While the NCAA does not administer or operate bowl games, there is a need for NCAA authorization and regulation to protect student-athlete safety and well-being, thus creating a need for a postseason bowl licensing process. Bowls regularly benefit sponsoring communities, participating member schools and conferences and student-athletes, and they must be regulated to preserve these benefits.
Existing bowls that have been licensed for 2009-10 include:
Allstate Sugar AT&T Cotton AutoZone Liberty BCS National Championship Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Brut Sun Capital One Champs Sports Chick-fil-A EagleBank Emerald Fed Ex Orange Gaylord Hotels Music City GMAC Independence Insight International Konica Minolta Gator MAACO Bowl Las Vegas Meineke Car Care Motor City New Mexico Outback Pacific Life Holiday Papajohns.com R+L Carriers New Orleans Roady's Humanitarian Rose San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Sheraton Hawaii St. Petersburg Texas Tostitos Fiesta Valero Alamo
The subcommittee based the total number of bowls on historical data regarding the number of teams that are typically bowl eligible and the licensing criteria used each year to assess the qualifications of the bowl candidates.
“The committee is pleased to license all 34 bowls that took place last year,” said Wright Waters, commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference and chair of the NCAA Football Issues Committee, which oversees bowl licensing for the association. “It shows the good work and management these bowl organizers have done to create a positive experience for student-athletes.
The postseason bowl licensing members of the NCAA Football Issues Committee are made up of one representative from each of the 11 Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conferences.