxSlayer and First Responders Bowls. The Cheez-It Bowl will host a Big Ten team every year of the agreement, while the Las Vegas and Belk Bowls will rotate; each will get three conference teams over the six-year agreement.
Basically, this now gives the Big Ten potential tie-ins to bowls in eight different states — Arizona (Cheez-It), California (Rose and Redbox), Florida (Orange, Citrus, Outback), Michigan (Quick Lane), North Carolina (Belk), Nevada (Las Vegas), New York (Pinstripe) and Tennessee (Music City), in addition to potential College Football Playoff destinations. So, it does what the Big Ten always likes to do: Expand the footprint into bigger, metropolitan areas like Charlotte, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
