Another ACC vs SEC match-up looks to be shaping up in Nashville, Tennessee’s Music City Bowl. The Charlotte Observer says, “The Music City Bowl, now entering its eighth year, paid $1.1 million per team last season. The Alabama-Minnesota game last year ranked the Music City eighth in ratings (3.1) and sixth in attendance (66,089) among the 23 non-BCS bowl games.”
This article in the Charlotte Observer does a nice job of updating the current situation with the ACC’s bowl situation and this article in the News & Observer also discusses the issue.
The Music City Bowl is finalizing plans to join the ACC’s bowl rotation in 2006. ACC commissioner John Swofford wants to increase the league’s tie-ins from six to seven or eight once the current contracts expire after this year.
“We’re in the final process with the ACC and SEC,” Music City Bowl executive director Scott Ramsey said Thursday. “I think we’re comfortable enough to finish it up within the next week or so.”
The Charlotte article also states, “The conference has spoken extensively with the Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.) and Emerald Bowl (San Francisco)”…as was discussed in a lot of detail in this previous entry on StatefansNation.
“Liberty Bowl executive director Steve Ehrhart said he has not spoken with the ACC for one or two weeks. “We still have a great partnership and relationship with the Mountain West,” Ehrhart said. “The ACC, Big East and SEC all knocked on our door. We’re willing to listen to see what they have to offer.”
There is a good discussion regarding the Music City issue on this thread on Pack Pride’s message board.
All else being equal…if I had to choose between the bowls, then I would prefer the Liberty to the Music City. The Liberty has more ‘history’ and, as nice of a place that Nashville is to live, I would much rather visit and party in Memphis. As packfanstk put it, “The Music City would be a fine once-every-ten-year-disappointing-season Bowl for the Wolfpack. I’d be happy to go once in a decade and combine it with the Grand Ole Opry. Maybe they’d let Chuck sing “Riding Ol’ Paint”. ”
^ That is a good way for me gauge my feelings — I wouldn’t mind going to the Liberty Bowl once ever five years or so. The Music City Bowl would be more like once very 7 to 10 years.
BUT…all things are NOT equal here – From all indications the Music City Bowl offers the ACC an opportunity to match-up against an SEC team where the Liberty Bowl can offer an imbalanced match-up of a mid-to-low tier ACC team against the Champion of Conference USA.
I think that we can all make that call.
