Case Blog

In one of my earliest postings in September of ‘07, Global Brands, I wrote: “As we transition to a digital world, managing our brands becomes ever more demanding. Microsoft, which has done wonders with the Windows and Office brands, stumbled as they tried to rebrand Hotmail, IM and Search under the Windows Live brand. I am certain that with their unlimited resources they employed several of the best branding agencies in the business, but they still struggled through this transition. Those of us who come to this with much less in the way of outside assistance must clearly understand that we need brands that can travel globally…All of us in the B2B or B2C space tasked with transitioning to the digital world are looking for the Holy Grail, an umbrella brand that inspires confidence and trust and at the same time can support many vertical channels. Strategy sessions and market tests play an important role in this process. Marketing dollars invested in branding will yield significant returns, although without strong digital brands there is not much chance of survival for print brands, even those with storied histories.”

In the fall of ‘07, my partners at Austin Ventures and I were still in the search mode to find a platform that we could acquire and grow.  It was almost a year later when we zeroed in on the institutional financial sector, with a focus on asset management. In fairly short order, we acquired Asset International, The Trade, and Strategic Insight.

We decided that we would operate under the Asset International name, as it provided a very clear brand and would allow us to add significant brands under the Asset International umbrella. Today we have established a new London office for Strategic Insight to support the Simfund Global database and analytics platform. In the next several months we will open a comparable office in Hong Kong for our expanding client base to support these well-known business intelligence products and services. This client base historically has been composed of mutual fund companies, but recently we have seen it expand in the U.S. to include other business sectors, including private equity firms that have a strong interest in the financial sector.

In addition, this past spring we launched Plan Sponsor Europe out of London. With this very strong retirement-focused brand and its print, online, research reports, and conference components, Plan Sponsor Europe is offering longtime clients like State Street (STT) a known brand to support their defined contribution efforts in the United Kingdom and on the continent. They have reserved our prime real estate, our back cover, to deliver their message for the balance of the year. In ‘11 we will launch Plan Sponsor Asia/Pacific edition. Recently, Global Custodian released its 2010 Prime Brokerage Survey, which received wide coverage in the business press and was quickly established as the standard for this segment of the industry. This brand, along with Strategic Insight, has had a global impact for more than 20 years.

The TRADE expanded its business several years ago by launching The TRADE Asia and this year launched The TRADE Growth Markets. They also expanded their global web presence with www.thetradenews.com. Finally, ai5000, which focuses on the professional information needs of the Chief Investment Officers of the largest global assets owners, launched their Chief Investment Officer Summit (CIOS) in New York and will hold the second summit in London on October 7th and 8th.

We will continue to expand our business by investing in our core brands on a global basis and serving the needs of our client base in the major markets they operate in.

You can learn more about our global brands and how they can assist you build your global market share by going to www.assetinternational.com.

Two weeks ago in my posting, $1 Trillion Dollar Rescue Plan & a Changing of the Guard, I closed with: “This was clearly a historic week on the continent and in the United Kingdom. There is a new determination to deal with the structural issues that have left most of the countries with debt loads that the global bond markets can not support in the long run, and there is a new a resolve by these countries to put themselves on a course that will support sustainable long-term growth. The Obama administration will need to start addressing deficit reduction as well as we approach the November mid-term elections. Those of us in the private equity business will be closely watching the impact of government actions on recovering credit markets.”

Since I wrote that, Treasury Secretary Geithner visited England and Germany on his way back from China and advised them to take action to put the $1 trillion dollar rescue plan into effect. “After two years in which an historic financial crisis seemed to deprive the U.S. of its self-confident global economic leadership, Mr. Geithner signaled a newfound willingness to reassert American authority on the future of the world economy… ‘What Europe should do is implement the program they laid out,’ Mr. Geithner said Wednesday. The basic lesson of financial crises is that you have to come in and act quickly and with force.” (WSJ: May 26, 2010) Then on the 27th China denied it was reviewing its holding of Eurozone debt. “The denial—which followed a Financial Times report Wednesday about the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, an agency that rarely answers questions from the media—highlights China’s awareness of how volatile financial markets have become increasingly sensitive to even hints about how Beijing deploys its enormous foreign reserves.” (WSJ: May 27, 2010)

In spite of all of these efforts, the global equity markets were pummeled in May. “Between the ‘Flash Crash’ and angst over the worsening crisis in Europe, stocks suffered a dismal May, posting their worst decline for the month since Franklin Roosevelt was in the White House.” (WSJ: May 29, 2010) To further contribute to the slide, Fitch announced that they were downgrading Spain’s credit rating. (FT: May 28, 2010) What does this new religion about reducing deficits as a percentage of GDP mean going forward? I turned to Bill Gross’ June Investment Outlook letter, “Three Will Get You Two (or) Two Will Get You Three.” (Pimco) “So the developing predicament is becoming more obvious to Shakespeare’s ‘lenders and borrowers be,’ ” Gross writes. “Fiscal tightening and budget conservatism may have come too late for Greece and its global lookalikes. Continued deficit spending may be an exorbitant privilege extended to only a few. Caught in the middle are many developed countries that likely face New Normal growth rates and a continued bumpy journey toward that destination. Investors must respect this rather tortuous journey in the months and years ahead for what it is: A deleveraging process based upon too much debt and too little growth to service it. No longer will ‘two get you three’ in the investment world. Not 1,000%, but 4-6% annualized returns for a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds is the likely outcome. And be careful — sometimes ‘three gets you two.’ ”

On a more positive industry note, the conference and exhibition business is showing signs of life after a very difficult ‘09. Informa, which derives almost 50% of its global revenues from events and training business, is a candidate “for promotion in next month’s Footsie index reshuffle.” (FT: May 25, 2010)

We are also enjoying a strong recovery in our events business at Asset International. On May 20th and 21st, ai5000 Editor-in-Chief Kip McDaniel produced our first Chief Investment Officer Summit (CIOS) in New York City. The event received high marks from all the attendees and sponsors. Our featured dinner speaker was Nassim Nicholas Taleb, best-selling author of The Black Swan, which has just been released in a second edition with a new section, “On Robustness and Fragility.” I highly recommend that this book gets added to your summer reading list.

We will hold our second CIOS event of the year in London on October 7th and 8th and once again Nassim Taleb will be the featured speaker and will explain how Black Swan events result in the market volatility we are experiencing.

I spent the past week in London. While it was colder than normal, I missed the February blizzard that blanketed the northeast U.S. on Wednesday. Over the past several years, Mary Claire and I have managed to be in New York City for each of the major February snowstorms. This time she got to enjoy the winter wonderland without me.  It was hard to gauge on this trip if the Labour Party was bouncing back in time for the spring election or if the Tories had peaked too early, and no one I spoke with seemed ready to make a prediction.

Speaking of predictions, The Field General lost to the clever Sean Payton and the Drew Brees lead Saints. Congratulations to all those long-suffering Saints’ fans and the city of New Orleans. I trust that Peyton Manning and the Colts will get at least one more shot at another Super Bowl before Manning ends his stellar career.

While in London my meals were distinctively French. We had lunch with Dominic Hobson and the management team of Global Custodian at L’Oranger on St. James’s Street. This classic restaurant never disappoints. One evening we had dinner with John Lee and his senior team from The Trade at The Bleeding Heart Restaurant in Bleeding Heart Square, just off Hatton Garden. The ambience, service and cuisine were, as always, superb.  Both groups continue to build upon the strong momentum they established in the fourth quarter.  Finally, I got to try a new restaurant, for me, The Orrery Restaurant on MaryleBone High Street.  Orrery is located with Conran’s and is a superb restaurant, again French, with enough room between tables for one to truly enjoy a special meal with colleagues or friends.

On the M&A front in London, the announcement by Pearson (PSON/PSO ADR) in January that they were exploring options for their majority-controlled public company Interactive Data Corporation (IDC) brought out a long list of potential bidders. IDC is a global provider of financial market data & analytics for financial institutions and traders and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was formed in 2000 when Pearson merged FT Interactive Data Corporation with Data Broadcasting Corporation and gained the majority position. It is clear that with the amount of interest this auction has attracted, with bids due shortly, the winner will need to pay at least $3B for this trophy. The list of suitors according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ, 2/3/10) and the Financial Times (FT, 2/10/10) includes many of the major private equity funds: Apax, Apollo, Bain, Blackstone, Carlyle, Hellman Friedman, KKR, Permira, and Providence. McGraw-Hill and Thomson-Reuters were listed as the two interested strategic acquirers. The FT also reported that Bloomberg, which recently purchased Business Week but does not have a history of large acquisitions, was not intending to bid.

Within the past two weeks it was also announced that the Financial Times had purchased Medley Global Advisors as FT continues to look for subscription-based data products to lessen their dependency on advertising. This relatively small acquisition is along the lines of Money-Media, another subscription-based business FT purchased two years ago.

It is clear that as global financial markets continue to recover the companies that have both the financial data and analytical tools that provide transparency will see significant EBITDA multiples offered when they come to market in an auction environment.

We will be announcing, shortly, the appointment of a managing director for Strategic Insight, who as part of the Global SI team will manage our expansion in the UK and the rest of Europe from our new London office.

For the first time in many years, Mary Claire and I had our family join us at our home in Blackhawk for the entire holiday season. The Bay Area at this time of year has winter, but a more temperate and rain-filled winter than one finds back on the east coast. Last evening I sat in the rain at the Emerald Bowl, hoping that my alma mater, Boston College, could find a little Christmas magic to upset the USC Trojans. But after an exciting first half that ended 14-13, the Eagles fell back to earth and were beaten 24-13. In between winter rain storms there have been a number of days in the high 50s to low 60s, which has allowed me to work on a rusty golf game with my son Jordan.  We are looking forward to celebrating New Year’s Day with friends & family.

As we reflect back on this year, I trust all of us are looking forward to better times in 2010. While no one is predicting a huge upswing in GDP, everyone does agree that the Great Recession is over and that this is a time of rebuilding for the global economy. Last January I wrote in Playbook, “The unemployment rate of 7.2% announced last week could easily climb above 10% by the end of the first quarter if the various stimulus plans fall short.”  Unfortunately, the U.S. unemployment rate climbed to over 10% — the damage that it did to the consumer and overall economy is still being assessed. We look forward to a recovery that will start to bring down the unemployment rate to match those of earlier recoveries. Treasury Secretary Geithner has tried to reassure us that the Obama team will be vigilant against excess risk in the financial system to protect us from another financial crisis. I personally hope that we all benefit from at least a 5-7 year recovery cycle.

Early last January we had just completed our acquisition of Asset International. While the first year, particularly the first two quarters, were challenging, we are pleased with the progress we have made on transitioning the business to an increasingly digital world and one where community remains at the center of its universe. We added The Trade in July and Strategic Insight in August. Our focus during the close of ‘09 was on creating one company, with a common corporate culture of excellence, focused on the institutional financial markets around the globe.  As we turn to 2010, we plan on continuing to grow both organically and through strategic acquisitions that will add value to our existing brands.  Today approximately 50% of our revenue comes from data and analytics; online revenue, research and events contribute another 30%; and print contributes approximately 20%.  Our brands have retained their leadership position and our clients are once again turning to them to rebuild their market positions and to find new customers in New York, London and elsewhere around the globe.

Happy New Year & a Warm Welcome to 2010!

I wrote several weeks ago regarding Kip McDaniel’s foresight in his initial ai5000 cover story on the problems brewing in Dubai. Now we know that there were deep-seated debt problems that could only be abated by Abu Dhabi extending a $10B lifeline, with lots of strings attached. This month in the Winter Issue of ai5000, Asset International’s founder Charles Ruffel  opens with an editorial on the suit that California Attorney General Jerry Brown has initiated against State Street Bank. He writes:

Litigation, like castor oil, is a necessary evil–it should be taken out of the cupboard only when reason fails. This is particularly true when attorneys general, generally amid much clamor, brandish the power of their writ in the institutional financial services industry.

The leverage that the threat that such suits can deliver–a threat that can, and sometimes should result in settlement–can be utterly undermined when attorneys general tilt at windmills. The present effort by California Attorney General Jerry Brown to go after State Street for ‘unconscionable fraud’ is purely quixotic. It is based on a farcical misinterpretation of the law.

Charlie delivers a strong left to Jerry Brown’s next run for the state house to succeed the Terminator!

Kip delivers this issue’s knockout cover story, “America’s Pension Hell is in a Little Slice of Heaven: The Puerto Rico Employees Retirement System, America’s worst-funded public pension plan, reeks of competency and a willingness to do what it takes to raise its 15% funding status. Can the rest of the world learn best-in-class practices by looking into this tropical pension abyss?”

You can also read Sara Nelson’s insightful book reviews, “Curse of the Mogul,” by Knee, Greenwald and Seave and “Wired,” by Stibel.

Finally, meet the talented Richard Schwartz, who is usually found in our sister publication in London, The Trade, who contributed “The True Cost of Trading” to this outstanding issue.

In the holiday spirit, we are asking you to recommend a colleague or colleagues that you would like to receive a free subscription to ai5000, with your compliments.

Happy Holidays!

This is a guest blog post by Jason Cassidy, Asset International’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development.

By Jason Cassidy

In the past few weeks we have seen the busiest IPO market all year with IPOs from high-growth companies like A123 Systems in the alternative energy sector and Shanda Games in the Chinese gaming sector. More recently, Blackstone Group announced it would take some of its investments public. Private equity and venture capital firms finally have a public exit alternative again. At the same time, we have also seen some large strategic deals like Xerox and Abbott Laboratories acquiring large companies, and even in an out-of-favor sector like newspapers Gannett was able to take on debt in its recent bond deal. Thus, the M&A market for large corporations with access to cash seems to be open again.

At first glance, the availability of exits and acquisition demand from large strategics may mean that higher valuations will follow. Add to these new demands the pent-up supply of companies looking for an exit, one might expect a flood of deals to hit the market. In addition to providing current exit potential, the IPO market opening gives venture investors in high-growth sectors and private equity investors with a focus on larger companies a reason to invest again. Add to that strategics with cash and a need to acquire to boost growth, and the world seems right again for deals.

The one area we may still have to wait to return is private equity deals for smaller, lower growth companies without the prospect of an IPO exit. With the debt markets still somewhat expensive and less generous, PE investors may not be able to see their way to strong returns yet. However, this too will open up soon and we will be back to strong deal flow across the board (with perhaps a bit more conservative leverage for a little while at least).

About Jason Cassidy, Asset International’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development.

Prior to joining Asset International, Mr. Cassidy was Vice President of website solutions for Register.com, where he oversaw sales, operations, customer service, marketing and product management with the primary focus on small business customers. Previously, as Vice President of Reed Business Information, he was actively involved in global strategy and development, including M&A initiatives and international development, and managed a portfolio of websites. Mr. Cassidy earned an M.B.A. from Duke Fuqua School of Business (2007) and an A.B. from Harvard University (1998). Originally from Boston, he and his family reside in Staten Island, New York.

I woke up Saturday morning in Blackhawk ready to focus on college football, The Presidents Cup in Harding Park and an afternoon round of golf on The Lakeside Course, where two weeks ago the LPGA held the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge, which was won by Sophie Gustafson.  While the morning fog was dense, I knew that the afternoon would yield a beautiful fall San Francisco/Bay Area day in the low ’70s.  I brewed a special blend of morning coffee and moved to the Wall Street Journal Online.  Within minutes I was greeted by the headline, Democrats Weigh Tax on Financial Transactions, by John D. McKinnon. (WSJ October 10-11, 2009) I had assumed that we had moved on when Lord Turner’s proposal did not get a serious discussion at the G-20 meeting and his own Labour Party did not endorse the idea. Our financial institutions, which are just starting to recover, looked certain to be spared an idea that would have a negative impact on them and certainly on job creation for an industry that has been very hard hit, both in The City and on Wall Street.  I had not realized that Congressman Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was a supporter of a Tobin Tax.  As the Wall Street Journal reported, the idea has significant support from large labor unions, and House Democrats are clearly growing more enamored with the idea.

If this bill advances to the Senate, we can hope that Senator Chuck Schumer, the senior senator from New York and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, will remind his colleagues from around the country, as he has before, how important the financial services industry is to New York’s economy and that a regressive tax will have a very negative impact on the overall region’s economy. I would also hope that Mayor Bloomberg would weigh in on why this type of tax is not what is needed during a recovery.

I finished my first cup of coffee, moved on to my second one and started to watch the early match play from Harding Park.  Harding Park opened in 1925 in San Francisco and offers a classic tight design and views of the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, as a municipal course it fell on hard times over the years through neglect.  Several years ago the city of San Francisco made a commitment to restore the course as a championship venue. Together with Bethpage Black on Long Island and Torrey Pines in San Diego, these are the three best municipal courses in the country and each of them is committed to hosting major professional events.  The Presidents Cup is relatively new compared to The Ryder Cup, where the best U.S. golf professionals compete with the best European golf professionals. The Presidents Cup inaugural year was in 1994, and it alternates every two years with The Ryder Cup. The golf professionals that play for The Presidents Cup International squad are all from outside the U.S. and Europe. This year Australia’s Greg Norman is the International team’s captain and the ever-likable Fred Couples is the U.S. captain.

As I write this on Saturday evening, the U.S. team holds a 3-point lead, 12.5 vs. 9.5, as they enter the final day and Sunday’s single matches. The U.S. seems well positioned to win its sixth Presidents Cup. Their record is 5 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie since the tournament began.  The next Presidents Cup will take place in Melbourne, Australia in 2 years.

Mary Claire and I will return to New York City this week and I will hold a strategic off-site for Asset International with the theme of “One Company” as we move to expand globally.

I returned to New York City late on Thursday evening from a week in China. My trip, as I wrote in Summer’s End, was built around SWIFT’s Sibos 2009 event in Hong Kong.  It coincided with the one-year anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ filing for bankruptcy. As one looked around the exhibition hall in Hong Kong, it is clear that we are in a recovery. The press even reported during the week that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, in response to a question at the Brookings Institution said, “From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point. It’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time because many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was.”  Dominic Hobson, editor-in-chief of Global Custodian, had a similar point-of-view when he told our guests at our event last Saturday evening in Hong Kong, to paraphrase: “That the world is still upside down, when the journalists are providing drinks for the bankers.”  I had the good fortune to follow Dominic to the podium and explain our plans for the global expansion of Asset International.

While the recovery will continue to expand, we will not see much job creation in the western economies over the next quarter or two. I am confident, though, that companies will start to add jobs in response to increasing demand by the second half of 2010. It was clear to me as we traveled to Beijing and Shanghai that China’s recovery was going to be much faster than the western economies  tied to the subprime debacle that took down Lehman Brothers and brought our entire banking system and the world’s major economies to the brink of the abyss. The energy and entrepreneurial spirit is alive and thriving in China.

We looked at several possible acquisition targets in China on this trip. While these businesses are still small by our standards, it is clear that they are growing quickly and that the demand for information and advisory services focused on the Chinese economy will continue to grow at a much faster pace than the overall economy.  We also came away with the understanding that the events business will continue to be an essential component of an overall strategy for growth in China.

Our second issue of ai5000 (www.ai5000.com), which will be released this week, will focus on the Asian/Pacific market with the cover story: The Metamorphosis of Chinese Capital.  Let us know if you have any colleagues that you would like to receive a complimentary subscription.

Last evening Mary Claire and I had the pleasure of dining at Eleven Madison Park. Chef Daniel Humm has made this the outstanding star in Danny Meyer’s restaurant universe. Daniel Humm came to Eleven Madison Park from Campton Place in San Francisco and has taken this restaurant to a new level over the past 12 months. Frank Bruni, who recently rotated out of his role of restaurant critic for the New York Times, elevated this lovely dining room to 4 stars on August 12th, 2009. The review is titled “A Daring Rise to the Top.” It is now at the pinnacle with Daniel and Per Se and just a handful of other establishments. Chef Humm works magic with his lobster dishes on most evenings. The wine list is extensive and clearly one of the best in the city. If you have a special occasion coming up, I strongly recommend that you call ahead early and make a reservation. www.elevenmadisonpark.com

This is a guest blog post by Jason Cassidy, Asset International’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development.

By Jason Cassidy

The barber shop where I get my best insight on the economy, the local plumber who received many phone calls from my wife when I tried to remodel our bathroom myself, and the doctor who gets a lot of business from my 4 year old and 2 year old during cold and flu season are just 3 of the over 20 million small businesses in the U.S. with fewer than 20 employees, according to the US Census Bureau. At Asset International we have several categories of small businesses as customers. For example, we have plan advisers who in many cases are 1-person companies. We also have plan sponsors who in many cases are also the owners of small companies.

Small businesses need information but they also need tools and services to help them be more efficient. At its core, a small business wants to take care of its customers and employees and make money in the process–just as any large corporation. However, specialization in a small business may not exist. The same person responsible for choosing the company health plan may also manage the marketing budget. Companies serving small businesses need to keep this in mind and think more broadly about what products and services we can provide. Our small business customers not only need information about the financial markets but also need tips on how to acquire more customers or set up a billing system.

Because the person who is choosing the 401K provider has a lot of other things to do during the day, that person can not be expected to be an expert in all the nuances of being a plan sponsor and certainly does not have the staff to do analysis for them. We need to make access to information quick and easy and add service wherever possible. As well, small businesses do not have large budgets for research on the best 401K provider, for instance, so we need to create high value, low-cost options. We and other companies that cater to small businesses should think high volume, high value, quick and easy, and low cost. Asset International and other companies serving small businesses need to keep in mind that what we are trying to do is help small businesses grow.

About Jason Cassidy, Asset International’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development.

Prior to joining Asset International, Mr. Cassidy was Vice President of website solutions for Register.com, where he oversaw sales, operations, customer service, marketing and product management with the primary focus on small business customers. Previously, as Vice President of Reed Business Information, he was actively involved in global strategy and development, including M&A initiatives and international development, and managed a portfolio of websites. Mr. Cassidy earned an M.B.A. from Duke Fuqua School of Business (2007) and an A.B. from Harvard University (1998). Originally from Boston, he and his family reside in Staten Island, New York.

As we celebrate Labor Day in the Bay Area, it is clear that summer is coming to an end. I returned to Blackhawk from a week in London, where Gordon Brown and the Labour Party continue to surprise me by still surviving. It looks like Brown will make it until he must call for an election in the spring.

We are evaluating several acquisitions for further expansion in London. In addition, organic growth through global expansion is also a priority. Information needs around pensions are still significant, as plans continue to recover from last year’s stock market debacle. Under Nevin Adams’ editorial leadership we will launch the well-respected Plan Sponsor brand in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. I sense that New York and London will remain the primary global money centers and we need to have a significant presence in each market. Commercial real estate offers similar opportunities to New York and we plan to consolidate our presence in a new headquarters in The City.

Many of London’s private equity players and their bank sponsors are working on restructuring plans. I was interested to see that the Royal Bank of Scotland and Apax have reached an agreement to split Incisive Media. RBS will take a controlling interest in the UK assets of Incisive, while Apax will still control the U.S. based ALM, which was under a separate financial structure with very different covenant requirements. The media industry will continue to be deleveraged throughout the fall, particularly in the newspaper sector.

Mary Claire and I will enjoy several last rounds of summer golf this weekend, and then she will return to New York while I head to Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. In Hong Kong we will attend SWIFT’s Sibos 2009. It is a large conference and exhibition and for many it is one of the financial services industry’s major events. Last year in Vienna it drew over 8,000 attendees. We will be introducing Asset International’s growing portfolio of products and services, including our most recent acquisition, Strategic Insight. Charlie Ruffel and Dominic Hobson will host the event during this 20th anniversary year for Global Custodian.  The Trade’s editorial team (we acquired The Trade in June) under John Lee’s leadership will be producing the show dailies, which they have done for close to 10 years.  We will be looking for opportunities to further expand our footprint in this fast-growing region, which appears to be recovering at a faster pace than the west.

Fall has also given us the return of the football season in the U.S. The biggest upset of this inaugural weekend of college football was the #20 Brigham Young Cougars beating the #3 Oklahoma Sooners, who with their Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford had their eye on a national championship before last evening. Max Hall, the talented quarterback of BYU, clearly established the Cougars as a contender for a major BCS bowl game, in spite of playing in the Mountain West conference, one that is not insured of BCS Bowl representation.