Nbc Out Of Bowl Business

For the past decade, NBC has provided the most memorable bowl moments: Miami’s Orange Bowl upset of Nebraska in 1984, Penn State’s surprising Fiesta Bowl victory over Miami in 1987, Florida State’s narrow Orange Bowl triumph over Nebraska last year.

But NBC’s bowls Orange, Cotton, Fiesta - go to CBS next year. The Orange and Fiesta join ABC’s Sugar in an alliance rotating the next six national title games.

“I just don’t believe in risking a loss of $10 million a year on two bowl games,” NBC’s Dick Ebersol said. “No one had as good a respect for the bowl business as we did. But this alliance doesn’t make sense for us. CBS had a real need … to be in the sports business with this alliance.”