Last year, Navy and Notre Dame played a college football regular season game in Ireland. Now, there is speculation that the NCAA wants to add international bowl games.

Brett McMurphy at ESPN reported the MAC, Sun Belt, Conference USA, American Athletic Association (previously the Big East), and the Mountain West want to create more bowl games so all eligible teams can play in a bowl game.

Basically, the group of the five conferences is concerned that they may be left out of bowl discussions with the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12, and ACC. The five conferences want an alternative for their schools to participate in if they are left out of "bigger" bowl games.

Possible international locations the five conferences are considering are Dubai, Dublin, Toronto, and the Bahamas. In the United States, a few locations have been mentioned: Miami, Orlando, Little Rock (Ark), Boca Raton (Fla), Montgomery (Ala), and Los Angeles.

But is playing international bowl games a good idea?

First, there has been brief success for international competition at the collegiate level.

  • The game between Navy and Notre Dame had 30,000 fans in attendance.
  • The International Bowl was hosted by Toronto from 2007 to 2010.
  • College basketball games are hosted in the Caribbean.

Second, what are the positives to bowl games being played internationally?

  • Adding more bowl games means the small universities and conferences get more revenue as bowl games usually pay out to the winner.
  • Universities and conferences get more opportunities to play different competition.

Third, what are the negatives to bowl games being played internationally?

  • More expensive as fans and universities would have to purchase long distance airline tickets.
  • More bowl games that are added could question whether making a bowl game is even meaningful. Last year, the selection committee filled 70 spots, that included six teams that didn't beat a winning FBS team.

An NCAA moratorium is made to discuss the possibility of adding more bowl games, whether internationally or in the United States. The moratorium is also looking at creating bowl games that end after the college football regular season.

More From KSOO-AM / ESPN Sioux Falls