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Charlotte’s Meineke Car Care Bowl will move up one spot in the ACC bowl selection order starting in 2010 under an agreement the ACC will announce later today.
The bowl, held each year at Bank of America Stadium, has extended existing deals for four more years with the Big East and now the ACC, and will match teams from both conferences through 2013.
Meineke Bowl executive director Will Webb said Thursday morning that beginning in 2010, the bowl will get the fourth selection from the ACC after the Bowl Championship Series. Previously, the Meineke selected fifth after the BCS.
“It’s huge for this bowl,” Webb said. “We’ve worked very hard. We’ve gotten some great games for this community. To be able to move up a spot in the pecking order will help assure us of the long-term viability of this bowl.”
The ACC will announce the complete bowl selection order later Thursday morning. Webb said the Meineke Bowl also will benefit from a new rule the ACC has put in place for the loser of its championship game as part of its bowl agreements.
In the past, the championship game loser could fall no further than the fifth selection after the BCS. Now the championship game loser must be selected no later than the third selection after the BCS – before the Meineke Bowl makes its pick.
With the ACC championship game coming to Charlotte in 2010 and 2011, this means the Meineke Bowl won’t face the prospect of having a championship game loser coming back to town for the second time in a month.
Typically, bowl officials fear that fans whose teams lose in a conference championship game won’t travel in large numbers to a bowl game in the same city.
Webb said Meineke Bowl officials sweetened their payout structure in order to move up in the selection order. The actual dollars paid to the ACC and Big East varies each year based on ticket sales under a revenue sharing agreement.
But Webb said last year’s sold-out game between North Carolina and West Virginia resulted in payouts of approximately $1.7 million each to the ACC and Big East. Starting in 2010, Webb said, payouts should exceed $1.7 million each year under the new revenue structure.
In its seven years, the bowl in Charlotte has averaged over 62,000 fans with three sellouts. This year’s game will kick off at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 26.
“Despite all the bad economic news in Charlotte, there’s a lot of positive news on the sports front,” Webb said. “I think the bowl moving up is huge. I think us getting the championship game here is huge. And with the efforts we’re putting forth to meld these two together, we’re going to have a great time with college football.”
