Jerry Jones built Cowboys Stadium for his NFL team and, naturally, as a revenue source that spews raging rivers, not streams. It is no surprise that Jones’ $1.2 billion palace has hosted a Super Bowl, an NBA All-Star Game, boxing, soccer, motocross, bowling and concerts. But who knew the Jones family would concoct their own college football season? Saturday’s Cowboys Classic game between No. 3 Oregon and No. 4 LSU is the ritzy hors d’oeuvre in a five-course array of Football Bowl Subdivision games at the stadium during the next four months, culminating with the Jan. 6 A&T Cotton Bowl Classic. “We’d love to have as many college games as Cowboys games,” says Cowboys chief operating officer Stephen Jones, who does much of the college-team wooing to the stadium. “Our ultimate goal is to have eight to 10 games every year.” For perspective, realize that area universities SMU and North Texas each have six home games this season. So did TCU, until it moved its Oct. 28 game against BYU to Cowboys Stadium. College teams playing occasional off-campus games isn’t unusual. Texas and Oklahoma have played in Dallas’ Cotton Bowl every year since 1932. But one non-college-affiliated venue hosting five Division I games in one year might be unprecedented. And on Sept. 17, Cowboys Stadium will host the Lone Star Football Festival, a tripleheader of NCAA Division II games. “That’s a lot of games, obviously, but it doesn’t surprise me,” says Dave Brown, who as ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions played match-maker in arranging LSU-Oregon, as well as the two previous Cowboys Classics, Oklahoma-BYU in 2009 and TCU-Oregon State last year. “The venue is incredible,” Brown says. “And where it sits, right in the heart of the state of Texas, big college football country for fans, alumni, recruiting, everything. Those are the two biggest things that make it a great college attraction.” Exhibit A will be in full splendor Saturday, even though LSU’s campus is 450 miles from Arlington, Oregon’s 2,000 miles away. Well over 80,000 fans are expected. As of Thursday, the only remaining tickets were roughly 1,500 standing-area Spirit Passes. LSU and Oregon sold their ticket allotments — 40,000 and 20,000, respectively — in a day and a half. “We could use another 30,000 right now,” says Verge Ausberry, the LSU senior associate athletic director responsible for football scheduling. “It’s the hottest thing going. We’re getting calls from all over the country.” Ausberry says the stadium’s 300-plus suites sold out in a day and a half, and the online sale of motor-home passes took all of three minutes. Yes, LSU will play without suspended quarterback Jordan Jefferson, but otherwise Saturday is a dream scenario for old Arkansas Razorbacks offensive lineman Jerry Jones — with ESPN’s College GameDay crew making its first Cowboys Stadium visit and a special appearance by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. The game was agreed upon before Rob Mullens arrived as Oregon’s athletic director in Aug. 2010, but he was more than glad to sign the final contracts. “There’s a lot of benefits,” Mullens says. “It’s a great way to kick off the college football season — with a top-five matchup, in one of the outstanding football facilities in the country, fertile recruiting area, national-TV audience, College GameDay.” Says LSU’s Ausberry: “You look at the national publicity off this game, you couldn’t pay for this.” The Jones family relishes such hyperbole, of course. They know Cowboys Stadium offers the wow factor and that colleges across the country drool at the chance to recruit in North Texas. Stephen Jones calls those factors, along with the abundance of flights into North Texas, “the fundamentals, the makings of something good.” He says Cowboys Stadium is attempting to build upon the foundation laid in the Cotton Bowl, with its decades of hosting Texas-OU, the Cotton Bowl Classic and Grambling-Prairie View A&M. But to help fulfill their stadium’s long-term college football aspirations, the Joneses enlisted their tenant, the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, which moved its bowl to Cowboys Stadium in 2010. The Cotton Bowl has a longstanding reputation for being among the most hospitable and well-organized of all bowls. When the Cotton Bowl moved its offices into Cowboys Stadium before its opening, the Joneses asked Cotton Bowl president Rick Baker and his staff to serve as the operations arm for college games at the stadium. As Cotton Bowl hosts, Baker and his staff have forged relationships with athletic directors, coaches and players of many college programs, including LSU, which came to Cowboys Stadium to play Texas A&M in the 2011 Cotton Bowl. “It’s our business,” Baker says. “We know these people. All these people know us and what kind of job we do and trust us. … It’s been a labor of love for our staff. We’re proud that the Cowboys feel good enough about us that they would ask us to represent them in these games.” It’s clear that Baker’s staff will be busy for the next few years. Arkansas and Texas A&M are contracted to play one another at Cowboys Stadium through 2018, with options that could extend the series to 2038. Baylor and Texas Tech have contract options that could extend their annual Cowboys Stadium meeting to 2014. Next Labor Day weekend’s Cowboys Classic participants are Alabama and Michigan. That is the fourth year of a five-year contract, but ESPN’s Brown says negotiations are occurring with teams for 2013 as well as 2014. Also on the 2013 docket are Notre Dame and Arizona State, on Oct. 12. “ESPN and the Dallas Cowboys have a great relationship,” Brown says. “We’re going to continue to work with them on games, because it’s great for both of us.” Will Cowboys Stadium’s wow factor eventually fade and become less of a draw? “I think it’ll have great staying power,” Brown says. “The building five years from now is going to look just as great as it does now.” The Joneses have a parallel motive for hosting all these college games, of course. They want to show the world why the Cotton Bowl game and Cowboys Stadium deserve to be part of the BCS bowl and national title game rotation. “The Cotton Bowl ranks with any bowl game,” Stephen Jones says. “If it weren’t for not getting to host that national championship game every fifth year, I don’t know that we’re missing that much. “Rick and the Cotton Bowl are so deserving of that opportunity. Hopefully we can play just a small part in providing a world-class venue and ultimately get that situation resolved.”