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Mountain West, Pac-12 considering bowl game in Australia
Could a bowl game be coming to Australia?
Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said Wednesday at the conference’s spring meetings that the MWC and Pac-12 have had “considerable conversations” over the past five months about playing a bowl in Melbourne.
ESPN first reported that the Pac-12 had “exploratory discussions” about the possibility, and according to CBSSports.com, officials from Australia were in Phoenix this week where both leagues are holding their annual spring meetings. At this point, though, the game is nothing more than an idea.
From CBS:
It's not a given the game will get off the ground. One of the key issues: Which teams in the bowl selection pecking order do the Pac-12 and Mountain West send to Australia?
“We have to get down to who's going to give up what,” Thompson said. “You can't on this one say what if we don't have enough (bowl-eligible teams) and then on Dec. 5 you can't send someone to Australia. You're talking about 1,000 passports, 1,200 passports.”
Officials from Australia have told Thompson that “support” for football in Australia is “crazy” and that a game could be held in “the stadium where they have Aussie rules football.”
“They have 35,000 to 40,000 at every game,” Thompson said.
Three new bowl matchups in Tucson, Ariz. (Mountain West v. Conference USA), Austin, Texas (American v. Sun Belt), and Orlando (American v. Sun Belt) were reportedly certified by the NCAA on Tuesday. Those three additional games expand the total number of bowls for the 2015 season to 42, including the College Football Playoff title game.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
