This is usually the time when I will be regrouping from Las Vegas to prepare for a college football or NCAA conference game. Instead, I will be retiring from work at the beginning of the year so I can focus on my health. Some of you may know that I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease nearly a decade ago, and it is time to devote all my energy and focus to managing this disease. I have received amazing support from my manager Abi Madkour, my friend John Aurand, and my colleagues at SBJ. For this, I am especially grateful.
We’re also lucky to have Ben Portnoy, who has seamlessly entered the college world since September and will no doubt continue to provide outstanding coverage of what has become a very tough win.
This is not a goodbye, but simply an acknowledgment of what will happen next when I go on disability leave.
They’re calling Charlotte the Nassau Carolinas — well, at least they might do that next week.
The popular Toastery Bowl (formerly the Bahamas Bowl) between Western Kentucky and Old Dominion, scheduled for Dec. 18, has been moved from its usual spot in the Caribbean to the Queen City as Thomas A. Robinson Stadium in Nassau undergoes renovations.
“We had to do things that would normally take several months in a couple of weeks,” Clint Overby, vice president of ESPN Events, told my colleague Ben Portnoy.
Famed head roaster Mike Sibazko thought he was being pranked when he first approached him about the opportunity to sponsor the bowl title. Why else would anyone email him at around 10pm asking if his local lunch franchise (25 restaurants) wanted to be the title sponsor of a bowl game usually played in the Bahamas?
The opportunity came at the right time. Famous Toastery concluded meetings 72 hours early with a “brand refresh” in mind. Sibazko said he and his team decided to continue relying on the name of the famous roaster. Suddenly, the company also had a bowl game on the UNC-Charlotte campus to attach its name to.
“I had a dumber and dumber moment like, ‘Oh my gosh, some lucky fellow got a ball game,’” Sibazko joked. “We’ve done some kicking ass on the tires and the people who work with us not only through this partnership but our relationship with NASCAR [driver] Michael McDowell. [They] They are of the highest integrity and are not big scammers. “This was very real.”
In theory, bowl games take a full year or more to plan in terms of logistics, marketing, sponsors, etc. And the people involved in the Bahamas Bowl had a few weeks to sort it all out. Overby said it took about two days to dismantle the pieces in the Bahamas. The alternative sites were then narrowed down to a few potential candidates. Once Charlotte was selected, the team got to work arranging the hotels, sponsors and other partners needed to get a bowl game underway.
Next week, those accelerated efforts will be on full display when Old Dominion and Western Kentucky meet. The iconic roaster will also get a bit of a shine that would have been unimaginable just two months ago. “Only in my wildest dreams [did we envision this]Sibazko said. “We never thought of anything remotely close to this.”
The NCAA’s Charlie Baker proposal, which dropped 24 hours before his appearance at the SBJ Intercollegiate Athletics Forum last week in Las Vegas, is still making waves, Portnoy wrote. And while Baker’s ideas are, for now, just ideas, there is a feeling in college athletics that this starting point could help move the discussion forward toward legitimate action.
“This is the beginning of the conversation,” Georgia President Jerry Moorhead said during a one-on-one interview with Madkour last week. “There’s going to be a lot of discussions with other commissioners and athletic directors and presidents. I think Charlie brings up some ideas that he’s thought about a lot to start that conversation, and I think it’s going to be a very productive time for all the leaders in intercollegiate athletics to look at the way forward.”
Moorhead’s words should carry weight. He is Chairman of the NCAA’s DI Board of Directors and serves on the NCAA Board of Governors. People holding these positions have generally been opposed to direct payments to players in past decades. Baker’s proposal is at least being considered by Moorhead and others should demonstrate a growing understanding within the organization that something must be done regarding athlete compensation.
“We have to find a solution to what’s going on with NIL,” Moorhead said in Vegas. “I understand that some sporting directors have talked about the positives of the NIL, and certainly there are many, but we also have to realize that there are a lot of things happening in this area.”
Where Baker’s proposal is still just words on a page, it is also notice to those on Capitol Hill that the new NCAA president is willing to accommodate the fundamental beliefs about anti-athlete compensation that have buried college sports’ governing body under a mountain of lawsuits. In recent months and years.
Moorhead, like many others in college sports recently, has indicated that the NIL issue is likely not a problem that can be solved at the NCAA level and will likely need help from Congress. However, there is growing optimism within college sports that Congress will, in fact, step in and grant the NCAA some level of antitrust relief with respect to athlete compensation.
“Congress is going to have to participate in that discussion,” Moorhead said. “But we have to find a solution to stories like a quarterback getting paid $1 million to go to another school. That’s not what the NIL was supposed to be at all.”
- Iowa State’s Caitlin Clark will be Gatorade’s second university basketball brand ambassador as part of the new deal, according to SBJ’s Austin Karp. She will join UConn’s Paige Bueckers, who just over two years ago became the first college athlete ever to endorse Gatorade.
- ESPN had its best audience for its Heisman Trophy ceremony since 2019 on Saturday night, Karp wrote. The network drew 2.3 million viewers for LSU QB Jayden Daniels’ win, marking the best audience since another LSU QB (Joe Burrow) won in 2019 (2.5 million viewers for that win).
- After the Pac-12 Football Championship, and with the conference now functionally defunct, the future of college football in Las Vegas appears uncertain, writes SBJ’s Ben Portnoy.
- Production for the second season of “Coach Prime,” centered around Deion Sanders, doubled after SMAC (the production team) and Prime Video executives held an all-hands meeting following Colorado’s spring game in April. SBJ’s Eric Bacharach notes.
- All but three FBS bowl games this season will appear on ESPN’s platforms, and the media company is running 17 events itself, notes SBJ’s David Boren.
In the world of sports and entertainment, the opportunity to become the sponsor of a major bowl game can be incredibly lucrative and beneficial for brands. With the right combination of timing and strategic planning, a new sponsor can leverage this platform to reach a massive audience, enhance brand recognition, and align with the excitement and energy of college football. As the landscape of sponsorship and advertising continues to evolve, the timing may never be better for a new sponsor to step in and make a lasting impression in the world of college football.