Hopes improving for NCAA bowl game here
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
The chances of Hawai'i playing host to a college football bowl game and the opportunity for the University of Hawai'i to appear in the postseason increased yesterday following action by the NCAA Division I Management Council.
If the council's recommendation to lift the existing moratorium on new bowls is approved by the Division I Board of Directors April 25, the NCAA Football Certification subcommittee could place a bowl game at Aloha Stadium as early as this December.
With a game here, the Warriors, who were excluded from the postseason despite a 9-3 record last season, would be likely candidates if they achieve a winning record.
Aloha Stadium, which had been the site of at least one bowl game for 18 years, was empty last Christmas following the departure of the former Aloha and O'ahu bowls.
Three groups have petitioned the NCAA to bring a December game back here as early as this season.
Aloha Sports Inc., which operated two games here in 2000, but moved the O'ahu Bowl to Seattle last year, is seeking to revive the Aloha Bowl here as a Dec. 31 game matching as yet unnamed conference representatives.
Global Events Management is also seeking a late December date and talking to a couple of conferences.
UH and ESPN Regional, the marketing arm of ESPN, are working with the Western Athletic Conference to match a WAC representative against a team from Conference USA in a Dec. 25 game here.
Both Global Events Management and the UH hui are new applicants that would have to wait at least a year if the moratorium, which is scheduled to end in 2003, is retained. Aloha Sports Inc., a renewal, is the only entity that would be eligible for a game if the moratorium remains in place.
Applicants say it is unlikely more than one Hawai'i group would be approved.
People familiar with NCAA operations say that while approval by the Board of Directors is far from certain, it is possible despite opposition from the Football Oversight Committee.
In addition to the three groups bidding to place games here, the NCAA also has applications from groups that want to put bowls in Charlotte, N.C., and San Francisco, which could expand the bowl field to a record 28 games.
In other action during its two-day meeting in Denver, the NCAA Division I Management Council also:
• Recommended that, under some circumstances, teams with 6-6 records may be eligible for bowl games. This season schools are permitted to play 12 regular season games. Hawai'i has 13.
• Recommended tightening requirements for Division IA membership. Schools would be required to play at last five home games against Division IA football opponents, average 15,000 in attendance, sponsor a minimum 16 varsity sports and spend at last $4 million on scholarships by 2004 or risk losing IA membership
Speculation is that passage of the home-game minimum will be a factor in whether the eight-school Mountain West Conference expands.
• Endorsed allowing football players to regain their eligibility after entering the NFL draft if they rescind that decision within 72-hour post-deadline window.
The so-called "Stallworth Rule" comes less than three months after Tennessee wide receiver Donte Stallworth lost his eligibility by committing for the draft and then changing his mind.
• Endorsed a plan that would allow high school basketball players to be drafted by the NBA, but regain their college eligibility as long as they do not have an agent or sign a professional contract. It would not affect this year's NBA draft.
• Rejected a plan that would have allowed college basketball players to regain their eligibility after being selected in the NBA draft provided they made a decision within 30 days.
• Endorsed raising the number of required high school core courses from 13 to 14 for freshmen eligibility, adjusting the sliding scale for eligibility and doing away with partial qualifiers.
