College Confidential

Coaches support Cowboys Stadium as inaugural playoff venue, although official approval still has yet to surface

Although no official announcement has been made on the status of Cowboys Stadium as the site for college football’s first national championship game of the playoff era, the venue already is drawing favorable responses from coaches whose teams have played in the facility. The stadium is expected to be selected as site of the Jan. 12, 2015 contest today in Pasadena, Calif., where conference commissioners are scheduled to take the formal vote this afternoon, followed by an announcement of the venue chosen between the two finalists: Cowboys Stadium and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.

During today’s conference call with SEC coaches, Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said the Arlington facility would be an appropriate place to being college football’s playoff era following the 2014 regular season.

“Without a doubt, they can handle it,” said Sumlin, whose team defeated Oklahoma 41-13 on Jan. 4 at the 2013 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, played annually at Cowboys Stadium. “The combination of the hospitality … and one of the best venues in the country, Cowboys Stadium is just a fabulous place to play in.”

Baylor coach Art Briles has taken his team to Arlington multiple times for neutral-site contests against Texas Tech. He said the flexible seating configurations inside the dome stadium should be a huge asset for college football administrators seeking to make a positive statement with the first game under the umbrella of the new College Football Playoff, which officially replaced the BCS on Tuesday.

“I don’t know how they’ll configure the seats, but they can hold up to … 100,000 people in there and you’ll never have bad weather,” Briles said. “I’m all for it. I’m all for a national playoff and all for it being in (Cowboys Stadium), because it’s a great stadium.”

_ Jimmy Burch

 

Report: College FB title game headed to Arlington but local officials have yet to hear that

ESPN is reporting that Cowboys Stadium has enough votes among administrators who will make today’s decision to be announced this afternoon as site of the inaugural college football championship game of the playoff era.

The network, citing a source with knowledge of the situation, said the decision between Cowboys Stadium _long considered the prohibitive favorite in the bidding process _ and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. “was closer than a lot of people thought it would be” but the game will be headed to Arlington on Jan. 12, 2015.

In addition, ESPN also reported that the AT&T Cotton Bowl will be announced as one of six bowls that will be part of the semifinal rotation during the playoff era. The network also cited an unnamed source for that information.

The Associated Press also reported the same information shorly before noon Wednesdsay (Central time), citing a source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decisive vote had yet to be taken. Conference commissioners were scheduled for a formal vote on the title game Wednesday afternoon, with a formal announcement slated after that.

But officials from Arlington at the meeting in Pasadena, Calif. said Wednesday they are unaware of any updates and expect to learn of their status when today’s vote is concluded and announcements are made in regard to the site of the title game and the Cotton Bowl’s status in the playoff mix.

Since January, multiple industry sources have cited Cowboys Stadium as a prohibitive favorite to land the championship game and the Cotton Bowl as a prohibitive favorite to become a regular part of the playoff rotation.

During a Monday news conference at Valley Ranch, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said: “I’m anxiously awaiting that decision Wednesday. Excited to have the opportunity … We think we have the facility, with our partnership with the Cotton Bowl, we just think we’ve got the tools to make it the best place to have that game.”

In January, an industry sourced told the Star-Telegram that the likelihood of the 2015 championship game coming to Arlington was 95 percent. Arlington’s status as an overwhelming favorite in the bidding process has been reinforced in multiple interviews in the past week but all individuals consulted stressed nothing was a done deal.

Throughout the process, Cotton Bowl officials have expressed optimism about their opportunity and made it clear they will be a regular bidder for championship games, which will be bid out on an annual basis during the era of the College Football Playoff, which officially replaced the BCS brand during Tuesday’s meeting in Pasadena.

Tommy Bain, chairman of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, has described the group as “cautiously optimistic” about its opportunity to land the 2015 contest.

In January, Bain said: “Our goal is to host the first one. We’re totally optimistic about hosting national championships, and we’re cautiously optimistic about hosting the first one.”

_ Jimmy Burch

 

BCS officials set March 27 deadline for bowls to bid for college FB playoffs; Cotton wil be in mix

The group overseeing the new college football playoff system has established March 27 as the deadline for bowls interested in submitting proposals to host national semifinals and other bowls to be played on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as part of the reconfigured postseason.

Officials at the AT&T Cotton Bowl in Arlington, considered a leading candidate to host college football’s 2015 national championship game, have expressed plans to bid on being a regular participant in the semifinal matchups.

The Rose and Sugar bowls will host the first national semifinal contests under the playoff format in January, 2015, with the Orange Bowl and a yet-to-be-named bowl slated to host semifinals in 2016, the second year of the playoff system. Two other bowls will host semifinal contests in 2017, creating a six-bowl rotation for semifinal games that could bring a high-profile contest to Cowboys Stadium every third year if the Arlington venue is included in the mix of semifinal locations.

Bowl sites selected to participate in the playoff structure will host non-playoff bowls in years when their venue is not hosting a semifinal contest. National championship games will be bid out on an individual basis, with Cowboys Stadium in the mix to host the initial contest of the playoff era in January, 2015.

Bill Hancock, executive director of the BCS and the future playoff system, said the idea of rotating semifinal contests between stadiums with capacities of at least 65,000 will give “as many fans as possible the opportunity to enjoy the new playoff and the other bowls in person … Because of the criteria, we don’t expect every bowl to proceed with a bid. But we want to extend an offer to all that are part of the college football bowl tradition.”

_ Jimmy Burch

 

Cowboys Stadium identified as "prohibitive favorite" as venue for 2015 college football title game

Cowboys Stadium has emerged as a “prohibitive favorite” to host college football’s 2015 national championship game, the first of the playoff era, based on an ESPN.com report citing sources with knowledge of the situation.

Today’s report backs up last week’s Star-Telegram report, in which Cotton Bowl officials expressed confidence about landing the contest and one industry source estimated the Arlington venue could have as high as a 95 percent chance of hosting the historic game. In discussing the chances of bringing the game to Arlington at the conclusion of the 2014 regular season, Cotton Bowl Athletic Association chairman Tommy Bain said: “Our goal is to host the first one. We’re totally optimistic about hosting national championships and we’re cautiously optimistic about hosting the first one.”

Monday’s report by ESPN.com should boost that confidence. The site identified the Rose and Sugar bowls as the venues for college football’s first semifinal games, on Jan. 1, 2015. It identified the Cotton Bowl as a “prohibitive favorite” to host the national title game on Jan. 12, 2015.

College football will begin is inaugural four-team playoff after the 2014 regular season as part of a 12-year contract with participating bowls. Six bowls will rotate as host venues for semifinal games, with the Rose, Sugar and Orange bowls already selected. ESPN.com, citing sources, reported that the other three bowls in the mix to host semifinal games would be the Cotton, Fiesta and Chick-fil-A bowls.

Cotton Bowl officials have expressed optimism about being a regular part of the playoff mix but stressed that contracts have yet to be signed to solidify that participation. A formal announcement is expected later this spring.

_ Jimmy Burch

 

 

Cotton Bowl draws 7.5 overnight TV rating, topping two of four BCS games played thus far #TAMU, #CottonBowl

Fox drew a 7.5 overnight rating for Friday’s telecast of the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic between No. 9 Texas A&M and No. 11 Oklahoma at Cowboys Stadium. That placed the Cotton Bowl telecast, which featured Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel of A&M, ahead of two of the four BCS games that have been played this season (Orange, Sugar) and only slightly behind Thursday’s 7.7 rating for the Fiesta Bowl between Oregon and Kansas State. The Cotton Bowl was Fox’s lone bowl telecast of the postseason.

_ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M will carry lots of souvenirs, momentum into off-season after dream debut as SEC member #TAMU

ARLINGTON _ As the curtain drops on Texas A&M’s dreamy debut season as a member of the Southeastern Conference, the Aggies will carry the following souvenirs into the off-season and recruiting campaign after a 41-13 rout of Oklahoma in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic:

--          No. 9 A&M (11-2) will finish with the best record of any major-college football team in Texas and is headed to a Top 10 finish in the post-season polls for the first time since the 1994 season.

--         The Aggies will welcome back the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, who racked up 516 yards (229 rushing, 287 passing) and accounted for four touchdowns in Friday night’s romp over No. 11 Oklahoma (10-3) at Cowboys Stadium.

--          By dusting the Big 12 co-champion to end the season, coupled with a long list of impact returning starters, the Aggies will begin next year on a short list of schools as favorites to claim the 2013 national championship.

--          The Aggies finished the 2012 season as arguably the hottest team in college football. A&M did not trail in any of its final six games, a stretch that included victories over then-No. 1 Alabama, then-No. 15 Mississippi State and No. 11 Oklahoma. A&M began those six contests with a combined salvo of 175-0, seizing leads of 28-0 (Auburn), 31-0 (Mississippi State), 20-0 (Alabama), 47-0 (Sam Houston State), 42-0 (Missouri) and 7-0 (Oklahoma) before the opponent answered.

--         Against Oklahoma, an A&M team known for second-half collapses during a 7-6 campaign in 2011 finished with a 27-0 flurry in the second half that underscored one significant point to first-year coach Kevin Sumlin.

The Aggies, said Sumlin, became “a different team” as the 2012 season unfolded, erasing legions of doubters in the process.

“There was reason for people to doubt us,” said Sumlin, who inherited a program that finished 25-25 under predecessor Mike Sherman and won its lone Big 12 football title in 1998. “Moving into a new league, a .500 program over the last 10 years … One game doesn’t define your program. Your body of work does. This game (against OU) was indicative of how these guys have played all year. Our guys expected to win. That’s probably the biggest change that we’ve made over the course of the last six months.”

Manziel said the Aggies “played with a lot of heart” and showed no rust from the layoff between their regular-season finale _ a Nov. 24 victory over Missouri _ and Friday’s bowl appearance while securing only the fourth season with 11 or more wins in school history. Even better, Manziel said, was doing so against the Big 12 co-champion in A&M’s first season after moving from the Big 12 to the SEC.

“To come in and go against a Big 12 rival and do everything we wanted as a team, we couldn’t feel any better,” Manziel said. “We came out and played one of our best games all year. This is the kind of game that turned the page again. To go out and win 11 games and do what we’ve done is impressive.”

In the near future, A&M will learn whether its two All-America offensive tackles _ juniors Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews _ will join defensive end Damontre Moore in making themselves available in the 2013 NFL Draft. Joeckel, an Arlington High School graduate who won the 2012 Outland Trophy, is projected as possibly the top overall selection in April, with Matthews also pegged as a first-round talent.

Regardless of who protects him next season, Manziel will be back in 2013. After Friday’s contest, NFL.com analyst Gil Brandt, the Dallas Cowboys’ former vice-president of player personnel, posted a tweet calling Manziel’s effort the “best performance” he’d ever seen by a college football player.

On his Twitter account, Brandt wrote: “Best performance by player I’ve ever seen. @JManziel2 was unbelievable. Better than Cam vs. Bama in 2010.”

As for the future, Manziel said: “I’m not really worried about the future right now. I’m really enjoying this. It’s been crazy … how we’ve progressed as a team, how we’ve continued to get better every week.”

All the way to being the best college football team in Texas during the Aggies’ debut season as an SEC member.

Twitter: @Jimmy_Burch

_ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M QB Johnny Manziel shows post-Heisman rust no factor in Cotton Bowl

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy in the award’s 77-year history, racked up 516 yards of total offense and accounted for four touchdowns in the ninth-ranked Aggies’ 41-13 rout of No. 11 Oklahoma in Friday night’s AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic at Cowboys Stadium.

Manziel rushed for 229 yards, a Cotton Bowl and FBS bowl record, and stressed after the contest that the Aggies (11-2) were far from rusty in securing what likely will be a Top 10 finish in the post-season polls.

“There is too much talk about how you perform after the Heisman and about the layoff and all that,” Manziel said. “There wasn’t anything holding us back. No rust, there was no nothing. We played as a unit and that’s all you can ask for … To go out and win 11 games and do what we’ve done is impressive.”

Manziel said the Aggies “played with a lot of heart” in breaking open a 14-13 game at the half and securing only the fourth season with 11 or more wins in school history. Even better, Manziel said, was doing so against Oklahoma _ the Big 12 co-champion _ in A&M’s first season after moving from the Big 12 to the SEC. A&M capped the season with six consecutive victories in which the Aggies did not trail, including victories over then-No. 1 Alabama, then-No. 15 Mississippi State and No. 11 Oklahoma.

“To come in and go against a Big 12 rival and do everything we wanted as a team, and send these seniors out with a win, we couldn’t feel any better,” Manziel said.

_ Jimmy Burch

Texas A&M routs Oklahoma in Cotton Bowl to cap memorable debut season in SEC #TAMU, #JohnnyFootball

ARLINGTON _ The first wave of celebratory “SEC! SEC!” chants began in the third quarter, long before No. 9 Texas A&M killed the waning seconds to put an exclamation point on a season marked by memorable moments.

But make no mistake: The Aggies took No. 11 Oklahoma out of the contest tonight and paved their way to a 41-13 triumph in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic with a third-quarter salvo that included a game-turning, 20-0 stretch in which A&M dictated play in Cowboys Stadium.

The Aggies (11-2) capped their surge with a 33-yard, fourth-down touchdown pass from quarterback Johnny Manziel to receiver Ryan Swope that underscored the game’s decisive momentum swing in front of an announced crowd of 87,025, second-largest in the history of the post-season contest.

The Aggies, who broke a six-game losing streak in the Cotton Bowl and won for the first time in four career appearances at Cowboys Stadium, outgained Oklahoma (10-3) by a 268-63 margin in total yards in the third quarter. A&M punctuated its first season as an SEC member by taking down the Big 12 co-champion in a bowl game during the same season that the school won its first Heisman Trophy in 55 years (Manziel) and earned its first-ever Outland Trophy (left tackle Luke Joeckel, an Arlington High School graduate).

For A&M, the triumph validated last year’s decision to leave the Big 12 in favor of the SEC and allowed the Aggies to defeat the Sooners for only the second time in the teams’ last 10 meetings. SEC teams have now won the last five Cotton Bowls, as well as nine of the last 10, in their annual matchups against Big 12 foes.

Behind the elusive running of Manziel, who set a Cotton Bowl and FBS bowl record for rushing yards by a quarterback (229), the Aggies became the first team in school or SEC history to top the 7,000-yard mark in total offense. A&M finished the season with 7,261 yards and set a Cotton Bowl record with 633 yards against OU, breaking the mark of 578 set by Southern California in a 55-14 rout of Texas Tech in 1995.

Manziel, a redshirt freshman, finished with 516 yards of total offense (229 rushing, 287 passing) and accounted for four touchdowns: two rushing and two passing.

“This is the first team to win 11 games in a long time at Texas A&M,” said Aggies’ coach Kevin Sumlin, adding that Manziel “did get better” as the contest and the season unfolded.  “You can put those numbers up against anybody.”

The Aggies, who last won 11 games during the 1998 season _ when the school won its lone Big 12 championship _ broke open a 14-13 contest in which the Sooners were not forced to punt in the first half by dominating both lines of scrimmage in the third quarter.

Oklahoma began the second half with three consecutive three-and-out possessions. A&M countered with Manziel-led scoring drives of 91, 89 and 71 yards.

On the first touchdown march, Manziel completed three consecutive passes, covering a combined 61 yards, before Ben Malena capped the seven-play journey with a 7-yard burst on an option play. Manziel went 5-for-5 as a passer on the Aggies’ next TD drive, which ended with Trey Williams’ 30-yard scoring sprint, and capped the Aggies’ 71-yard scoring march with a 33-yard strike to Swope on a fourth-and-5 play.

Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones, who threw for 175 yards and completed 23 passes in the first half, struggled to find the range after intermission as the Sooners lost for the sixth time in their last 10 bowl appearances.

A game projected to be one of the most entertaining matchups of the post-season did not disappoint in the first half. The two teams combined for 507 yards and 27 points, with A&M taking a 14-13 lead into intermission.

As has been their custom, the Aggies struck quickly. Manziel capped the game’s first possession with a 23-yard touchdown scramble, assuring that A&M scored first in every game it played during the 2012 season.

Oklahoma answered with a pair of time-consuming drives for field goals on its first two possessions _ one covering 16 plays, the other 18 _ and added a 13-play touchdown march in the second quarter. But the Aggies broke open the contest in the second half on a night when Manziel’s 5-yard scoring run in the second quarter gave him his 20^th rushing TD of the season and made him the fourth player in FBS history to rush and pass for at least 20 touchdowns in the same season.

Manziel joined current NFL quarterbacks Tim Tebow, Colin Kaepernick and Cam Newton on the elite list. And A&M capped a breakthrough debut season in the SEC with a decisive victory in the Cotton Bowl.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops called Manziel one of the most challenging quarterbacks he’s ever tried to defense in his coaching career.

“Absolutely,” Stoops said. “Not only what he does with his feet, but he way he throws the football. He’s awfully hard to handle.”

 Twitter: @Jimmy_Burch

_ Jimmy Burch

Cotton Bowl officials are optimistic about chances to land 2015 national title game

Tommy Bain, chairman of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, said today that bowl officials are “cautiously optimistic” about bringing college football’s 2015 national championship game to Cowboys Stadium and hope to get final approval next month.

The contest would be the first in college football’s playoff era, which will include a four-team playoff at the conclusion of the 2014 regular season. Commissioners from the BCS conferences will meet after next week’s BCS National Championship Game for further discussions about the site of the contest, with a decision possible by the end of February.

“Our goal is to host the first one,” said Bain, adding that the Arlington venue is expected to be in the mix for multiple title games in the playoff era. “We’re totally optimistic about hosting national championships and we’re cautiously optimistic about hosting the first one.”

Cowboys Stadium has been gaining steam as a possible venue for the 2015 title game in recent weeks, with multiple reports citing the venue as a likely frontrunner after commissioners discussed the topic in early December. One industry source, who requested anonymity, estimated that Cowboys Stadium could have as high as a 95 percent chance of landing the contest.

But both Bain and Rick Baker, Cotton Bowl president and CEO, stressed there is no deal in place and that additional negotiations must take place before the site is selected. Bain said he anticipates additional discussions later this month and bowl officials are “pretty excited” about pitching the merits of the venue as a revenue-producer and as a place where logistics would be convenient for travelers.

“The way this stadium hosts events and all the events surrounding the game, it’s unsurpassed in the country,” Bain said.

In addition, Cotton Bowl officials will make a pitch to BCS commissioners by the end of April about becoming one of three access bowls in the new playoff format. If granted access bowl status, the Cotton Bowl would host a semifinal game every third year and would hold an annual contest featuring teams ranked between No. 5 and No. 12 in the final BCS standings in the other two years.

_ Jimmy Burch

 

Oklahoma sells out its allotment of Cotton Bowl tickets in less than 24 hours #OU, #TAMU, #CottonBowl

Oklahoma officials announced Monday that the school sold out its allotment of tickets for the team’s Jan. 4 Cotton Bowl game in Arlington in less than 24 hours. OU sold more than 13,000 tickets: its original allotment of 12,500 seats, combined with a second allotment granted Monday by bowl officials. No. 11 Oklahoma (10-2) will meet No. 9 Texas A&M (10-2) in the contest.

_ Jimmy Burch