BigXII (=10) Champ vs SEC Champ, New Years Day, Next 5 yrs
BigXII and SEC agreed today that their respective champs will play in a bowl game on NYD for next five years:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7945482/big-12-sec-champions-play-new-year-bowl-game
- Bowl to be determined -- just imagine the phone calls they're fielding right now.
- Obv will be secondary to any teams picked for the 4-team playoff
- Is this supposed to offset B1G/Pac12 Rose Bowl?
Is this a big deal? Or not?
soooooo the 3rd place team in the sec will play the 1st place team in the big 12 every year?
Meh. Not a big deal in my mind. Similar agreement to the B1G/Pac-12, nothing to see here .
1. Seems like a good idea. Even more interesting given the SECession by A&M and Mizzou.
2. Jerry Jones is getting his dumptrucks full of cash ready. This will be an interesting fight between the Sugar Bowl and the Cotton Bowl to get this game.
3. The ACC must be like "f&%#, we're stuck with the Big East."
4. With this game likely following the Rose Bowl, this almost assures that neither of the semi-finals will be played on NYD, which sucks.
I'm listening to sports talk radio in the heart of ACC country and they're already talking about your third point.
It's been a rough week for ACC football. First, Florida State is talking about leaving for the BigXII. Next, they may end up with the Big East as their bowl game dance partner. Not a good scenario for the ACC.
They might be better off with the Mountain West, especially if Boise bounces back that way.
I don't see it written anywhere the ACC champ has to play another conference champion.
I see where Mark Schlabach has written DEATH KNELL FOR THE ACC as if the ACC wasn't supposed to be dead when the B1G was going to raid it to get to 16 teams, and then it was supposed to be dead when VT and Clemson or NC State were totally headed to the SEC, and then it was supposed to be dead when the TV contract was gonna be horrible, and then it was supposed to be dead when FSU was all but formally in the Big 12, and so on.
the bowls could still host the semifinals. The Rose Bowl theoretically could still host a semifinal game. There is still much to be determined about the 4-team playoff so it is hard to tell how this new game and the Rose Bowl will fit into it.
I imagine that theyre all like WE HAVE OUR OWN ROSE BOWL, SUCK IT.
Honestly, I don't think that's remotely popped up on their radar. Why would it? I mean, for all practical purposes, the Rose Bowl is really cool for the Big 10 and the Pac-Infinity. But, why would the SEC and Big XII really care about it?
the existing bowls, I would guess that this is a way for the 2 conferences to cut out the middle man and split the entire cut. If true, this is another broadside (along with the 4-team playoff) at the current bowls.
Why are we giving, say, the Gator Bowl committee a cut of the B1G6 v. SEC5 game? Why not just schedule the game ourselves and get rid of six figure bowl salaries and ticket allotments.
I don't care what the article says, I bet the end result is the Rose and Sugar Bowls are used as semis. I predict that as long as the champs of the B12, B1G, Pac and SEC are in the top 4 they meet in their contracted bowl game, there will not be seeds, so 1 could play 2 before the NC. When the conference champ doesn't qualify, they will not get into the bowl and will be replaced by the team that qualified.
Starting in 2014, the Sugar Bowl loses its SEC tie-in and/or the Fiesta Bowl loses its Big XII tie-in. That's a big deal, especially for the Sugar Bowl I would think. If the rumored BCS playoff involves bowl tie-ins, as is being speculated, it seems that neither the Sugar Bowl nor the Fiesta Bowl will get to host the BCS semis now.
Wasn't this the original function of the Sugar Bowl?
The Big 8, later to become the Big 12 when the Southwest Conference imploded, was tied to the Orange Bowl.
The Cotton Bowl used to be a major bowl and had a lot of great games (Notre Dame versus Houston comes to mind, but there were others). It was tied to the Southwest Conference (SWC). When the SWC disbanded, the Cotton lost its importance.
Makes you kind of wonder about the fate of the Orange, FIesta and Sugar Bowls now. I guess what might happen is those two of those (I am guessing the Sugar is going to be one of them) make up the semifinal games, the BCS championship hosting the winners the following week or two, and the Rose, left out bowl and "SEC/Big12" Bowls hosting somewhat irrelevent games.
Other way around -- the Rose and the new bowl are the relevant games; the Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange are the irrelevant ones.
This prompts Florida State to leave the ACC as rumored, leaving the ACC and Big East the clear weak sisters of the six major leagues.
The next obvious thought is that you could just have the Rose as one semi -- B1G cham vs. Pac-12 champ -- and the new game as the other semi every single year, and there's your "playoff." ACC and Big East left to scramble, and it sets up for the four mega-conferences that have been contemplated ever since realignment started..
It sure seems to be a reaction to the B1G and PAC's desire to keep the Rose Bowl in the mix, but that's an assumption at this point.
This game will pit the team that used to be slated for the Sugar Bowl (SEC Champ or first choice) against the team that used to be slated for the Fiesta Bowl (Big XII Champ or first choice). Either create your own game on Jan 1 or create a bidding war between the Sugar and Fiesta Bowls because one or both of those games is about to take a serious hit in prestige in the years they are not included in the playoff or in the playoff at all. Both leagues make some cash either way.
Between the playoff, the Rose Bowl, and the Big 12-SEC game, you are talking about 6-8 teams from the top 10 potential bowl teams being taken. The Sugar Bowl and/or Fiesta Bowl will be scrambling for quality teams if they are left out of this.
vs the SEC every year.
so vs. LSU or Alabama
Let the SEC champion play the Big 12 true champion; the Big Ten champion play the PAC champion; and let the winners play 10 days later in the national title game. ND, the ACC and the Big East can watch. Or the FSU's and ND's and whoever else has a decent program can join one of the four conferences.
And the new "bowl" doesn't start until 2014, the same time as the playoff will start, adding more of a "hmmmmm" factor.
It's possible the B1G and PAC are saying they want the Rose Bowl to be a national semi matching their champs, and this is the counter-move. That theory of course doesn't account for the ACC and Big East, or Notre Dame and the non-BCS leagues so yeah, that's a hole. This bowl can't be unconnected with the playoff discussions, though.
So, if, as was speculated yesterday, the Rose Bowl would host a semi if the Big 10 or Pac 12 had a 1 or 2, and this bowl, which seems likely to be either the Sugar or Cotton, has the same deal for the SEC/Big 12, there's going to be a mad scramble to lock up the ACC (and I'll bet we see the Orange Bowl do this while the Cotton/Sugar thing is still up in the air, likely grudgingly taking on the Big East champ if the ACC will go for that) so that another bowl can reserve a potential semi.
The Fiesta's and the loser of the Cotton/Sugar struggle is looking like they might be out in the cold. The Fiesta at least deserves to get screwed over. If the Sugar gets shut out, it will probably make a deal for the best available SEC team.
What happens to teams from the conferences formerly known as AQ in this situation if they end up 1 or 2 (unlikely)? What happens to ND (insert returning to glory since... joke here)?
Or, maybe it means that the Rose will not, in fact, host a semi-final if the Big 10 or Pac 12 have a #1 or #2. If the Big 12/SEC game is the Cotton Bowl, that potentially leaves the Fiesta, the Orange, and the Sugar rotating the semis and title games. Or, if the decision is made to go for a bid out title game, then the Orange grabs the ACC, leaving the Fiesta and Sugar as semis.
Won't it be great when we're #2 and get drawn into a semi-final, in New Orleans, against LSU.
Edit: upon further thought, I think these scenarios are the most likely, given Osborne's concern with potentially, "destroying the bowl system" and Gene Smith's praise of the "great local organizing committees." They're going to search for a system that doesn't leave any of the existing big time bowls out in the cold. It's dumb, and they're going to keep shuttling their money to the horrible blazers via ticket and room guarantees, but the ADs and the Commissioners seem dedicated to protecting them. It will be interesting to see, if this is the case, if the ADs extract some concessions to insure that teams aren't losing money by playing in these games (ie comped tickets for the bands, etc.)
With this new bowl, if I'm the B1G and PAC, my negotiating position is that the Rose Bowl is a national semi. Period, end of discussion.
This is a massive "up yours" to the Sugar and Fiesta bowls -- no way around it. Draw from that the conclusions you will.
If they just have two bowl games as semis, it's really just a plus-one system which will beg the question of why they don't just wait until the games are over and rank 1 and 2, instead of ranking 1 to 4 before the bowls and calling two bowls "semifinals."
...and this proposed Big 12/Sec bowl game that pretty much sounds like the four team playoff by default. Pit the winners against each other a week later and, voila, about 90% of the time there's your national champion.
It would really be the rare year that somebody outside of those four conferences would deserve an invite to the title game but it is concievable under some scenarios. For example, imagine a weak Big 12 champ upsetting the SEC champ. That could open the door for an undefeated Boise or Notre Dame to slide into the National Championship game against the winner of the Pac10/Big Ten Rose Bowl.
I thought this as well, but if you look at things like Osborne's statement about the need to protect the bowl system, I think it signals that this bowl and the Rose will exist outside the semi-final system, as protected places for the best or next best teams from the four most popular conferences to go. With the Rose and the Cotton protecting those conferences, the Sugar and Fiesta get the semi-finals and there's a bid out championship game.
I'll bet we see the Orange Bowl strike a deal with the ACC and Notre Dame/Big East champ (whoever's ranked higher), as ND's pull seems the only way the Orange Bowl could take on the leftovers and still remain viable.
Every bowl's back gets scratched.
But the assumption that everybody seems to be making with all of the talk of a 4 team playoff is that it will somehow be packaged into a nice tight little system of: here's the four finalists, they play as per seeding and then you get your winner. But keep in mind that the NCAA is not really involved and instead this "4 team playoff" will likely be the result of a melange of deals and interests.
What's tempting about the Rose Bowl and the Big12/SEC Bowl as de facto final four games rather than official final four games is that it leaves backdoor for an outsider. Most years the winner of those two bowls would have the best resumes in the country and most people would have no problem with them meeting the next week for the title. However, should either of them (or even both of them) falter, that would open the door to the winner of another bowl (such as the Orange or Fiesta) who could be any of the usual suspects among party crashers, i.e., the undefeated small conf champ such as Boise, the traditional power such as Notre Dame or even possibly the 2nd place (but widely believed best team in country) Alabama.
It's like a 4 team playoff without really being strictly a 4 team playoff and it might be a rather brilliant compromise given the uneven nature of the college football landscape.
And bonus point, it protects the bowl system as much as possible while only adding the one extra game a week after New Years Day.
The official announcement suggested that this game's going to exist outside the four-team playoff.
If one or both of the league champions are selected to play in the playoff, another team would be selected for the Big 12-SEC bowl showdown on Jan. 1.
The problem with the Rose and what I assume to be the Cotton as defacto semi-finals, for the ADs and the commissioners, is that it functionally kills the other BCS bowls, who will be left to cobble together matchups out of the leftovers. Here are my assumptions.
1. The commissioners and ADs actually care about preserving the bowl system, by which they largely mean the four games that have become known as BCS bowls (as playoffs don't really affect the other bowls anyway). These are endangered by a playoff, because who will go to the non-playoff bowls?
2. The Big Ten, Pac 12, SEC and Big 12 are the only conferences whose fans travel reliably enough to support non semi-final bowl games in the new system. Creating these two bowls as "championship" matchups outside the final four serves to protect them. Even fans of teams that would be the "replacement pick" (ie conf champ pulled out for semi-finals) from these conferences travel reliably enough to support the bowls.
3. That leaves the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar. Two will be taken care of via the semi-finals. The third could either be the championship and they rotate, or, if they decide to bid out the championship because of the boatload of money that would make, the third seeks out a similar relationship with the ACC and the highest ranked remaining team, with some criteria where they get to jump ND.
Now, all the criticism of the interest of the ADs and commissioners in protecting the bowls is right on, but I take them at their word that that's what they care about.
"...but I take them at their word that that's what they care about."
With all of the negotiating taking place and nearly everything in flux, I wouldn't take anybody's word on anything. But maybe that's just me.
Actions, however, can speak quite strongly and the addition of a BigXII/SEC Bowl adds an incredible amount of symmetry to the top of the existing bowl structure.
All of this "playoff" talk may very well be a kind of misdirection strategy.
How is Notre Dame going to go undefeated when they have like a 30 year deal to lose to Michigan set up?
Indeed. Maybe it will wind up as just a post-bowl plus-one with old school bowl ties. You can't have the Rose and Jerry Bowls as national semis because it leaves a bunch of teams out, but pollsters and computers will love teams that beat the champion of another "major four" conference during bowl season -- allowing the Rose and Jerry to act as semis without actually being semis.
It would be a very elegant, conservative solution that has been my preference for years. The developments of today and the past few weeks are consistent with that being what comes out of this, though plainly not dispositive.
I think everybody agrees that, with Florida State in the Big XII, the B1G, PAC, Big XII, and SEC are the clear four major conferences in college football. Yesterday, three major B1G ADs made a public show of how important the Rose Bowl is, and today -- out of nowhere -- the Big XII and SEC announced that their champions will play each other in a new bowl game, even though they each have long-standing ties with BCS bowls.
That's not an accident or a coincidence. These two games are being set up to have some special meaning in the new order.
Yeah, but ignore the official announcement. The Cotton Bowl (and BCS system) already match up the 2 and 3-caliber teams of the Big XII and SEC. There's no need for something new.
Something's going on.
The cynical side in me wonders if this is the start of the 16 team superconferences, and these 64 teams then give a big FU to the NCAA to form the super-mega athletic conference.
I really think the whole anti-NCAA sentiment is much stronger among fans and media than presidents and ADs. My guess is it will be around a long time.
so much as it is a subgroup within the NCAA. The cool kids may have their own table but they are still sitting in the cafeteria.