Bowl bids by Conference.

[MosesGuthrie]

SEC: 9 (Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, South Carolina)

ACC: 8 (BC, Clemson, FSU, Ga. Tech, Maryland, Miami, Wake, VA Tech)

Big 12: 8 (A&M, K-St., Mizzou, Nebraska, OU, OSU, UT, Tech)

Big 10: 7 (Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Penn St., Purdue, OSU, Wisconsin)

Pac-10: 6 (ASU, Cal, Oregon, Oregon St., UCLA, USC)

Big East: 5 (Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers, South Florida, West Virginia)

C-USA: 5 (East Carolina, Houston, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulsa)

Independents: 2 (Navy, Notre Dame)

MAC: 4 (Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Western Michigan)

Mountain West: 4 (BYU, New Mexico, TCU, Utah)

WAC: 4 (Boise State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Jose St.)

Sun Belt: 2 (Middle Tennessee State, Troy)


Thoughts? Fair? Unfair?

[SrA Husker]

It should be pointed the only reason Middle Tenn. and Troy recieved Bowl invitations is because of a new NCAA rule requiring bowls to pick 7 win teams over 6 win teams for at-large selections. There were a lot of 6 win teams that would travel better (Arizona, Kansas, etc.) and give the bowl organizers better games and TV ratings that are instead staying home.

[MajorMike]

This is true. That same clause almost knocked Bama out of a game as well, however the SEC got 2 into the BCS, so this allowed Bama to take the last SEC slot, the Indep Bowl.

The whole 12-game sched makes winning 6 not that big of deal anymore. 9 teams won 6 games and are not going to a Bowl, and 4 of them were from BCS Confs (Arizona, Kansas, Pittsburgh, Washington St).

The rule isn't new, by the way, it is just been revamped. There was a rule before, but it didn't apply across all confs. It was amended to keep teams with lots of wins from going to bowls, like back in 2003 when No Ill was 10-2 but the MAC didn't have enough Bowl ties to get them into a Bowl. The same rule kept atm out of a Bowl in 2002 when they were 6-6, because there were 8 teams with a 6-5 or better record in the B12 and the B12 didn't have a 9th slot for atm to go to. They could not get selected over another conf's tie ins if that conf had a team with a better than 6-5 record as well. The rule was just beefed up to ensure that just because the team is from the MAC or WAC that they don't miss out as well.

[NoMoneyDown]

Or, another way to look at the distribution ...

1. 75% - ACC (9-of-12), SEC (9-of-12)
3. 67% - Big 12 (8-of-12)
4. 64% - Big Ten (7-of-11)
5. 63% - Big East (5-of-8)
6. 60% - Pac 10 (6-of-10)
7. 50% - Independents (2-of-4)
8. 44% - Mtn-West (4-of-9), WAC (4-of-9)
10. 42% - C-USA (5-of-12)
11. 33% - MAC (4-of-12)
12. 25% - Sun Belt (2-0f-8)

[tlongII]

Too many bowl games.

[NoMoneyDown]

Too many bowl games.

Wait'll the sponsors start creeping into RS games. We already have the Dr. Pepper Big 12 Championship, and doesn't the Red River Rivalry game now have a sponsor in the name?