Syracuse and the Bowl Scene
12/24/2000 12:56:19 PM | General
<b>By Jake Crouthamel<br>Syracuse University Director of Athletics</b>
What has gone unnoted is that since 1987, the year Syracuse football returned to the modern bowl scene, it has been invited to participate in postseason play 11 of 14 years. Miami is the only BIG EAST team that can match that. West Virginia is next with nine, followed by Virginia Tech (8), Pittsburgh (5) and Boston College (4).
The Beginning of the Bowl Season
At the end of November each year all eyes focus on the bowl picture. In Central New York, that focus is directed at SU's football fortunes. Until the final games are played during the first weekend in December, most especially the SEC and Big XII championship games, but also including a few seemingly innocuous games, the bowl selection process cannot be finalized. The following is an attempt to explain the nuances in bowl selection, and why some teams that are eligible for participation get eliminated.
Before the Bowl Coalition
Until 1993 most bowl participants were selected based on negotiations by athletic directors with the bowls. Most bowls had at least one at-large spot, which could be filled by any team that the bowl felt was worthy.
My first negotiation was with the Cherry Bowl in 1985 and continued through the 1992 Fiesta Bowl. In 1987 with Don McPherson at quarterback, the three major bowls (Orange, Cotton and Sugar) were in constant contact with me. The Orange and Cotton would commit to us only if we were 11-0. At 9-0, I finally got the Sugar to commit, regardless of the outcome of the final two games. A bird in the hand and cover your bets to be sure, but the results were great. In the season finale SU beat West Virginia on the final play of a classic game.
In 1992, the second year in existence of the BIG EAST Football Conference, our champion was declared on the basis of the highest nationally-ranked team. Round-robin play began in 1993. The season-finale against Miami became the championship because the rankings of the two teams were so close. The winner was assured of at least the Sugar, while the Fiesta, which wanted the winner as well, and wasn't sure it would take the loser. The outcome came down to the last play with Chris Gedney being stopped on the Miami three-yard line. I was standing on the sideline with the Executive Director of the Fiesta Bowl for that last play. He turned to me, smiled and nodded. In other words, we had played our way into a major bowl despite the loss. We beat Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl, while Alabama beat Miami in the Sugar Bowl.
The Formation of the Coalition
In 1993 the five major conferences (ACC, BIG EAST, SEC, Southwest, since disbanded, Big Eight, which is currently the Big XII, and Notre Dame) formed a Bowl Coalition. That was followed by the Bowl Alliance, with the Fiesta, Sugar and Orange Bowls to place the two highest-ranked teams in each of those three, in an effort to match the number 1- and 2- ranked teams. Notre Dame had an at-large opportunity. The Big Ten/Pac 10 retained Rose Bowl commitments for their conference champions until 1998 when the Bowl Championship Series started. This arrangement started a race among the major conferences to tie up guaranteed spots for their members in other bowls. These bowls jumped at the opportunity to be formally affiliated with the major conferences. However, it forced all other conferences to follow suit or face the possibility that spots would not be available for their teams.
The objective of the strongest and largest conferences became to provide a guaranteed bowl opportunity for all of their eligible teams. The SEC, Big Ten and Big XII leveraged their way into 20 guaranteed spots. The SEC and Big XII were particularly aggressive in their efforts by shoring up bowls whose future was in jeopardy, e.g., Independence and Holiday Bowls, and using leverage to start new bowls for their member schools, e.g., Music City, Mobile and Gallery Furniture.com bowls. With so many guaranteed slots being filled by the major conferences, the remaining conferences looked to create opportunities for their members by encouraging other bowls to form, e.g. Humanitarian, Las Vegas and Motor City. Not so gradually, the bowl total has grown to 25.
This year, these 25 bowls have guaranteed commitments with 11 different conferences for 49 teams. In other words, only one of the 50 spots is available for an at-large team. The at-large spot became available when Oregon State was selected as an at-large team to play in the BCS, Fiesta Bowl, leaving the Pac 10 with three teams to fill four remaining bowl slots.
