Eric Young
SF Business Times
Organizers of San Francisco's Emerald Bowl announced a new deal Tuesday that will match a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference against a Pac-10 Conference team through 2009 starting next year.
The new deal with the ACC replaces an agreement with the Mountain West Conference that was in place since the game's inaugural contest in 2002. The ACC is considered a stronger football conference, featuring schools like Clemson University, Florida State University, University of Miami and Virginia Tech University.
The Pac-10 Conference will supply the other team in the Emerald Bowl. Bowl organizers enjoy the affiliation with the Pac-10 because fans of those schools likely will travel to San Francisco to watch their team.
The three-year-old Emerald Bowl is played in late December at SBC Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. The Giants support the football game because of the rent it pays for use of the stadium.
Last year's Emerald Bowl was the most successful so far. The game, in which Naval Academy beat University of New Mexico, drew 30,563 fans, an increase of 19 percent from the year before. TV ratings jumped 65 percent to more than 4 million viewers.
This year's Emerald Bowl is scheduled for Dec. 29 at 1:30 p.m. PST.
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