Another Bowl Game

An NCAA committee approved a new postseason football bowl game for Pontiac, Mich., expanding the lineup to 20. The committee also approved changes in the format of the 5-year-old Las Vegas Bowl.

Both games will have berths available to at-large teams from NCAA Division I-A, selected without regard to conference affiliation or finish.

The Motor City Bowl will feature the Mid-American Conference champion and an at-large team. It will be played Dec. 26 at the 80,368-seat Pontiac Silverdome.

The creation of the Motor City Bowl directly affected the Las Vegas Bowl, which hosted the MAC and Big West Conference champions.

Instead, the Las Vegas Bowl, which is played Dec. 20, will have a team from the Western Athletic Conference and an at-large team. The WAC already plays its championship game in Sam Boyd Stadium, the same place as the Las Vegas Bowl.

It’ll cost Wyoming another $90,000, but the Cowboys and the Montana Grizzlies have rescheduled their season-opening football game for Oct. 4 at Laramie, Wyo.

The game had been scheduled for Aug. 30, but then Wyoming got a better offer - a chance to play national runner-up Ohio State on Aug. 28 in the nationally televised inaugural Eddie Robinson Football Classic for a $600,000 guarantee.

Montana, the NCAA Division I-AA runner-up, had a guarantee of $90,000 for the Aug. 30 game, and a $50,000 buyout if the game was canceled. With the schedule change, the Grizzlies negotiated a $180,000 guarantee.

Former University of Alabama football coach Gene Stallings returned to his Paris, Texas, ranch to recover from a broken hip.

Stallings, 62, was injured last Sunday when a colt knocked him to the ground while he was feeding horses.