I was talking with folks at both the Death Valley Bowl and Bob Allen Pigskin Classic and we came to the conclusion that bowls might be better suited for the first weekend in October. The weather is too hot and its slows the games down too much. Second games often don't start until near 10pm, which has them finishing near 1am. Any weather issues only push the finish time back further, meaning kids get home even later.

 

My suggestion is to play two bowl games on a Saturday afternoon in early October. I realize you would be competing with college football, but you could play one game at 1:00 and the second at 4:00 and still finish without it being a terribly late night.

 

Would anyone be interested in this, or are we happy the way it is?

I think you would have 4 major problems.

 

1. Scheduling- At this point teams will be getting into their district schedules and God only knows about the out of state teams and how their scheduling structures work. It would be alot tougher to schedule your headliner matchups.

 

2. Money- Opening the season with Bowls capitalize on bringing those fans who only want to show up for the socialization aspect, and during Week 1 when every team is undefeated you have PLENTY of them. Let's say that Team A is playing Team B... Team B is the defending state champion but lost 8 starters on both sides of the ball and has opened the season 0-4 and gotten blown out in all their games... suddenly you lose alot of people who would have came.

 

3. Injury Impact- Coaches would be against this because if they are playing a high profile/high calibur opponent then the risk of injury to key players will be substantially higher, now say your star HB sprains his ankle... instead of losing him for 3 non-diustrict games with no effect on the post-season, you lose him and suddenly may go from winning the district to missing the playoffs.

 

4. Scouting- With key district games remaining scouting is put at a premium, now your district rival will see you play a very good team after some of the early season kinks have been worked out, additionally with the exposure Bowl games get the tapes of the game will be more readily available.

 

Then add in the college football aspect you mentioned, coupled with the fact that local tv stations who usually take large sponsorship roles will stray away, and I just don't think it is a feasible option.