Is this the first time B1G and PAC-12 champions have faced off in a non-Rose Bowl bowl game?

Submitted by Human Torpedo on

Both Ohio State and USC won those respective conferences but both will now be in the Cotton Bowl. Has that ever happened before?

Tuebor

December 14th, 2017 at 2:05 PM ^

Because tie breakers only come into play for determining who gets the top bowl bid.

 

For instance, OSU was a Big Ten East Co-champion in 2016.  They shared with PSU, but PSU got to represent the east in the championship game because they got the head to head tie-breaker.

SFBlue

December 14th, 2017 at 1:48 PM ^

The Rose Bowl was very upset. The OB got a classic Rose Bowl matchup, and the Rose Bowl had Wazzu and Oklahoma, by virtue of the OB picking first. By the end of that year USC was scary good. They handled Iowa and would have probably beaten any team by the end of the year. 

The caveat is that Iowa did not play Ohio State, who won the conference. 

 

BoFlex

December 14th, 2017 at 1:15 PM ^

I have always wondered why the CFP committee doesn't just make the 3 NY6 bowls without conference tie-ins (Peach, Cotton, and Fiesta) the rotating semi-finals, and finals locations. Keep the Rose, Sugar, and Orange as NY6 games, and still preserve the historic conference match-ups.

LSAClassOf2000

December 14th, 2017 at 1:15 PM ^

I can't recall specifically, but if you mean sole champion of the conference, then I think it is. Back before divisions when occasionally we had a co-champion (as did other conferences before divisions), It might have happened a few times. I think Iowa and USC were both co-champions of their conference and ended up in the Orange Bowl, for example.