In lucrative bowl business, games now in abundance

There once was a time in college football when a 6-5 record got you nothing but an early start to your offseason.

In 2005, it was worth a bowl invitation for 13 teams.

When you settle in front of your television in the coming weeks to tune in to your favorite bowl game (don't worry, you've got 28 to choose from), consider this:

Nearly half of all Division I football teams (56 out of 119) are playing in the postseason.

That begs the question: Is an invitation to a bowl still cause for celebration?

"It's become an expected kind of thing for any team that gets to be 6-5," said Steve Ehrhart, executive director of the Liberty Bowl. "With the expansion of so many bowls, it becomes more an expected appearance, a loss of being special."

But the fact is, bowl games make money like crazy — if not for the participating schools, then at least for the cities hosting the games. That helps explain why 11 new bowls have popped up since 1993.

As far as Oregon coach Mike Bellotti is concerned, the more bowl games, the merrier.

"I think a bowl game is a great thing for a program and its participants," Bellotti said. " . . . If we can have half the teams in the nation go to a bowl game, I think that would be fine."

Less enthusiastic minds might suggest the bowl market has become saturated.

Three cities each host two bowl games: Orlando, Fla.; San Diego and New Orleans (though both of New Orleans' bowls are being held in different cities this season due to Hurricane Katrina damage).

Last season, the NCAA nearly had egg on its face when only 59 Division I teams achieved the required six victories to fill 56 bowl spots.

With so many postseason games in the mix, not to mention the creation of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, the process for selecting teams for bowls has changed through the years.

Bowl deals used to be consummated with phone calls and handshakes — sometimes in the strangest of places.

Gary Cavalli, a former associate athletic director at Stanford, remembers then-coach Bill Walsh accepting an invitation to the 1977 Sun Bowl as he stepped out of the shower after the Big Game.

"Bill comes out of the shower in his towel, the guy from the Sun Bowl makes the offer right there," Cavalli recalled.