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If you thought 39 bowl games for college football were enough, you were wrong. Wednesday is the deadline for sites to submit for approval for a new bowl game, and it is expected that two new games will be presented for approval. The Little Rock Bowl and Arizona Bowl are in discussion, with the Cure Bowl in Orlando already slated to begin in 2015.
The Arizona Bowl would be played in Tucson, on the University of Arizona campus. Tuscon has not had a bowl game since 1999, when the Insight Bowl was moved to Phoenix by Fiesta Bowl officials.
Tucson (MW/C-USA) & Little Rock (AAC/SB) expect to apply for new bowls, sources told @ESPN. Would be 42 bowls in 2015
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) March 30, 2015
That means 82 teams will be needed to fill the bowls, or 65 percent of the 127 teams on the FBS level this season, if these two additional bowl games are approved.
The Arizona Bowl would feature teams from the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA. The bowl is likely to be broadcast on either Fox Sports or CBS Sports Network, which is a nice change from the ESPN-centric bowl scene.
If a proposed game has the support of two conferences and a television network, it is usually approved. The decision will probably take a few weeks, and if it is approved the Arizona Bowl would be the seventh tie-in for the Mountain West Conference.
This game would likely be played sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day. Last year, the conference sent seven teams to the postseason, so the addition game should not be an issue unless a team makes a New Year's Day Bowl, as Boise State did last season.
In addition, though it is not quite Mountain West related, the Pac-12 is looking to start a bowl game in Australia for the 2016 season, as well.
Pac-12 had exploratory talks about adding bowl in Melbourne, Australia, but now targeting 2016
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) March 30, 2015