ESPN has been reporting that there is a group lead by Paul Sergeant to host a College Football Bowl game at Etihad Stadium, this story is now on CBS Sports and Bleacher Report.
The bowl game would feature one team from the Pac 12 Conference and one team from the Mountain West Conference. Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson has commented on the Melbourne Bowl game saying there has been positive talks but at this stage Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott declined comment.
This game looks like it might happen, I am a strong believer that there will never be a regular season NFL or College Football game in Australia due to a whole host of reasons mainly the travel and time difference would take too much toll on players and staff mid way through a season.
A post season game seems to be the solution, each college will find out at least 3 weeks in advance that they are in the Melbourne Bowl game, this will allow for all the logistic issues to be sorted like passports for players, coaches and support staff.
It will eliminate the problem of travel as the teams can arrive early and wont have to back up the following week to play as the Bowl Game is the final game of the season.
Australian fans could get treated to a match up which could include teams like USC, Oregon, UCLA or Stanford from the Pac 12 and Boise State, UNLV, Utah State or Air Force from the Mountain West.
Paul Sergeant is hoping this game will take place in the 2015 post season which will likely mean an early January 2016 game, but I think a more realistic change will be a January 2017 game after the 2016 regular season.
