Factors Affecting Attendance at Bowl Games During the BCS Era‪.‬

Introduction It would be difficult to find a decade in the 106-year history of college football bowl games in which more dramatic changes have occurred in the major college football postseason. The number of bowl games has increased more than 50 percent from 22 in 1998 to 34 in 2008. The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) has dramatically increased revenues for the elite-level bowl games, and payouts for their participants. The growth of conference championship games and other games being played on the first Saturday in December has decreased the amount of notice academic institutions and fans have in finding out which bowl games their teams will be participating.