Bowl Alliance

The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship bowl game and to provide quality bowl game matchups for the champions of its member conferences. The agreement was in place for the 1995, 1996, and 1997 seasons.

The Bowl Alliance involved the SEC, Big 12, ACC and Big East conference champions and two at-large teams (the Southwest Conference champ in 1995; there were also special provisions for Notre Dame). It included the Orange, Sugar and Fiesta Bowls. The championship game rotated among all three bowls. The top two teams in the combined played in the title game.

The Bowl Alliance replaced the Bowl Coalition. The Bowl Alliance's member conferences and bowls joined with the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences and the Rose Bowl Game beginning with the 1998 college football season to form the Bowl Championship Series.

Bowl Alliance Championship Game results

Notes:

*Rankings are from the Associated Press (Writers Poll). Records and Rankings are "prior" to bowl games.
*1996 Season: No. 2 Arizona State (11–0) lost to No. 4 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1997.
*1997 Season: Nebraska (13–0) won the ESPN-USA Today Coaches Poll National Championship, while No. 1 Michigan, (12–0) and winners of the Rose Bowl, won the Associated Press (Writers Poll) National Championship. This was prior to, and therefore unaffected by, the Bowl Championship Series' later agreement with the USA Today Coaches Poll locking in the outcome of that poll based on the title game's outcome.

Demise

Because the Bowl Alliance failed to include the PAC-10, Big Ten (and the Rose Bowl) and so-called "mid-major" conferences, the Bowl Alliance was reformed just three years after it began. BYU's persistent performance opened the door for mid-major conferences to participate in upper-tier bowls as well. In 1996, despite 18 conference championships in 23 years, one of the most winningest records in college football and a #5 ranking in the AP poll, BYU was excluded from a Bowl Alliance bowl and was relegated to the Cotton Bowl beating Kansas State to finish the season 14–1. Now the Bowl Coalition was also at risk of anti-trust because of the monopoly on the bowls. LaVell Edwards, BYU Coach, testified in Congress at that time about the inherent unfairness in recruiting for teams who were excluded from bowls simply because of conference affiliation. With the pressure of potential Congressional action, the Bowl Alliance reformed into the Bowl Championship Series that not only included the Big Ten and the PAC-10 conference but also "mid-majors".

ee also

*BCS National Championship Game

References

*cite web
url=http://www.hickoksports.com/history/collbowl.shtml|title=College Bowl Games
work=HickokSports.com|accessdate=September 20|accessyear=2005

External links

* [http://www.ncaasports.com/football/mens NCAA football page]