Garry Smits

gsmits@jacksonville.com

When Tennessee and Indiana played in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Thursday, it marked the 75th edition of the nation’s sixth-oldest bowl game.

Since the landscape of college football has experienced seismic changes in the last six years with the College Football Playoff, it’s difficult to predict the future of the games on the Gator Bowl’s tier, which are clinging closest to the old-school model of post-season football: invite two teams that had a modicum of success that will bring enthusiastic fan bases and generate excitement on a local level to create economic impact during the holiday season.

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In other words, “heads in beds, fannies in the seats” as bowl directors such as Rick Catlett, the Gator Bowl’s president since 1995, likes to say.

But there are some certainties about the immediate future of the Gator Bowl, which this year ended a six-year contract to match an SEC team vs. an ACC or Big Ten team, or Notre Dame.

The conference arrangement gets simpler beginning next year. The Gator Bowl will have an SEC vs. ACC matchup through the 2025 season, ending a 20-year period in which there were affiliation agreements with more than two conferences in all but four years.

The Gator Bowl was the first game to have an affiliation agreement with three parties in 1999 when it expanded its ACC vs. Big East agreement to allow the game to invite Notre Dame in place of a Big East team once every three years.

From 2006 to 2009, the Gator Bowl matched the ACC vs. the Big East, Big 12 or Notre Dame and from 2010 to 2013, it was the SEC vs. the Big Ten.

For the last six years, the Gator Bowl matched an SEC team against an ACC team three times and a Big Ten three times. Notre Dame remains a possibility since the Irish are part of the ACC bowl rotation when they don’t qualify for a New Year’s Six game.

Catlett said the SEC vs. ACC insures a more regional matchup that will make it easier for fans of both teams to travel to Jacksonville.

“Overall, we’ve had more success with SEC and ACC schools in our game,” he said.

The good news about the new arrangement is that the Gator Bowl moves up a notch in the ACC pecking order. Under the old ACC bowl lineup, the Camping World Bowl in Orlando got the next choice after ACC teams were slotted in the CFP semifinals or the Orange Bowl.

Now, the Gator, Camping World and Holiday Bowl in San Diego are on the same tier.

The two conferences will retain the power to assign teams to bowls, rather than the bowls extend invitations, with the bowls informing the conference commissioners of their preferences. That shift in bowl assignments began with the 2014 game between Tennessee and Iowa.

The Gator Bowl has also renewed its contract with TaxSlayer for another three years, with the team payout getting bumped from $3.1 million to $3.25 million.

The game will remain on ESPN, where it has been since 2011.

Another possible issue looms later this year: Catlett’s future with the bowl. At 69 years old, he is entering his fourth decade of service on the First Coast, first with the city of Jacksonville and the last 24 years with the Gator Bowl.

Catlett was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last spring but it was discovered early and is in a “stagnant” stage, he said.

“I feel great, I’m not having any side effects and it hasn’t grown any,” he said of the spot that was discovered at the Mayo Clinic while doctors were running other tests.

Catlett is having another round of tests in March which he said will determine whether he stays on or not. His contract with the Gator Bowl Association and as the presidents of JAXSports runs until July.

“I wanted to at least stay on until we got this next round of conference affiliations and title sponsor contracts done,” he said.

Catlett said whether the College Football Playoff expands or not, the Gator Bowl will still be around after the next six-year cycle ends.

“The tradition and history of this game sets us apart,” he said. “We’re set up perfectly for the next six years, and as the stadium area develops, regardless of what happens as it relates to post-season college football, the Gator Bowl will be a part of that.”