The Missed Opportunity and Uncertain Future of the Hula Bowl

Saturday started with surprise for many. Many assumed that CBS Sports Network would air the Hula Bowl for the sixth straight season. Multiple schools included the CBS Sports Network logo in their social media posts promoting participating players.

However, Gameday arrived and just hours before kickoff, the Hula Bowl tweeted a list of cable channels and over-the-air stations in various markets that would air this year’s game. Naturally, many college football fans missed this tweet and looked to CBS Sports Network, but they aired a rerun of this year’s Army-Navy Game.

Not only did viewers have trouble locating the game on the listed channels, but once viewers actually found the game, the stream was substandard. The tweets below prove this. Many will focus on the Hula Bowl’s uncertain future, but the game missed a much-needed opportunity for all-star games.

All-star games struggle for relevance in the current landscape. In 2023, the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl called it quits despite 12 years of NFL backing. The Hula Bowl rose from the ashes of a 12-year hiatus in 2020. This landscape contrasts with the advent of sports on television.

After the now-defunct DuMont Television Network aired the sold-out 1951 East-West Shrine Game to a national audience, college football all-star games became a TV fixture. With few national TV broadcasts per year and a limit on regional broadcasts, all-star games brought the country’s brightest stars to one place in front of a national audience. The Blue-Gray Classic and Senior Bowls soon received national television exposure.

The Hula Bowl’s own television story begins in 1965 with an airplane. Six years after Hawaii gained statehood, ABC took a chance on the Aloha State’s flagship sporting event, airing it a day later on tape delay after a jet rushed the tape of the game to their Los Angeles studio. This began the Hula Bowl’s tenure on network TV.

After not airing the game in 1966, ABC aired the game live in 1967, thanks to a satellite. In 1983, NBC took over broadcasting duties until not renewing their contract with the game before the 1994 game, ending its over-the-air television (e.g., ABC, CBS, NBC) run.

When the Hula Bowl left NBC, only one all-star game remained on over-the-air television, the Blue-Gray Classic. The Blue-Gray Classic moved to ESPN2 for its 2003 edition before disappearing. An over-the-air network has not aired a college football all-star game since.

Many factors contributed to the lack of all-star games on network TV, mainly competition from the NFL Playoffs and an exponential increase in televised/streamed college football.

Despite the grim all-star game landscape, the Hula Bowl almost became the first college football all-star game aired nationally on over-the-air television in over two decades when it released its list of affiliates before kickoff. The Hula Bowl listed all 17 affiliates of upstart and unknown independent network Binge TV as broadcast partners. (Of the 17, only three had websites: WBNX (Cleveland 55.6), KXMP 8.7, and KRFT 8.2 (Springfield, Missouri)).

The affiliates covered over 33 million people or ten percent of the population. Although losing the CBS Sports Network deal hurt, the network has such low carriage that Nielsen never rates it. Consequently, the move to an independent over-the-air station could have increased the exposure of the Hula Bowl.

The Hula Bowl had the opportunity to start a movement for smaller all-star games to pursue similar deals with independent stations. While the NFL Playoffs, NBA, and NHL dominate the January sports landscape, syndication to independent stations would have made the game more accessible to fans while providing quality programming for these overshadowed stations.

Instead, none of the independent over-the-air stations received the game. Reports from those who saw parts of the Hula Bowl came from those watching on Dish or Spectrum, evidenced below.

Instead, none of the independent over-the-air stations received the game. Reports from those who actually saw parts of the Hula Bowl came from those watching on Dish or Spectrum, evidenced below.

Now, the Hula Bowl’s future looks bleak. The NFLPA Collegiate Bowl went dark with an NFL Network TV contract and backing by the league. All-star games are costly ventures. Costs of travel and lodging build, while venue operating expenditures also add financial burden.

With a significant loss of trust among several fans and no TV deal, the Hula Bowl hardly seems feasible anymore. Nostalgia and wonder for Hawaii fueled the game’s return in 2020. The move to Orlando in 2022, although out of necessity due to Aloha Stadium’s closure, halted the momentum of the first two post-hiatus years.

Rewarding players for prolific college careers in one of the most beautiful places on Earth was the draw of the Hula Bowl. Although Orlando is an outstanding city, it is not Hawaii. The nostalgia is gone and so is the national TV deal for the Hula Bowl. We may have seen the last Hula Bowl for a while.