Central Arkansas Leaders Submit NCAA Application For War Memorial Stadium To ‘Go Bowling’

If a working group of local city and community leaders get their way, Little Rock’s historic War Memorial will go “bowling” around Christmastime.

That group, along with the War Memorial Stadium Commission, officially submitted an application today to the NCAA for a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision bowl game to be played in Little Rock. If NCAA approval is obtained, the first game will be played this December at the stadium, officials said.

Rex Nelson, spokesman for the unofficial group, which includes the mayors, chambers of commerce, and the convention and visitors’ bureaus of both Little Rock and North Little Rock, said they have been working together for the past several years to bring a Division I Bowl game to Central Arkansas.

“We think a college bowl game will be the perfect addition to the event schedule at War Memorial,” Kevin Crass of Little Rock, the chairman of the War Memorial Stadium Commission, said in a statement. “Arkansans love college football, and I have no doubt this game will be a success. We already have the strong support of key people in both Little Rock and North Little Rock. The game will showcase the attractions that Central Arkansas has to offer for a national television audience while introducing a new group of visitors to the area’s many amenities.”

Members of the committee cautioned that this is only the first step in a process. The NCAA is expected to make a decision in May. If War Memorial is selected, the game will match teams from the Sun Belt Conference and the American Athletic Conference. The commissioners of the two conferences recently visited Little Rock and expressed their strong support for such a game.

If NCAA approval is received, the coordinating committee will announce the bowl’s name, title sponsor and television partner at a later date.

The bowl will give the Sun Belt Conference, which includes Arkansas State University at Jonesboro, its fifth bowl tie-in along with the New Orleans Bowl, the GoDaddy Bowl at Mobile, the Camellia Bowl at Montgomery and the new Cure Bowl at Orlando.

In addition to Arkansas State, football members of the Sun Belt Conference are Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Louisiana-Lafayette, Texas State, South Alabama, Louisiana-Monroe, Troy, New Mexico State, Idaho and Georgia State.

Football members of the American Athletic Conference are Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, the U.S. Naval Academy, South Florida, SMU, Temple, Tulane and Tulsa.

Navy, whose playing field is named for the late Jack Stephens of Little Rock, is joining the AAC for football this year. Navy will play in the West Division along with Houston, Memphis, SMU, Tulane and Tulsa. The East Division will include Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, South Florida and Temple.

War Memorial Stadium, built in 1947-48, is one of the most famous football venues in the South. The stadium originally seated 31,075. In the first game at the stadium, the University of Arkansas played Abilene Christian on Sept. 18, 1948. The stadium has served as the Razorbacks’ second home since that time. The current capacity is 54,120. In 2010, a $7.3 million renovation that included a new press box and major improvements in club seating was unveiled.

In January, Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long was unanimously re-elected as the chairman of the controversial College Football Playoff’s 12-member selection committee where the best four teams are chosen for two semifinals played in bowl games and a championship game played in a different city each year. The Ohio State University beat PAC-10 champion Oregon in the final game for the national championship.

According to the NCAA, the committee selects the teams using a process that distinguishes among otherwise comparable teams by considering conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, comparative outcomes of common opponents (without incenting margin of victory) and other relevant factors that may have affected a team’s performance during the season or likely will affect its postseason performance.

All conferences negotiated individual bowl contracts for their champions. Five conferences have arranged contracts for their champions to play in New Year’s bowl games — Atlantic Coast (Orange), Big Ten (Rose), Big 12 (Sugar), Pac-12 (Rose), and Southeastern (Sugar).

The highest ranked champion of the other five Football Bowl Subdivision conferences (the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt), as determined by the selection committee, will play in one of the six New Year’s bowls. Other available berths are awarded to the teams ranked highest by the committee. The committee assigns teams to bowls.

The committee will assign teams to the non-playoff bowls to create the most compelling match-ups, while considering other factors such as geographic proximity, avoiding rematches of regular-season games and avoiding rematches of recent years’ bowl games.