Southeast Kansas to host junior college bowl game

PITTSBURG -- The Jayhawk Conference finally has at least one "home" bowl game.

Tuesday morning, at Pittsburg State's Carnie Smith Stadium, the Crawford County Convention and Visitor's Bureau, Fort Scott Community College and Pittsburg State University announced the creation of a junior college post-season bowl game to be held here for the next three years. Citizens Bank, N.A., based in Fort Scott with one of its branches in Pittsburg, has agreed to be the title sponsor of the game.

In addition to the Citizens Bank Bowl, bowl games were also approved for Hutchinson and Wichita at a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) convention in Providence, R.I., last Tuesday.

Fort Scott Community College Athletic Director Rusty Beene said that Carnie Smith Stadium is an ideal place to host a junior college bowl.

"We discussed that Pitt State has the best facilities in (NCAA) Division II," Beene said. "We also have academic relations with the university. We approached Pitt State and they were interested in hosting."

The announcement of the bowl game was held on the same day Pitt State unveiled its new "Jungletron" video board, which will be the largest video board of any NCAA Division II institution. Carnie Smith Stadium has undergone a number of improvements in the last few years, including the installation of a FieldTurf artificial playing surface and the addition of 24 luxury skyboxes.

The Citizens Bank Bowl will be held December 6, a Sunday. An ideal weekend would feature Pittsburg State hosting an NCAA Division II playoff game on Saturday afternoon with the bowl game Sunday afternoon.

Citizens Bank owner/chairman Dean Mann said that the bank has a history of support for FSCC initiatives.

"We have a strong tie with the community college," Mann said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. "We're an avid supporter of their endeavors. We're proud of the college and supportive of the efforts they're initiating."

Participating teams will arrive on Friday prior to the game, conduct practices on Saturday, participate in a banquet on Saturday night and the bowl game will be played on Sunday afternoon, according to a press release from the CCCVB.

"It should affect (Fort Scott) as we're hoping to have full hotel rooms," Cynthia McFarlin, Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Tourism Director said.

The process for creating the Citizens Bank Bowl began shortly after the end of the last junior-college football season. Although FSCC was able to get a bowl bid, winning the Heart of Texas Bowl over Blinn (Texas), getting that bid was not easy.

One of the bowls that had been approved prior to the season, the Pilgrim's Pride Bowl Classic, folded because it could not meet its financial obligations. That left two fewer bowl slots open -- and there are not that many junior college bowls to begin with.

Then Blinn upset then No. 1-ranked Navarro (Texas) in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference playoffs. Even though Navarro had only that one loss, it did not receive a bowl bid because there was no place for the Bulldogs to go.

"Navarro should have been playing in a bowl game," Beene said. "If our game had existed, Navarro and Fort Scott might have been in it."

The Greyhounds initially had a deal with a new bowl in Minnesota, which wanted to host a doubleheader. But The North Star Bowl was unable to find an opponent for Fort Scott for the first game of a planned doubleheader. Word was that the North Star Bowl looked at Hutchinson, which had beaten the 'Hounds in the Region VI Playoff semifinals and finished as runner-up after losing to Butler in the championship game. The Blue Dragons did not get invited to any bowl game.

"Hutchinson was good enough for a bowl bid," Beene said. "And (the bowl shortage) doesn't even consider other deserving teams from across the country."

The North Star Bowl released Fort Scott from its obligation when the Heart of Texas Bowl needed an opponent for Blinn and went on as a single game.

The Jayhawk Conference also has not had a "home" bowl game since the Dalton Defenders Bowl in Coffeyville folded after the devastating flood of 2007. Last season, Butler had to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah, to face Snow College (Utah) in The Top of the Mountains Bowl for the national championship. The No. 2 Grizzlies upset Snow in overtime to win the national title.

Even if the Jayhawk Conference champion had to play for a national title in another bowl, having a "home" bowl such as the Citizens Bank Bowl ensures that at least one other Kansas team earns a bid. That should take care of the problem of having the Region VI runner-up -- Hutchinson last year -- failing to find a bowl to play in.

"It's been almost common for the Jayhawk Conference to get three bowl games," Beene said. "That was common prior to the Coffeyville and Pilgrim's Pride games folding."

Once sponsorship was secure, Beene and FSCC President Clayton Tatro took the bowl game before an NJCAA committee.

"This was really an idea created by Tatro and Beene," Mann said of Citizens Bank's involvement in the game. "They approached us and asked if we would be willing to sponsor the game.

"I said that I thought it was fantastic to have a national bowl game that was important here in southeast Kansas. And it will bring additional positive positive publicity to our part of the state."

Kansas goes from having no games for its teams to three if the other two venues are able to host their games. Hutchinson's Gowans Stadium will be the site of the Salt City Bowl. Gowans has been renovated extensively in the past three years. Wichita is the host city for the Mid-America Bowl. Both of these games are slated for Dec. 5.

Tribune Staff Reporter Michael Pommier contributed information for this report. Additional information came from www.hutchnews.com.