Agreement Reached on Bowl Game : Prep football: After years of delay, City, Southern section leaders finalize plans to match large-school champions.

After years of behind-the-scenes wrangling, it was announced Tuesday that the large-school football champions from the City and Southern sections will meet in December to decide the championship of the Southland.

The game, dubbed the CIF/Reebok Bowl, will be played Dec. 18 at a site to be determined and will match the City 4-A Division champion against the Southern Section Division I titlist.

The game has been years in the making, and those who played a part in its organization clearly were proud the final hurdles have been cleared.

“I think that, in years to come, this will be viewed as the premier high school football game in the United States,” Tom Byrnes, commissioner of the California Interscholastic Federation, said at a kickoff press conference in Cerritos.

The game will be broadcast live in prime time by KCOP Channel 13, which paid $395,000 for broadcast rights for the next five years. Officials said it has not been determined how revenue generated by the game will be divided among the member schools in both sections, but schools participating in the bowl game each will receive $12,000.

“All of the ‘what ifs’ and ‘wherefores’ that have always been present in December will be answered,” City Commissioner Hal Harkness said. “There have been a number of formal and informal proposals over the years that have been unsuccessful until this time. The plan seems beneficial to everybody involved.”

Stan Thomas, commissioner of the Southern Section, said there has been resistance in the past from his section’s executive committee, which didn’t want to extend the season another week. Finances played a part in the change of attitude, he conceded. Organizers are hoping the game will infuse money into a cash-strapped system.

“School finances are at a critical point,” Thomas said. “Boards of education all over are looking to cut non-revenue-producing sports. When we have corporate people stepping forward . . . we have to take advantage.”

Byrnes said that if the bowl game is a success, it could spawn intersectional games in other regions of the state. A statewide playoff structure long has been rejected because it would take an additional four games to determine the champion, Byrnes said.

“It would be physically and emotionally impossible to play four more games,” he said.

The addition of the CIF/Reebok Bowl means participating teams will play 15 games.

The drive toward an agreement on a bowl game might have been helped by the fact that four primary parties involved in the organization of the event graduated from City schools: Harkness from North Hollywood, Byrnes from Eagle Rock, Thomas from Manual Arts and Southern Section football administrator Bill Clark from Washington.

“I remember what it was like in school, wondering who was best.” Byrnes said, “My blood gets up thinking about it.”

The game will be played the Friday after the respective section finals, though the level of intensity for the bowl teams might not be high. Last fall, Mater Dei upset Eisenhower in the Southern Section Division I final before 33,204 at Anaheim Stadium in a game that grossed $196,488. Eisenhower entered the final ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today.

In the City 4-A final, Dorsey defeated Banning before 10,000 at El Camino College. The schools had been embroiled in a season-long controversy after Banning forfeited a regular-season game at Dorsey because of safety concerns.

“Physically, we could have gone another week,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said. “Emotionally, it would have been tough since we’d just played the No. 1 team in the world.

“A couple of days later, though, we started wondering what would have happened if we’d played Dorsey.”

Said Dorsey Coach Paul Knox, whose teams have won two of the past three City 4-A titles: “(Mater Dei) put the ball up quite frequently, which is something we don’t see very often. The contrast in styles would have been very interesting.”

Organizers hope to finalize a site by the end of the month. Venues under consideration, organizers said, include the Rose Bowl, Coliseum, Anaheim Stadium, East L.A. College and Cerritos College.

“A game of this nature will draw football fans,” Harkness said. “Not just people with ties to the schools. This will draw people off the street who enjoy high school football.”