| A large part of it is driven by conference tie-ins. The Rose Bowl
is made up of the champions of the Pac-10 and the Big 10. The
California Bowl pits the winners of the Mid America Conference and
the Big West Conference. The Big 8 champion goes to the Orange Bowl,
the Southeast Conference champion goes to the Sugar Bowl, the Southwest
Conference champion goes to the Cotton Bowl, the Atlantic Coast
Conference champion goes to the Citrus Bowl and the Western Athletic
Conference champion goes to the Holiday Bowl. The top service academy
goes to the Liberty Bowl (just started this year) and there is a group
of teams (among which are Tulsa and Southern Miss) that has a tie in to the
Independence Bowl.
The bowls with the most money call the shots - the Orange Bowl,
Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Fiesta Bowl try if possible to come
up with a national championship game. The Fiesta Bowl, since it
has no tie-ins and a lot of money, was able to match Penn State
and Miami for the 1986 National title, and was able to match Notre
Dame and West Virginia last year. The bowl that is able to get
the top ranked team or teams (this year, the Orange Bowl got #1
Colorado and would have had #1 vs #2 had Notre Dame beaten Miami)
proclaims itself as the game for the national championship.
After these big bowls get the cream of the crop, the others scramble
for whoever is left. Again, the pecking order here is determined
by money. Whichever bowl has the most money to pay a team has its
choice of team. But, better teams when it comes to this level of
bowl is determined almost more by fan support than it is by the
quality of a team. A team that is known for being able to sell
a lot of tickets and bring a lot of people to the host city but
has a mediocre record (ie, 7-4) is much more attractive to a bowl
committee than a team with a great record but doesn't have any sort
of national following, or whose fan support is somewhat soft. The
Boston College teams of the mid-seventies are a perfect example
of this. They were winning 8-9 games a year, unknown outside the
east, boring and with fan support that was questionable. No bowl
bids. They have now developed a reputation of being exciting and
of having lots of people go to a bowl game that they're in. Notre
Dame will probably always get a bowl bid even if they finish 6-5.
Georgia went to the Peach Bowl this year with a 6-5 record going
in.
A college team, once it establishes a reputation, can go to bowl
games annually and not have to have that good a record to do so.
But it does take a while to build that reputation.
John
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| If a team isn't tied to a bowl by a conference agreement, they can
play in any bowl that asks them to. The exception is the ACC tie
with the Citrus Bowl. The ACC team can opt out if they have a chance
to play for a National Championship.
If a school is on NCAA probation, it may not be allowed to play
in a bowl. For a long time, only the winner of the Big 10 was allowed
to play in any bowl at all (league policy) and up until 1969, Notre
Dame did not, as a school policy, play in bowl games.
John
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