The financially troubled Houston Bowl is still that way.

The Houston Bowl is without a title sponsor and television deal, and owes a portion of its $1.2 million payout to the Big 12 and Mountain West conferences for playing in last year’s game at Reliant Stadium. The NCAA bowl certification committee has set a deadline for the end of June to decide the six-year-old bowl’s fate.

If the Houston Bowl is not played this year, there is a chance it could take a year off to reorganize and seek recertification in 2007. Weiberg said last month the bowl would have to be run by one of the participating conferences and its payout would have to be reduced from $1.2 million to $750,000 to survive.

The Houston Bowl has affiliations with the Big 12, Big East, Conference USA and Notre Dame. The Mountain West has expressed an interest in joining the mix.

Everybody wants in, no one wants to pay.

The Big 12 thinks the bowl is 50-50 this year. Here I was hoping the Houston Bowl would get itself together. My sister lives in Houston which means a place to crash if Pitt ever plays there.