The Camellia Bowl, in its second season, is one of a number of bowls created by ESPN not for the tickets sold or the attendance generated, but for the television ratings and advertising dollars that come with it.
As is the case with the Bahamas Bowl, the GoDaddy Bowl, and a few other postseason contests of similar stature, ESPN’s creation of postseason football inventory during the holiday season creates a magnet property whose television value outstrips the negative optics of a sparsely-attended game — in raw numbers, if not in percentage of seats filled (or both).
The Camellia Bowl is a representative example of this new kind of bowl — made expressly for television, with a crowd of no more than 25,000, and very possibly under 20,000. It’s not big on presentation. It’s located in a charming little ballpark, the Cramton Bowl, known to many college football fans and observers over 30 years old due to its identity as the site of the old Blue-Gray All-Star Classic on Christmas Days of yore.
The Cramton Bowl’s capacity is 25,000, and this game will begin when the much sexier Las Vegas Bowl between BYU and Utah is in the middle of its second half.
In terms of presentation and platform, the Camellia Bowl game in the Cramton Bowl stadium doesn’t pack a hefty punch.
The storyline of the game itself, however, shows that the power of soaring inspiration can exceed the demerits of inadequate presentation.
Ohio and Appalachian State bring compelling stories to this game on Saturday in Montgomery, Alabama.
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Appalachian State, like South Alabama in the first Camellia Bowl, comes to Montgomery making its first bowl appearance. The Mountaineers are most known by casual college football fans for their upset of mighty Michigan at the start of the 2007 season:
At that point in time, Appalachian State was an FCS program coached by legendary program patriarch Jerry Moore. The Mountaineers had spent a decade in the FBS (then known as Division I-A) in the Southern Conference, from 1972 through 1981, but they stepped back into the lower ranks, and in 1989, Moore took over the program. The 2007 win showed how far ASU had in fact progressed as a program. Surely, that accomplishment against a veteran Michigan team coming off a Rose Bowl appearance fed the desire for the Mountaineers to rejoin the FBS community and play with the big boys. In 2014, that dream became reality, as ASU joined the Sun Belt Conference, the modern incarnation of what the Southern Conference used to be.
Here we are, one year later, and new coach Scott Satterfield — having taken over for Moore after his remarkable 24-year run — has the Mountaineers in a bowl game.
It’s a feel-good movie before Christmas.
Yet, Appy State doesn’t offer the only inspiring story in this game.
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The Ohio Bobcats made two bowl appearances in the 1960s… and then didn’t make a bowl for nearly another 40 years. A coach who was unfairly kicked to the curb by Nebraska — after winning a Big 12 championship and later reaching the 2002 BCS title game in the Rose Bowl against Miami — found a home in the Mid-American Conference.
A decade after his arrival in 2005, Frank Solich — now 71 years young — is still leading Ohio to bowl games; still doing things in regular seasons (beating Northern Illinois on the road this year) to make the Bobcats known on a national level; still registering achievements which add to Ohio University’s stature in college football.
Ohio had never reached back-to-back bowls when Solich came to Athens. Check.
Ohio had never won a bowl game before Solich. Check.
Ohio had never won back-to-back bowl games before Solich. Check.
The Bobcats missed out on a bowl last season, suggesting (though not necessarily indicating) that Solich might have been losing his fastball.
This 8-4 season in 2015, complete with the road upset of Northern Illinois — one of the MAC’s two foremost programs over the past five years — showed that Solich still has some magic left to display.
A third bowl win — even in this humble setting, even against an FBS bowl newbie — would say a lot about Solich’s quality and longevity.
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Appalachian State. Ohio. Two teams in a small Southern ballyard on the weekend before Christmas.
The Camellia Bowl’s second edition might not be a high-wattage event, but there are plenty of shining lights to be found in these two teams and the stories they have authored.
