Even though the NCAA does not run the FBS post season or crown a champion, but they are responsible for sanctioning bowls; I know an odd setup. Well, with the Fiesta Bowl's recent troubles has the NCAA sniffing around something that matters and not the trivial stuff like cracking down on subscription based recruiting sites.
The NCAA will meet with an 11-member NCAA subcommittee on April 28 in New Orleans:
Options facing the committee include allowing the Fiesta Bowl to keep its license, postponing a decision to a later date or revoking the license, which would stop the bowl game, Poppe said. A decision also could be made on the future of the Insight Bowl, which the Fiesta Bowl operates, Poppe said.
Dennis Pope who is the NCAA vice president of football and basketball said that it is possible that the Fiesta Bow could have their four-year license revoked and that could also include the Insight.com Bowl that is run under the Fiesta Bowl.
The odds of that happening or slim, but it looks like the NCAA is taking this serious, because the only reason bowl games have had their license revoked has been due to financial reasons.
The Fiesta Bowl did send out a response to their meeting with the NCAA:
"We look forward to meeting with the NCAA to answer any questions about the Special Committee report, and to discuss the new bylaws, policies and controls that the board of directors has put in place to prevent the activities described in the report from occurring again."
Wonder why the Fiesta Bowl is looking forward to that meeting, it is not as if they have time to implement, or demonstrate, a plan on what they have done differently.
I don't think anything will come of this as extreme as the Fiesta Bowl losing their license to operate as a bowl game, but look for the NCAA to possibly put the bowl on a one-year probation which means the bowl will not be played, that seems unlikely. The other option is that the NCAA can fine the bowl game where they would have to pay up to 50 percent of its gross receipts (pages 16-17 of football postseason NCAA rulebook).
If the NCAA brought down the heavy and put the bowl game on probation then look south to the Cotton Bowl to be awarded a one-year audition as the fifth BCS bowl game.
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