Report: Holiday Bowl to be demoted

Updated: August 12, 2009, 10:53 PM ET

By Ted Miller | ESPN.com

The Pac-10 is close to signing a contract that will send the conference's No. 2 team to the Alamo Bowl and will result in a demotion of the conference's present bowl partners, the Seattle Times reported.

Money apparently was the deciding factor. The Alamo Bowl offered $3 million per team, and the Holiday Bowl, which currently features the conference's No. 2 team, is unlikely to raise its payout from $2.35 million, the report said.

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If the deal is finalized, it would begin with the 2010 season and would match the Pac-10 against the Big 12. The Pac-10's No. 3 team then would go to the Holiday Bowl and the No. 4 to the Sun Bowl.

The Pac-10's current bowl agreements with the Rose, Holiday, Sun, Las Vegas, Emerald and Poinsettia Bowls expire after this season.

This season's Alamo Bowl will feature the third pick out of the Big 12 and the No. 4 Big Ten team.

The bowl is scheduled for Jan. 2 after spending the previous 17 seasons with a late-December date. If that date holds, it would give the Pac-10 a second coveted post-New Year's Day bowl date.

Pac-10 teams won the first two Alamo Bowl games in 1993 and 1994. California beat Iowa 37-3 and Washington State beat Baylor 10-3.

Ted Miller covers the Pac-10 for ESPN.com and can be reached at tedmillerespn@gmail.com.