re: Does Chris Warner know something we don't?

quote:

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Although Warner says New Years Day, I interpret it to mean any bowl on or after January 1. That is one of the measuring sticks for a program.

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Now, it can't be "any bowl" played after January 1st. The "Big 4", was the old standard, Sugar, Cotton, Rose and Orange. Then, though clever marketing, the Fiesta came in, and then with Bowl proliferation and the BCS, everything has changed.

However, today the term "New Year's Day" bowl is widely regarded to mean a non-BCS bowl, generally from the following list:

Cap One
Chick-fil-A
Cotton
Gator
Holiday
Outback

Some of these Bowls generally go on New Year's Eve, but because of the payout, are in the same league with the actual "New Year's Day" bowls. As others have pointed out, just being on or after January 1st, doesn't make it a "New Year's Day" bowl for prestige:

International
GMAC

Likewise, some owls played on "New Year's Eve", are considered "mid-level", e.g., the Armed Forces bowl payed $750k to each conference (as did many of the mid-level 12/31 bowls), while the Holiday Bowl (a New Year's Day-level bowl) paid $2.2m to each conference, although both played on December 31st last year.

The International played on January 5th, and GMAC played on January 6th, and each paid $750k, like most mid-level, 12/31 bowls. While the Cap One, the biggest non-BCS, played on 1/1, paid $4.5m to each conference.

To show how ridiculous the money is - the BCS Bowls paid between FOURTEEN and EIGHTEEN MILLION dollars to each conference, American money (back when it was worth something).