Not really. ESPN, Inc. owns seven bowl games. Gildan/New Mexico, Beef O Brady's/St. Petersburg, Maaco/Las Vegas, Sheraton/Hawaii, Meinike/Texas, Bell Helicopter/Armed Forces, and BBVA Compas/Birmingham. The TV rights are not bid, the entire bowl belongs to ESPN, which pays rent to the stadium, etc. Judging by the attendence ESPN only purpose in these ventures is a TV show. The stadiums are serving more or less as studios.
ESPN also owns six "exempt" early season basketball tournaments (teams can play in such a tournament and the games count on the records, but not against the NCAA limit of 28 games in the regular season), the Hawaiian Islands Invitational (semi-pro soccer tournament), the MEAC/SWAC Challenge ("HBCU" football game in Orlando), the Warrior Classic (college lacrosse tournament), the National Golf Challenge (club pro tournament), and the "Bracket Busters" basketball tournament.
www.espnplus.com/football.php
As to the OP's question, any person or group could start a bowl game, but you need an NCAA license. The NCAA grants liscenses every four years, next time to apply would be for the 2013 season (some games would be in 2014). The application requires the owner to guarentee the payout with corporate wealth or a bond (if you remember the long-forgotten Cherry Bowl, they sold about 30 tickets and the two teams ended up not getting paid, so they put in a rule) and show a business plan as far as workers, stadium plan, all of that. The NCAA has stated that it would not grant more liscenses unless the number of teams in Division I-A increases (thus increasing the number of bowl eligiable teams).