The Midshipmen will likely play an opponent from the Atlantic Coast Conference in the inaugural Congressional Bowl, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 20 at RFK Stadium or the new Nationals Park.

NCAA officials formally granted licenses to the Congressional Bowl and the St. Petersburg Bowl yesterday during meetings held yesterday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The proposed Rocky Mountain Bowl, to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, was turned down.

"It was a wonderful day for D.C. and was the result of a lot of hard work on the behalf of many dedicated people," said Sean Metcalf, Chairman of the District of Columbia Bowl Committee. "I think the sports fans and residents of D.C. are excited by the prospect of hosting a major event such as a college football bowl game."

Navy played a major part in making the fledgling bowl a reality by committing to a long-term agreement. Athletic director Chet Gladchuk had previously signed a contract that guarantees the Midshipmen will appear in the inaugural game with an option to return in future years.

"Hats off and much thanks to Chet Gladchuk for believing in us and working with us," Metcalf said. "The Naval Academy athletic department has considerable experience in the bowl arena and was very, very helpful along the way."

Metcalf and his committee solved the other half of the equation by forging a deal to have the ACC send its ninth place team to the Congressional Bowl. There is a secondary agreement with the Mid-American Conference to provide a team if one from the ACC does not qualify, Metcalf said.

Congressional Bowl officials hope to have a service academy appear regularly in the game and yesterday Metcalf received a signed contract from Army for the 2009 contest. Negotiations are in the works to have Air Force also join the rotation.

"We worked for 17 months to put together a strong package. We had all the bases covered and were able to answer every question the NCAA folks had yesterday," Metcalf said.

Metcalf said the D.C. Bowl Commission hopes to conduct a press conference sometime next week to provide additional details about the contest, including the definite site and possibly a title sponsor.

Gladchuk was thrilled to hear the Congressional Bowl had gained NCAA approval since Navy was faced with the prospect of being shut out of the postseason if it reached six victories in 2008. All existing bowls have conference tie-ins while the advent of the 12-game schedule greatly reduced the chance of at-large openings.

“As an independent, we are always concerned with setting the stage for the football team to have a postseason opportunity if qualified,” Gladchuk said. “This coming season, for the first time in memory, all the bowls were closed. That is why we’ve been working diligently with the D.C. commission to make the Congressional Bowl a reality.”

Gladchuk praised Metcalf and his team for doing all the proper logistical work to ensure the prospective bowl met all NCAA specifications. Now Navy has to follow through on the field by winning six games.

“Administratively, it’s mission accomplished in terms of establishing an opportunity. Hopefully, the football team can have another successful season that results in Navy being bowl eligible,” Gladchuk said.

Gladchuk has already established a goal of selling 30,000 tickets to Navy fans. The Midshipmen drew an average crowd of 34,617 to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in 2007.

“I would anticipate an incredible turnout of Navy fans for a bowl game that is just down the street in D.C.,” Gladchuk said. “With the proximity of Annapolis to D.C., I would expect the number of fans to attend this bowl game to be similar to what we get for a typical home game.”

With the addition of the Congressional and St. Petersburg, there will be 34 bowl games played in 2008-2009. That means 68 teams, more than half the number at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, will appear in the postseason.

"The subcommittee continues to be challenged to provide quality experiences for our student-athletes while balancing that with the number of bowl-eligible teams," Southern Mississippi athletic director Richard Giannini, chairman of the NCAA Postseason

Football Licensing Subcommittee, said in a statement. "The subcommittee spent a great deal of time reviewing the historical data of bowl eligible teams and feels there is adequate opportunity to fill all bowl positions. The addition of two new bowl games will only provide more quality experiences for the student-athletes, institutions and fans."

NO CHANGE IN BCS FORMAT: As it turns out, the Big Ten and the Pac-10 weren't the only conferences standing in the way of a major college football playoff.

The Big East and Big 12 also made it known yesterday that they were against moving the Bowl Championship Series in that direction, so the BCS rejected a plan to turn the much-criticized system for deciding a national champ into a four-team playoff, starting in the 2010 season.

The league commissioners opposed to the seeded plus-one plan presented by Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive during five hours of meetings all said they were concerned a shift to that model would lead the BCS down a slippery slope.

"Even though we could construct barriers at this time, we felt like ... there could be easily an errosion of that; more pressure to add more teams with an ability to get to the national championship game as we went over time," Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe told reporters. "The system is under a lot of scrutiny that can result in pressure to add games. Our league is not favorable to a playoff system as a whole, and viewed this as the first step in that direction."