On Iowa Daily Briefing 5.17.12 -- The Hayden Fry Bowl

Day 1 of the Big Ten spring meetings: Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith said he didn't think a national semifinal played in Columbus, Ohio, in 5-degree weather in December was good for college football. He said college isn't pro.

OK, fair opinion.

Day 2 of the Big Ten spring meetings: Conference commissioner Jim Delany said he'll talk with the Pinstripe Bowl, which is played in NYC, Yankee Stadium in late December.

"New York City is the financial sports capital of the world," Delany said Wednesday. "It's a global city like Chicago. We'll have conversations with them."

Not OK for national semifinal, but OK for piddly mid-tier bowl game. Got it.

The Big Ten is just coming out of year 2 of its four-year bowl cycle. (Iowa fans can count this easily, just keep track of the Insight Bowls.) The Pinstripe was the only one specifically mentioned this week, but the Big Ten and Pac-12 are becoming really, really tight, like blood brothers or something.

So, probably expect a Florida or Texas bowl to bite the dust (I'd kick the Gator and TicketCity Bowls out right now, without even blinking) and say hello to a California bowl with a PAc-12 team.

Which brings us to sunny . . . San Diego!

Yes, the Holiday Bowl, basically built by Hayden Fry (three Hayden teams played in the Holiday), would be a perfect marriage between the Big Ten and the Pac-12. It also would give Big Ten fans some variety. Since 2003, Iowa has played in six Florida bowls. Granted, two of those were Orange Bowls, and you will make exceptions for Miami. Tampa? I guess so, but it's not Miami.

Of course, the Hawkeyes have played in the two Insight Bowls. There are others. Wisconsin has played in Orlando or Tampa in six consecutive years (2004-09). Michigan State has played in Orlando or Tampa in four of the past five seasons.

So, goodbye TicketCity (in Dallas, blah) and Gator (no one really likes you, Gator) and hello Holiday (San Diego is the nation's craft beer capital) and illogical but still pretty cool Pinstripe Bowl.

That said, who knows what it'll look like with a possible national final four on the horizon in 2014 (maybe, perhaps).

LINKIN' BLINKIN', AND NOD

Let's start with tweets, not links. Miles and miles of tweets about all the news and speculation from the Big Ten Conference meetings and elsewhere regarding the possible format for a four-team college football playoff, and other stuff in general. Like:

?@dirkchatelain 3 reasons I favor conf champs model 1) Adds value to title games 2) Decreases penalty of losing non-con 3) Reduces role of polls/committee

?@McMurphyCBS (ACC Commissioner John) Swofford did say ACC favors conference champ model, but champs should reach certain standard (ranked among top 5 or 6)

?@slmandel  Prediction at this point: Top 3 champs, 1 wild-card.

@MrCFB  Big Ten wants conf. champs only and wants to strength of schedule to be more important. Only one way to do both: Selection Committee.

@BTNTomDienhart Just because you win a conference doesn't mean you are a good team. Am I missing something?

?@DeWittCBS The best example of the regular season still matters in college football even with a playoff is Division II. And they let 24 teams in.

?@Ianfitzespn I hate that the higher seed in the new 4 team playoff in college football will not host semi-final game. Fans can't afford to travel twice.

@tommydeas College football seems on course to use "playoff" as code for locking out best teams from championship

@schadjoe What about BCS Final Four that simply limits any conference to maximum of two participants?

@MilesFomby @schadjoe Anything besides the top 4 overall teams is stupid.

@MatthewDTTWLN ESPN College Football Live wants to know the best format for a 4 team playoff? Easy! Expand it to 8 teams!

@TDAlabama Coach Saban announced in his most recent Crimson Caravan stop that Bama will open 2014 season against W. Virginia in ATL.

OK, on with the links:

-- The Big 12 is on board with this "protect the regular season" theme that is getting rattled around these days. The Oklahoman reports that's what Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione says.

“Every Saturday matters,” Castiglione said. “The idea that when we host football games on our campuses, it's important. We don't have that in college basketball right now. Whether that is a fair or an unfair comparison …

“The games need to matter in the minds of the stakeholders in college football. That's what draws television ratings and ticket-holders. That's what draws attention to the sport in general.”

A little explanation would be helpful. How would the regular-season be diminished if two more teams made it into the national-title postseason picture and even more teams thus became legitimate contenders? If it were a 68-team tournament like men's college basketball, yes, the regular-season would lose its juice. Four is a long way from 68. Eight would be, too.

-- Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer says the current system isn't broken, and a playoff wouldn't be a good thing according to this Columbus Dispatch story.

"You play in one of the bowl games, No.4 vs. 1, 2 vs. 3, then you go play in the championship game -- I can only imagine the workload that's going to be on that coaching staff and their players,” Meyer said.

Taking into account the travel back from the semifinals and then the travel to the champ game site, and saying it happens in a one-week window as some have proposed, “I can't even fathom trying to get ready for a championship game in two days, and that's what you've got,” Meyer said.

But Urban, we're told the reason the Big Ten didn't want the national semifinals played on campus sites is because the players do so enjoy the "bowl experience."

Michigan State Athletic Director Mark Hollis said the following this week: “And from the kids' perspective, the bowl experience is the one thing they want to keep in the equation. With campus sites, it becomes like a regular-season game.”

Yeah, sure, a national-championship semifinal will seem like a regular-season game. And that "bowl experience" at a national semifinal would involve nothing but visits to theme parks and eating contests at steakhouses.

Give us a break!

-- Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds and Big Ten folks will not be holding hands and singing "Kumbayah" when this four-team playoff deal gets hammered out according Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman.

“This entity needs to be separate,” Dodds said of the final grouping of four. “It needs to be their own bowls, their own TV, their own sponsors. Those four selected would not play in the bowls."

Oh, dear. Nebraska AD Tom Osborne said the following this week:

" ... the bowls have been good to us. If you took them out of the playoff, it would pretty much destroy the bowl system."

It's incredible, but true. Nebraska and Texas are in disagreement about something.

A four-team playoff might be interesting. The upcoming battle to decide on the playoff format will be awesome.