Plenty of empty seats seen at last year's Iowa / Georgia Tech Orange Bowl game

The longest running title sponsorship in the college postseason lineup is coming to a screeching halt. Since the decision by FedEx to partner up with the Orange Bowl in 1990, 9 de facto national championship games have been played beneath it’s trademark block-text logo securing titles for Colorado, Oklahoma, Florida State, Nebraska and Miami among others.

It was a wildly successful partnership that lasted 21 seasons spanning 2 different venues. In fact, the Orange Bowl hosted 5 national championship games in just 9 years between 1990 (the inaugrial Orange Bowl sponsored by FedEx) and 1999.

And all it took was a partnership with the ACC and some bad matchups to bring it all tumbling down. The last four Orange Bowl match ups between Louisville/Wake Forest, Kansas/Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech/Cincinnati, and Iowa/Georgia Tech marked the worst ratings for the BCS bowl game.

For the last four seasons, ratings for the Orange Bowl have declined precipitously. The 6.8 rating for last season’s Iowa / Georgia Tech matchup was almost half of the 12.3 earned by Penn State / Florida State in 2005.

You can’t really blame FedEx. The world’s largest cargo airline was hit especially hard by the recession as businesses and consumers have cut back on shipping expenditures. The warning signs were there when FedEx also made the decision to abstain from Super Bowl advertising 2 years ago ending a 12 year run. So when ESPN, who will be broadcasting the BCS games for the first time next year approached FedEx with a reported $20 million a year, 4 year commitment advertising deal, it wasn’t hard to see FedEx abandoning ship.

The Orange Bowl has clearly lost it’s luster and its recent match ups simply aren’t attractive nationally. The ratings decline, struggling ticket sales, and lackluster matchups was simply too unattractive for the shipping giant who clearly did not want to continue the partnership especially if it meant a more expensive, long term deal ESPN is demanding. Looking at the numbers and match ups, who can really blame them.

Fed Ex simply wanted to “make a decision to allocate those dollars to our other sports properties and marketing initiatives” which still includes ongoing deals with the NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA and NASCAR including naming rights to FedEx Field where Penn State will face Indiana this fall in suburban DC and FedEx Forum in Memphis.

Now the Orange Bowl and ESPN is left scrambling for an advertising partner they hope will come close to matching the success between FedEx and the Orange Bowl. One can only imagine how difficult it is to convince a sponsor to pony up $20 million a year for 4 years for a bowl that consistently showcases ratings sinkholes like VT/Cincinnati or Iowa/Georgia Tech. Maybe the Orange Bowl selection committee will heed our warnings and go with the financially responsible choice next time.