The Rose Bowl might have never become The Grandaddy of Them All without the Tournament of Roses Parade (which started 12 years before the first game). The Capital One Bowl almost certainly wouldn't still be standing as a Jan. 1 showcase, on the first tier below the Bowl Championship Series games, if it wasn't for Disney World and its powerful lure.

When it comes to college football's bowl games, it has to be about more than just the game.

Bowl officials who don't realize this quickly find their games being lost among the glut of 35 that now pack the calendar and in some cases, watch their bowls get replaced by a better-run game. With the bowls coming one right after another on the TV schedule like dominoes that are forgotten as soon as they fall, you'd better find a way to stand out in your local market.

This is why Texas Bowl officials will be disappointed if what's expected to be the biggest crowd in the game's short five-year history only shows up for the 5 p.m. Wednesday kickoff at Reliant Stadium.

"We're really made a push to build an event feel around the game," said Heather Houston, executive director of the Texas Bowl. This is why you'll find something of a three-hour party leading up to game time with country act Roger Creager performing, Texas football legends as big as Earl Campbell signing autographs, Houston Texans cheerleaders smiling, tailgaters competing in a H-E-B contest and the actual teams playing walking through the crowd to enter the stadium.

It's all been branded as TexFest (it's 2010, everything is branded) and it might be more important to the Texas Bowl's future than how many points Baylor and Illinois combine to score in their expected shootout.

After all, Baylor will not be making its return to college football's postseason after 16 years in every Texas Bowl. The green and gold devotion that marks this game, driving up ticket sales, will eventually fade, but any Houstonians who have a blast during TexFest will likely remember that whatever the matchup is next December.

This is one of the reasons that Tuesday afternoon's team lunch at the Westin Galleria is also important to the growth of the bowl. The lunch is open to fans that pay $50 and it's one of the chances a bowl presents for fans to have experiences that go beyond a regular college football Saturday afternoon. If it's a good show, Baylor and Illinois backers figure to tell their friends at other conference schools about it — schools that might be making a Texas Bowl appearance of their own in the near future.

Bowls are very much a word of mouth game — arguably even more than ever in the Twitter, Facebook age. More than ever, many bowl games are struggling to sell tickets, even big BCS ones like the Fiesta Bowl when faced with a less than ideal Oklahoma vs. Connecticut matchup. It's great for the Texas Bowl that Baylor coach Art Briles has gushed over the Texans' practice facilities in every press session he's had since arriving in Houston Christmas Day. But, the reaction of the visiting fans might mean more.

Even if they're only visiting from Katy.

"I like the look of it," Valerie Pierce said, who just happened notice a Texas Bowl sign while at Hotel ZaZa for a meeting Monday afternoon. "Maybe, I'll bring my kid and check out the game."

That ... based on a logo look. When you're a bowl official, you never quite know what's going to move the needle.