HOOVER, Ala.—Chick-fil-A Bowl president Gary Stokan has been making the rounds at SEC Media Days, gathering information that he hopes will aid Atlanta's bid to become a major player in college football's reshaped postseason.
Stokan reiterated Atlanta's intention to bid to host a national championship game and to become a regular rotating host of the national semifinals in the new playoff system, which will begin with the 2014 season.
Also, Stokan said the Chick-fil-A Bowl wants to bid to become a site of the new SEC-Big 12 postseason game that the leagues have dubbed the "Champions Bowl." The new bowl, which also begins with the 2014 season, will be guaranteed a regular spot in the rotation to host national semifinals — probably an average of once every three years.
Although university presidents and chancellors approved a four-team playoff this summer, many details remain to be worked out. Stokan said he hopes to gain some insight into the process in a meeting with SEC commissioner Mike Slive while here for Media Days.
Stokan said representatives of the various entities that will be involved in the Atlanta bids — the Atlanta Sports Council, Georgia World Congress Center Authority, Georgia Dome, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, the city, the Falcons and the Chick-fil-A Bowl — will meet next week.
"I will download everybody on the latest information we have," Stokan said. "The meeting is primarily to put our partners together so we can start the process."
The next step appears to be site selection for the Champions Bowl, which the SEC and Big 12 see as their answer to the Pac-12/Big Ten partnership in the Rose Bowl. The plan is for the SEC and Big 12 champs to meet in the game except when those teams are committed elsewhere in the national semifinals.
Slive said a request for proposals (RFP) will be issued to potential sites for the Champions Bowl. Asked which bowls or cities will receive the RFP, he said: "We'll make that determination in the next week or two."
Slive was noncommittal on whether the Champions Bowl will be played at one permanent site or rotate between two sites — perhaps one in SEC territory and one in Big 12 territory.
"I'll let you know after we get the RFP out," Slive said.
Stokan said the Chick-fil-A Bowl is interested in either case.
"I could very easily see the Champions Bowl, if we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to bid and win, become the Chick-fil-A Bowl," he said.
Under the complicated playoff plan approved earlier this summer, the Champions Bowl will join the Rose and Orange as "contract" bowls that will be guaranteed three of the six spots in the semifinal rotation. Three other bowls, to be chosen from candidates that could include the Sugar, Fiesta, Cotton, Capital One and Chick-fil-A, will be dubbed "access" bowls and join the semifinal rotation.
Stokan said the Chick-fil-A Bowl has support from its title sponsor to pursue both paths into the playoffs.
"Chick-fil-A has said they want to move with us to become a potential sponsor of the Champions Bowl or an access bowl, depending on what happens with the bids," Stokan said.
The ongoing negotiations between the Falcons and the GWCC Authority about a proposed new downtown stadium to replace the Georgia Dome will figure into the bids. If Atlanta were to host the championship game or semifinals in the playoff's first few years, the Georgia Dome would be the site. But if Atlanta were to host late in the decade, and if the new stadium opens in 2017 as the Falcons hope, the new facility would be the site.
About the Author
