Cotton Bowl Stands To Gain From Fiesta Bowl Demise

The Fiesta Bowl is in a big mess and subsequently so is the BCS. The way college football's national champion is crowned is very much up for debate and growing more and more unpopular with each passing season. Now with the corruption of the Fiesta Bowl coming to light the BCS may be forced to make a change in venues. On the outside looking in is the man with a state of the art facility, tons of money and his arms wide open in a welcoming gesture. The Fiesta Bowl's next opportunity to host a BCS championship isn't until 2014 but instead of the event being held at The University of Phoenix Stadium there's a legitimate chance that Jerry Jones could be hosting it at his new Cowboys Stadium.

It was no secret that Jones had a target list of events he wanted to lure away from current venues to the luxury of his new stadium. He was unsuccessful in getting the Red River Rivalry to move away from the Cotton Bowl with the Sooners and Longhorns choosing instead to side with tradition and history. However, he was successful in landing bigger fish in the Cotton Bowl itself, the NBA All-Star Game, the Big 12 Championship and a Super Bowl. Jones used the world wide audience to showcase his $1.3 billion dollar facility. Now he's unapologetically set his sites on luring in the BCS and the Fiesta Bowl may provide just the opportunity. 

The University of Connecticut took a $1.6 million dollar bath to go play in this year's Fiesta Bowl. In turn the Fiesta Bowl invested that money in birthday parties ($33,000), strip clubs ($1,200), payouts to friends ($48,000) college tuition for relatives of those friends ($16,000), exclusive golf club memberships and illegal political campaign contributions. You tell me how the Fiesta Bowl survives after requiring schools to purchase 16,000 tickets and then spending the money in such an ill-mannered way? If the BCS continues to embrace the Fiesta Bowl then it is essentially making a public stance to cling to corruption. That's exactly the image the BCS is trying to distance itself from. 

BCS Director Bill Hancock has appointed a task force to look into the Fiesta Bowl fraud and determine the appropriate action. If the decision is made for the BCS to withdraw its affiliation from the Fiesta Bowl then Jerry Jones and the Cotton Bowl becomes the logical choice as a replacement. It that scenario comes to fruition don't expect the Sooners to side with the Fiesta Bowl either. Not only has Oklahoma been snake bit in the desert more than once while playing in Glendale but they've also had to play Florida and Florida State in a BCS Championship game in Miami as well as LSU in New Orleans. I'm sure they'd relish the opportunity to play a championship game in their own back yard at Jerry World.