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The Mid-American Conference may be nearing a deal for a replacement for the soon-to-be defunct Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. AL.com is reporting that the city of Montgomery, Ala., is in serious talks with ESPN to possibly place a bowl game in Montgomery's Cramton Bowl starting in 2014.
The proposed bowl game would pair the MAC against the Sun Belt, and would be the first of the possibly three new primary bowls MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher teased at MAC Media Day earlier this summer.
As the article on AL.com reports out, Alabama currently has two other bowl games: The BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, and The GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile. The GoDaddy.com Bowl is one of the MAC's current primary bowls, and also features a pairing against the Sun Belt.
While nothing is official yet, the proposed site of the bowl is the city's Cramton Bowl, home to the Raycom College Football All-Star game every year in January. The stadium, which was originally constructed in 1922, holds 25,000, and has undergone recent renovations according to AL.com. But, there are also people involved who would like to see the game played at Alabama State's stadium, The New ASU Stadium, a beautiful 26,500 capacity shrine to FCS program.
It's interesting to see ESPN pushing for another MAC-Sun Belt bowl. With both Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports looking to land bowls of their own, and the MAC in the middle of its deal with ESPN, the network might be vying to strengthen its relationship with the mid-major conference.