2008 Bowl Preview, Part 1
November 16, 2008 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Football
Depending on their schedules, teams have one or two weeks left in the regular season. That means their chances of making an impression for the bowl games are disappearing. Let’s review quickly how the BCS bowls are set up:
National Championship Game: Team ranked #1 versus Team ranked #2
Rose Bowl: Top ranked Big Ten team versus Top ranked Pac-10 team
Sugar Bowl: Top ranked Big 12 team versus someone
Fiesta Bowl: Top ranked ACC team versus someone
Orange Bowl: Top ranked SEC team versus someone
The top ranked Big East team gets to be one of those “someones.” If the conferences listed have a team in the Championship, they might not get another team in the game. It is complicated. Here’s how the remaining spots are decided:
- Notre Dame gets to play automatically if they rank #8 or higher.
- The team ranked #3 automatically gets to play.
- If the third-ranked team did not fill one of the “someone” spots (ie, the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, or SEC is represented in the Championship game and the number three team is in one of those conferences and took their spot), the team ranked #4 also automatically gets to play.
- The highest-ranked non-BCS conference team gets to play if they are #12 or higher OR if they are #16 or higher and rank higher than one of the others who gets to automatically play.
- Each conference can send two teams at most to these five games.
Easy right? Yeah, not so much. There’s a committee that decides who goes where, and I met that meeting is really fun.
Ok, that’s all for Part 1…that’s enough information to sink in. If they aren’t posted already, I’ll have Part 2 and Part 3 up soon!
LOl i like that Notre Dame comment. They automatically get to play if they rank number 8. I seriously doubt they will this year though.
The Rose Bowl doesn’t always play the top Big 10 (plus one) and top Pac-10 teams.
Last year Ohio State was the top Big 10 (plus one) team and played for the national championship and runner up Illinois, which beat Ohio State, came out here for the Rose Bowl.
Right now USC is ranked way ahead of the only team it lost to, Oregon State, which has three losses.
If Oregon State wins out then they’ll play in the Rose Bowl, and USC will end up in some place like El Paso or San Diego
Eric – haha, I don’t make this stuff up. That’s really the rule! And yeah, I think that it is safe to say ND won’t get an automatic berth this year!
Kevin – right, that’s what I meant by “if the conferences listed have a team in the Championship, they might not get another team in the game.” I guess that’s kind of confusing, but you’re right – if the top team for a conference plays in the championship game, they obviously won’t ALSO play in the other game!