The university will take part in a different kind of bowl game in 2011. The Horned Frogs will lend their facilities to the National Football Leagues’s American Football Conference champion when the Super Bowl comes to North Texas.

Bill Lively, the president and CEO of the North Texas Super Bowl XVL Host Committee, visited the campus Wednesday morning to talk about the university’s involvement with the process.

Lively said the AFC champion will practice at the university and stay at the Omni Hotel in downtown Fort Worth, while the National Football Conference champion will stay in Irving.

The committee chose the university because of its good football program, indoor practice field and accessible facilities, he said.

“It’s a good place,” Lively said. “There was no debate about it. It was an easy choice for the NFL.”

This will be the first Super Bowl to split the teams’ practice sites into two different cities, Lively said. The Super Bowl will be a way of uniting Fort Worth and Dallas together, he said.

“If I-30 is a football field, Fort Worth is the west goal post and Dallas is the east goal post, (then) the stadium and Arlington are the fifty yard line,” Lively said.

Lively spoke as a part of the Neeley School of Business’ Tandy Executive Speaker Series.

David Dibble, director of development for the Neeley School, said it will be a great promotional opportunity for the university.

“I think TCU is going to be on the map for a lot of people in the community, and much more so than ever before,” Dibble said.

Super Bowl XVL is scheduled to be played at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011.