Fate Of Fiesta Bowl Could Come Soon
PARK RIDGE, Ill. (AP) The Fiesta Bowl's future as a part of the Bowl Championship Series could be decided before the end of May.
Officials for the troubled game and the BCS met Saturday at the Big Ten offices.
"We had a very comprehensive and candid discussion with the officials of the Fiesta Bowl and all of us on this review committee are grateful for the time they have spent coming here to meet with us," Penn State President Graham Spanier said. "Personally, I was very impressed with the depth of their presentations and the sincerity of their efforts and the transparency that they brought to this discussion."
The Fiesta Bowl fired its president, John Junker, last month after a report commissioned by the Arizona-based game alleged misuse of funds. The BCS responded by creating a task force to review whether it wanted to continue to do business with the game.
Spanier, who is also the chairman of the BCS presidential oversight committee, says it will take "two to three weeks" to review what was learned at the meeting and discuss it with conference commissioners.
He said the presidential oversight committee will hand down the final decision on the Fiesta Bowl and "that will take us perhaps through mid-May or so."
The Fiesta Bowl, in its report, promised sweeping changes to prevent similar transgressions in the future.
"I think we will take some good questions back and make sure we rethink and make sure there is anything else we have missed that might be important to assure the BCS that we have taken the right steps to correct these issues," Fiesta Bowl chairman Duane Woods said.
Earlier this week, the NCAA said it is delaying its decision on whether to continue sanctioning the Fiesta Bowl until later this year, saying it needs time to gather information on how the event will be managed in the future.
The NCAA said in a release it also wants to review the findings of a BCS task force that is examining the financial and political improprieties uncovered in a Fiesta Bowl internal investigation made public last month.
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