Gather momentum

But that will only happen after 2014. The 2010, 2012 and 2014 games have already been given to Angola, Gabon/Equatorial Guinea/Benin and Libya respectively. Essien has, meanwhile, said he expected Ghana to gather momentum and go all the way in the Nations Cup after winning the opening match 2-1 against Guinea. “The game was difficult for us but it was good to start with a win. The first game is always dodgey but a win is a good first step,” the former Liberty Profession player said In front of home fans He added: “Our next game will be better because we will have more confidence.” Ghana next play Namibia tomorrow and are almost assured of qualifying for the quarter-finals with a win. “It feels good playing in front of the home fans. I want to play for the nation. Obviously our aim is to win but here are a lot of quality players in this tournament. We will see what happens,” Essien said. The Ghanaian super star was speaking at a function organised by his public relations team where he took time to chat with selected journalists on a one to one basis

Growth of bowl games
In 1940, there were only five bowl games (Rose, Orange, Sugar, Sun, and Cotton). By 1950, three more had joined that number and in 1970, there were still only eight. The number grew to eleven in 1976. At the birth of cable television and cable sports networks like ESPN, there were fifteen bowls in 1980. With more national venues and increased available revenue, the bowls saw an explosive growth throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In the twenty years from 1960 to 1980, seven bowl games were added to the schedule. From 1980 to 2006, an additional 17 bowl games were added to the schedule Some have criticized this growth, claiming that the increased number of games has diluted the significance of playing in a bowl game. Yet others have countered that the increased number of games has increased exposure and revenue for a greater number of schools, and see it as a positive development. With the growth of bowl games, it became difficult to determine a national champion in a fair and equitable manner. As conferences became contractually bound to certain bowl games (a situation known as a tie-in), match-ups that guaranteed a consensus national champion became increasingly rare. In 1992, seven conferences and independent Notre Dame formed the Bowl Coalition, which attempted to arrange an annual #1 versus #2 matchup based on the final AP poll standings. The Coalition lasted for three years, however several scheduling issues prevented much success; tie-ins still took precedence in several cases. For example the Big Eight and SEC champions could never meet, since they were contractually bound to different bowl games. The coalition also excluded the Rose Bowl, arguably the most prestigious game in the nation, and two major conferences—the Pac-10 and Big Ten—meaning that it had limited success. In 1995, the Coalition was replaced by the Bowl Alliance, which reduced the number of bowl games to host a national championship game to three—the Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange Bowls—and the participating conferences to five—the ACC, SEC, Southwest, Big Eight, and Big East. It was agreed that the #1 and #2 ranked teams gave up their prior bowl tie-ins and were guaranteed to meet in the national championship game, which rotated between the three participating bowls. The system still did not include the Big Ten, Pac-10, or the Rose Bowl, and thus still lacked the legitimacy of a true national championship.