Thread: Remember when NBC used to televise bowl games?

For a long time, NBC was synonymous with college football bowl games on New Year's.

Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Gator Bowl, and the Cotton Bowl (though only for three years).

Some of the great games in history: 1984 Orange Bowl, 1987 Fiesta Bowl.

I'm sure you remember when NBC cared about other college games and not just Notre Dame.

BTW, why did NBC lose all these bowl games eventually?

Originally Posted by SabresRule

BTW, why did NBC lose all these bowl games eventually?

NBC lost the rights to televise the Orange, Fiesta, and Cotton Bowls in 1994 to CBS when they lost nearly every major sport they televised except College Basketball. CBS took the Orange and Fiesta because of the newly formed Bowl Alliance and took back the Cotton I'm guessing to renew it's tradition of televising the game which they did for 34 years before NBC took it in 1992. The contracts for CBS to televise these three games were for only three years and didn't go beyond New Year's 1998 because in 1996 the BCS was formed to begin for the 1998 season and ABC instantly bid for all of the former Bowl Alliance games (Remember the Rose Bowl is a separate contract which explains why Fox doesn't currently televise it.) In addition, Fox wanted to televise a bowl game for the first time and therefore acquired the rights to televise the Cotton Bowl beginning New Year's 1999. To get back to NBC I guess seeing that the Gator Bowl contract was expiring in 1995 NBC bought the rights to televise that game and in part pushed to get Notre Dame included to get a bid if the Irish didn't make it into the Alliance or later BCS and had a better record than the Big East or ACC second place finisher that they would get an invite to the Gator Bowl. This actually happened twice in 1999 and 2003. And now as we all know NBC actually dropped the Gator Bowl to now televise the NHL Winter Classic game allowing CBS to now televise the Gator Bowl.

I myself greatly miss NBC televising the Big New Year's Bowls but in the same respect I think CBS should try harder to televise the BCS Bowls after FOX's contract expires because I am a big Florida and SEC fan and I think CBS does a great job televising College Football.