Why Does Nobody Want This Bowl Game?

The bowl made headlines last year for the committee’s reported interest in moving the game to Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, a proposal shot down by the ACC and the nonprofit Sports San Diego. Had it gone the other way, we’re talking about the first-ever NCAA sanctioned bowl played outside North America.

It’s not like we’re already seeing college football move across the pond, though.

The Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland, featured Kansas State and Iowa State last year; TCU takes on North Carolina in that same event on August 29 at Aviva Stadium. Arizona State and Kansas will play a Big 12 conference game at Wembley Stadium in the first-ever Union Jack Classic on Sept. 19.

These type of games bring pretty big checks to the table. For example, Kansas State, which lost to Iowa State 24-21 in last year’s Dublin game, received an estimated $2.25 million as the “designated home team.”

Needless to say, there’s a lot of money in these festive, international matchups and if the bowl season wants to survive, you can’t entirely blame certain committees for looking beyond the States.