Reading the article that Mark Harlan had to lobby the Holiday Bowl makes me ill. It should not be his job to hold the bowls in check. Larry “I am running a media company” Scott should be the one insisting that the Pac12 gets the most favorable bowl matchups possible to improve the perception of his product. The playoff is critical to the viability of the league. This media company mindset also answered some of my questions this season about why some of the most important league games featuring ranked opponents in division races were relegated to the Pac12 Network. He was so arrogant to think that this would force interested parties to tune in. It actually cost WSU a NY6 invite.
Evidently the PAC 12 did lobby to get Utah in that bowl.
The bowls not named the Rose Bowl paid additional money to get to pick their teams. So it was a lobbying job to get the bowl officials to pick Utah. Good job by both the PAC 12 and Utah ADs office.
One of the posters over on another site who is pretty tied in on the media side (in particular that bowl) posted
“I just spoke with my buddy on the committee and the PAC12 lobbied to get Utah in. Mark Harlan pressed for it and the conference pressed on Utah’s behalf as well.”
Well that is very refreshing to hear. The local media made it seem like Harlan was on his knees but that is also the current BYU narrative. Say what you want about “the hair” but at least he went to bat for his football programs.