The Arizona Republic has an interesting article on the Fiesta Bowl. The author, Craig Harris, argues that bowl employees were urged by Fiesta Bowl executives to make campaign contributions to particular politicians and were then reimbursed by the bowl. The hope according to Harris, of course, was to keep the Fiesta Bowl a BCS bowl and to fend off competition from traditional NYD bowls, such as the Cotton Bowl, from taking the Fiesta’s BCS status.
It’s not illegal for individual employees to make campaign contributions to keep the politicians on the side of the bowl. But it is illegal for bowl executives to direct the employees to make contributions and then reimburse them. Let’s see if and how this story develops.
