Already talk has swirled about the Fiesta Bowl losing its place among the BCS bowls. Should that happen, the Cotton Bowl is well positioned to take its place (the game, not the facility). The Cotton Bowl Classic is played at the palatial Dallas Cowboys stadium, and prior to the BCS, was one of the highest prestige bowls.
Some (including your author) have felt it would work its way into the BCS mix somehow even before the Fiesta Bowl scandal - now it might have an even easier path. Or the BCS committee (made up of the six BCS conference commissioners and the Notre Dame A.D.) may just use its leverage to negotiate concessions from the Fiesta Bowl to stay in the mix, such as a more generous pay out to participating conferences.
The benefit of having the Cotton Bowl as a desirable alternative is the same benefit that professional sport leagues see to having "open markets" for teams: leverage. For example, the NFL benefits by not having a team in Los Angeles because it can use that as a bargaining chip when trying to get public funding for stadiums in existing locations. "If you Minnesotans don't pay more in taxes to fund a new stadium for the Vikings, we'll just move the team to L.A." (hey, it's happened before).
This idea, part of the larger topic of franchise free agency, is how one party can gain negotiating power (i.e., leverage) over another. If there weren't viable places into which teams could move, the threat of them leaving town is an empty one. For the Fiesta Bowl, the threat of losing its BCS status is very real because of the attractiveness of the Cotton Bowl Classic as a bowl destination.
Excellent post tyler - I think there is a market, appetite for explaining the economics / incentives in sports. You've made a great point here and it's very interesting to think about while teaching about econ!
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