The Houlgate System was a college football ranking method based on strength of schedule that was syndicated nationally in the 1930s through 1950s. The system was created by Carroll Everard "Deke" Houlgate (May 8, 1905—July 31, 1959), a Los Angeles-based college football statistician and historian.
109-531: Starting in 1945 Houlgate selected competitors for the Futility Bowl , a hypothetical post-season matchup between the nation's two lowest-ranked teams. This bowl game to determine the country's worst team would be held in Death Valley in an empty stadium. Houlgate was the author of The Football Thesaurus , a leather-bound compilation of game scores, football history, and team facts. The thesaurus
218-798: A Ladies Bowl was introduced in 1990. Other, related, national championship games in Germany include the German Flag Bowl (est. 2000), German Junior Flag Bowl (1999) and a German Indoor Flag Bowl (2000). The annual championship game of the British American Football Association National Leagues is known as the Britbowl . The championship game of the American Football Ireland Premier Division
327-1053: A balloting procedure similar to the NCAA basketball tournament selection process . In the BCS format, four regular bowl games and the National Championship Game were considered "BCS bowl games." The four bowl games were the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California , the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans , the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona , and the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Florida . In
436-516: A compilation of past "national champions" since 1869.) Other teams have won the national championship despite playing presumably weaker schedules than other championship contenders. The BYU Cougars ended the 1984 season as the only undefeated and untied team in the nation, and the nine-time defending champions of the Western Athletic Conference . The Cougars opened the season with a 20–14 victory over No. 3 Pittsburgh, and won
545-630: A different bowl. However, the Pac-10 and Big Ten and the Rose Bowl did not participate. Number 1 vs Number 2 bowl match-ups became far more likely, but were not guaranteed. After the 1997 season, undefeated Michigan was ranked first in both major polls, but as the Big Ten champion, they played eighth-ranked Pac-10 champion Washington State in the Rose Bowl. The top Bowl Alliance team, #2 and unbeaten Nebraska , faced one-loss, third-ranked Tennessee in
654-694: A lesser degree. For the 1998 through 2005 seasons, eight teams competed in four BCS bowls. It had been in place since the 1998 season . The BCS replaced the Bowl Alliance , in place from 1995 to 1997, which had followed the Bowl Coalition , in place from 1992 to 1994. Prior to the Bowl Coalition's creation in 1992, the AP Poll 's number one and two teams had met in a bowl game only 8 times in 56 seasons. The AP's top two teams met 13 out of
763-562: A losing record at the end of their regular season schedule. They can then be invited to a bowl game based on their finishing placement in their conference, and tie-ins that their conference has to various bowl games. Alternately, a bowl-eligible team may receive an at-large invitation to a bowl game, independent of conference tie-ins. Bowls are popular among coaching staffs because the NCAA allows college teams going to bowl games extra weeks of practice they would otherwise not have, and bowl games pay
872-513: A number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tournament to determine an annual national champion, instead relying on a vote by sportswriters or coaches. In place of such a playoff, cities developed regional festivals featuring bowls. Prior to 2002 , bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals. Despite
981-545: A particular bowl. In 1947, the Big Ten Conference and the Pacific Coast Conference , a forerunner of today's Pac-12 Conference , agreed to commit their champions to play in the Rose Bowl every year, an agreement that continued under the BCS. This system raised the possibility that the two top-ranked teams in the final poll would not play each other in a bowl game, even in situations when there
1090-516: A postseason game, as fans could take off work or school during this holiday period to travel to the game. In the first game, the University of Michigan Wolverines represented the east and easily defeated the west's representative Stanford by a score of 49–0. Due to the lopsided victory the game did not resume until 1916. The game was renamed the Rose Bowl in the 1920s when play shifted to
1199-492: A proposal from the Mountain West Conference , which would have established an eight-team playoff and provided better accesses to the four BCS bowl games for the five conferences that did not have automatic bids. The proposal also included a motion to replace the BCS rankings with a selection and a motion to change the automatic qualifier criteria to better reflect inter-conference performance. The BCS rejected
SECTION 10
#17327840166951308-456: A split championship. This situation arose a total of ten different seasons before BCS was formed (1954, 1957, 1965, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1990, 1991, 1997). For example, in 1991, the University of Miami Hurricanes and the University of Washington Huskies both finished the regular season undefeated and were considered the strongest teams in the nation. Since the Huskies were locked into
1417-415: A team's ranking in the BCS standings. The team with the highest average ranked first in the BCS standings. This system placed twice as much emphasis on polls than computer rankings (since there were two polls and an average of six computer rankings) and made it highly unlikely that the top team in both polls would be denied a place in the title game, as it happened in the 2003–04 season. The BCS formula for
1526-572: A title game. In 1994—the last year of the Bowl Coalition—undefeated Penn State , from the Big Ten, played Oregon in the Rose Bowl while undefeated Nebraska played Miami in the Orange Bowl. In a system that paired top-ranked teams, Penn State would have played Nebraska for the national championship. The Bowl Coalition was restructured into the Bowl Alliance for the 1995 season, involving five conferences (reduced to four for
1635-744: A very poor standard of play have been jokingly referred to as the "Toilet Bowl". The championship game of the Superliga Nacional de Futebol Americano is known as the Brasil Bowl. In the European Football League (EFL), a European Cup style tournament for European American Football teams affiliated with IFAF Europe , the final game of the EFL is called the Eurobowl , and has been held annually since 1986. In Denmark ,
1744-790: Is called the Shamrock Bowl . It is generally held around July or August each year and has been played every year since 1986 except for 2000 & 2020. The winner of the Israeli Football League is determined every year in the Israel Bowl. The first to lift the Becker Trophy was the Jerusalem Lions in 2008. The championship game between the East Japan and West Japan champions in college football,
1853-727: Is called the Tulip Bowl. The first edition was held in 1986. The championship game of the Swiss Nationalliga A is called the Swiss Bowl . It was first held in 1986. Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series ( BCS ) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football , including an opportunity for
1962-416: Is considered to be the "father" of the BCS. The Tournament of Roses Association agreed to release the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions if it was necessary to force a national championship game. In return, the Rose Bowl was added to the yearly national championship rotation, and the game was able to keep its coveted exclusive TV time slot on the afternoon of New Year's Day. However, beginning with the 2006 season ,
2071-916: Is known as the Koshien Bowl . The top middle school teams also compete in the Koshien Bowl. While the pro football championship is known as the Japan X Bowl . The winners of the Koshien and Japan X bowls play each other for the Japan National Championship in the Rice Bowl . The annual high school football championship game is the Christmas Bowl . The championship game of the Dutch AFBN First Division
2180-683: Is the annual Banjo Bowl between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). In Canadian university football, which has determined its national champions on the field for several decades, the "bowl games" are the two semi-final games that determine the participants in the Vanier Cup national championship game; since 2002 these have been the Uteck Bowl and
2289-517: Is the largest capacity stadium and the Rose Bowl game has the highest attendance for postseason bowl games. In the 1990s, many bowl games began to modify or abandon their traditional names in favor of selling naming rights . While some include the traditional name in some form (e.g. the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual ), others have eliminated their traditional name in favor of solely using their corporate sponsor's name (e.g.
SECTION 20
#17327840166952398-556: The 1916 Tournament East-West Football Game . With the 1923 Rose Bowl it began to be played at the newly completed Rose Bowl stadium , and thus the contest itself became known as the Rose Bowl Game . The name "bowl" to describe the games thus comes from the Rose Bowl stadium. Other cities saw the promotional value for tourism that the Tournament of Roses parade and Rose Bowl carried and began to develop their own regional festivals which included college football games. The label "bowl"
2507-495: The 2003 (national championship), 2004 , 2006 , and 2009 Fiesta Bowl , the 1999 and 2011 Sugar Bowl *, the 2014 Orange Bowl , the 2010 Rose Bowl , and the 2007 and 2008 BCS National Championship Game . Ohio State's record was 6*-4, with a 1–2 record in National Title Games. The University of Miami appeared in every BCS bowl except for the standalone National Championship Game, although Miami did appear in
2616-538: The 2012 title), had ever played in the BCS Championship Game, causing increasing controversy. This controversy had become even more intense in light of the 4–1 record that mid-major teams had against teams from the six automatic qualifying conferences in the BCS Bowl games they had been allowed to play in. The performances and perfect record of Texas Christian in the 2010 season and Boise State in
2725-510: The 2016–17 bowl season , the 41 games require a little over three weeks, starting December 17 and ending on January 9. While bowl games were originally exclusive to warm cities thought of as winter vacation destinations, indoor stadiums allow games to be played in colder climates. The attendance of 106,869 for the 1973 Rose Bowl set the Rose Bowl Stadium record, and an NCAA bowl game attendance record. The Rose Bowl stadium still
2834-549: The American Bowl , a preseason match held overseas, and various one-time games informally nicknamed bowls, such as the Bounty Bowl , Ice Bowl , Snow Bowl , Freezer Bowl , Fog Bowl , Mud Bowl, Tuna Bowl, Manning Bowl , Harbaugh Bowl , Kelce Bowl and the proposed (but ultimately canceled) China Bowl . As a result, other professional football leagues used or use the name Bowl for their championships, such as
2943-532: The Big Ten and Pac-10 champions, as both were obligated to play in the Rose Bowl. The Coalition made several attempts to get the Tournament of Roses Association, which operates the Rose Bowl, to release the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions if necessary to force a championship game. However, those negotiations came to nothing, in part because the Tournament of Roses Association feared jeopardizing its long-standing contract with ABC if one or both teams were needed to force
3052-666: The Division I Bowl Subdivision long avoided instituting a playoff tournament to determine an annual national champion. Instead, the National Champion in the Football Bowl Subdivision has traditionally been determined by a vote of sports writers and other non-players. In 1995, the Bowl Alliance , formed by the major bowls and conferences, put in place a system where the two highest ranked teams would play each other, even if they were each affiliated with
3161-929: The Egg Bowl , the annual game between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Ole Miss Rebels , and the Iron Bowl , the annual game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers . In professional football , the National Football League (NFL) holds the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl . The term has crossed over into professional and collegiate Canadian football . A notable example
3270-711: The Heritage Bowl . It invites the top teams from historically black colleges and universities , one from the SWAC and one from the MEAC . The SWAC has historically had a longer regular season that extends past Thanksgiving weekend, preventing its teams from participating in the FCS tournament and more closely mirroring the FBS. At the Division II level there are currently four postseason bowls for teams that did not qualify for
3379-574: The Holiday Bowl against a 6–5 Michigan team that had been ranked as high as No. 2 that season. As the No. 4 ranked team at the end of the regular season, Washington was offered a slot against BYU in the Holiday Bowl; Washington declined, preferring instead to play in the more lucrative Orange Bowl where they beat No. 2 Oklahoma to complete a Pac-10 sweep of New Year's Day bowls (with USC winning
Houlgate System - Misplaced Pages Continue
3488-714: The Mitchell Bowl . The matchups are determined on a conference rotation basis, with the Uteck Bowl being played at the easternmost host team, while the Mitchell is at the westernmost host team. The history of the bowl game began with the 1902 Tournament East-West football game , sponsored by the Tournament of Roses Association between Michigan and Stanford , a game which Michigan won 49–0. The Tournament of Roses eventually sponsored an annual contest starting with
3597-459: The NYT and Dunkel rankings. The change was made because the BCS wanted computer rankings that did not depend heavily on margin of victory. The highest and lowest rankings were discarded, and the remainder averaged. A team's poll average, computer average, strength of schedule points, and losses were added to create a subtotal. Also in 2001, a quality win component was added. If a team beat a team which
3706-560: The National Champion ). Up until around the 1950s, the small number of games were played solely on New Year's Day , with the only major exception being if the holiday occurred on a Sunday. The tradition of not playing bowl games on Sunday initially started from the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl not being held on Sundays for fear of spooking horses tied at churches, but in later years was done to avoid conflict with NFL games. For
3815-462: The Orange Bowl (1935), and the Sun Bowl (1935). By 1950, the number had increased to eight games. This slate of eight bowl games persisted through 1960, but by 1970 the number had increased again, to 11 games. The number continued to increase, to 15 games in 1980, to 19 games in 1990, 25 games in 2000, 35 games in 2010, and 41 games by 2015 (40 games plus two teams playing a second game to determine
3924-751: The Rose Bowl stadium , built by the city of Pasadena in conjunction with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association. By the 1930s, the Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas, Texas, Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana were also held on January 1 to showcase teams from other regions of the country. By the 1940s, college football conferences began signing contracts that tied their championship team to
4033-400: The Rose Bowl stadium , site of the first postseason college football games. The Rose Bowl Stadium, in turn, takes its name and bowl-shaped design from the Yale Bowl , the prototype of many football stadiums in the United States . The term has since become almost synonymous with any major American football event, generally college football, with some significant exceptions. Two examples are
4142-456: The Super Bowl or the Final Four . AT&T Stadium hosted the first title game in 2015. The system is contracted to be in place through at least the 2023–2024 season per a contract with ESPN , which owns the rights to broadcast all games. Unlike the BCS, the system does not use polls or computer rankings to select participants. A 13-member committee chooses and seeds the teams for the two playoff games and four other top-tier bowl games, using
4251-405: The University of Southern California . He served in the Air Force during World War II and died at the Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles, California , on July 31, 1959, at age 54. Houlgate's wife, Dorothy P. Houlgate, was considered "one of the leading feminine football experts" and assisted with the annual football ratings; she died in August 1959, less than a month after
4360-402: The World Football League ( World Bowl ), NFL Europe ( World Bowl ), Arena Football League ( ArenaBowl ), Indoor Football League ( United Bowl ), Great Lakes Indoor Football League ( Great Lakes Bowl ) and American Indoor Football Association (AIFA Championship Bowl). The Canadian Football League nicknames one of their rivalries as the Banjo Bowl and another QEW Bowl (also known as
4469-461: The holding company "BCS Properties, LLC" continues to control the College Football Playoff. The College Football Playoff replaced the BCS as the system used to determine the FBS college football champion beginning in the 2014 season . The four-team playoffs consist of two semifinal games, with the winners advancing to the College Football Championship Game . The game is hosted by a different city each year, with locations selected by bids, akin to
Houlgate System - Misplaced Pages Continue
4578-430: The 16 seasons when the BCS was in place. In the 2014 season, the BCS was discontinued and replaced by the College Football Playoff , which organizes a four-team playoff and national championship game. Ten years later, the playoff expanded to 12 teams. The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) is the only NCAA-sponsored sport without an officially organized NCAA tournament to determine its champion. Instead,
4687-421: The 1996 season) and three bowls (Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange). The championship game rotated among these three bowls. It still did not, however, include the Pac-10 or Big Ten champions, the Rose Bowl, or any non-Bowl Alliance teams. After a protracted round of negotiations, the Bowl Alliance was reformed into the Bowl Championship Series for the 1998 season; former Southeastern Conference commissioner Roy Kramer
4796-415: The 2002 season. Sagarin provided a BCS-specific formula that did not include margin of victory, and The New York Times index returned in a form without margin of victory considerations. In addition, a new computer ranking, the Wesley Colley Matrix, was added. The lowest ranking was dropped and the remaining six averaged. Also in 2002, the quality win component was modified such that the deduction for beating
4905-410: The 2005–06 season was the same as 2004–05, except that the Harris Interactive College Football Poll replaced the AP poll. The Harris Interactive College Football Poll's maximum point value was 2,825 and for the Coaches' Poll, it was 1,550. The Harris Interactive College Football Poll was created expressly to replace the AP Poll after the Associated Press refused the use of its poll as a component of
5014-446: The 2006 season). The BCS was created by formal agreement by those six conferences (the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC); Big East , now the American Athletic Conference (The American); Big Ten Conference (Big Ten); Big 12 Conference (Big 12); Pac-10, now the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12); Southeastern Conference (SEC) conferences); and the three FBS independent schools , and evolved to allow other conferences to participate to
5123-511: The 2012 and 2013 seasons. For the portions of the ranking that were determined by polls and computer-generated rankings, the BCS used a series of Borda counts to arrive at its overall rankings. This was an example of using a voting system to generate a complete ordered list of winners from both human and computer-constructed votes. Obtaining a fair ranking system was a difficult mathematical problem and numerous algorithms were proposed for ranking college football teams in particular. One example
5232-456: The BCS National Championship Game became a separate event played at the same site as a host bowl a week following New Year's Day. The new Bowl Championship Series not only included the Big Ten and the Pac-10 conferences but also teams from mid-major conferences, based on performance. No mid-major team, however, or team from any conference outside of the six aligned conferences (with the exception of independent Notre Dame , who played Alabama for
5341-507: The BCS bowl games, then the remaining at-large teams would have been any FBS teams that were bowl-eligible, had won at least nine regular-season games, and were among the top 18 teams in the final BCS standings. If there were still not enough teams, the pool for potential at-larges continued to increase by four teams until enough teams were available. All AQ conferences except the Big East/The American had contracts for their champions to participate in specific BCS bowl games. Unless their champion
5450-410: The BCS formula following the 2004 season. Before the 2006–07 season, the maximum point value of the Harris Poll was increased to 2,850 and the USA Today/Coaches' Poll was increased to 1,575. In April 2009, Bowl Championship Series commissioners met for its annual spring meetings in Pasadena, California in conjunction with the Rose Bowl 's staging the 2010 BCS title game . The commissioners considered
5559-414: The BCS games that concluded 2008–11 seasons. Three criteria were used: Rank of the highest-ranked team, rank of all conference teams, and number of teams in the top 25. The six conferences which met that standard were the AQ conferences. The 2008–11 seasons were used to determine if another conference achieved automatic qualification, or a conference that had AQ status lost it, for the BCS games that concluded
SECTION 50
#17327840166955668-449: The BCS moved exclusively to ESPN. The network carried the BCS until its dissolution following the 2013–14 season; after that, the four former BCS bowls became part of the College Football Playoff , while ESPN retained their coverage of the contests. A set of rules was used to determine which teams competed in the BCS bowl games. Certain teams were given automatic berths depending on their BCS ranking and conference, as follows: After
5777-430: The BCS system had selected LSU and Oklahoma to play for the title , the formula was rewritten. Supporters of USC and the media in general criticized the fact that polls were not weighted more heavily than computer rankings and this criticism led to the new three part formula. All three components – The Harris Interactive Poll, the USA Today Coaches Poll, and the computer rankings – were added together and averaged for
5886-408: The Battle of Ontario); like most Canadian sports leagues, however, the CFL's championship is instead known as a cup (in the CFL's case, the Grey Cup ). At the NCAA top level of football, the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, previously known as Division I-A from 1978 through 2005), teams must earn the right to be bowl eligible , generally by winning at least six games and by not having
5995-421: The DII playoffs: the Live United Texarkana Bowl , Heritage Bowl , America's Crossroads Bowl , and Florida Beach Bowl . All four of the Division II bowls are played on the first weekend of December. At the NCAA Division III level, all bowls that are currently played are recent developments (starting in 2008 or later). For the 2017 season , 10 bowls were scheduled to be played by teams that did not qualify for
6104-406: The DIII playoffs: a six-bowl series organized for ECAC teams, a two-bowl series organized between the Centennial Conference and MAC , the New York State Bowl (between Liberty League and Empire 8 ), and the New England Bowl (between the ECFC , MSCAC , CCC and NEWMAC ). Prior to 2008, the ECAC also held the ECAC Bowl (1989–2003) for Division I-AA and the North Atlantic Bowl (2007),
6213-402: The Futility Bowl included: (1) Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Wooster in 1945; (2) Kansas State and Carnegie Tech in 1947; (3) Kansas State and Montana State in 1948; (4) BYU and Rhode Island State in 1949; and (5) Davidson and Montana in 1951. Bowl game This is an accepted version of this page In North America , a bowl game , or simply bowl , is one of
6322-403: The Houlgate System were awarded the Foreman & Clark Trophy. The award was sponsored by the Los Angeles department store and given to the No. 1 team in the contemporary pre- bowl final rankings. In 1945, Houlgate also initiated his selections for the Futility Bowl matching the two worst college football teams in a fictional football game to be played in Death Valley . His annual picks for
6431-420: The No. 1 team in the BCS would be 1.0, declining by 0.1 increments until beating the 10th ranked team at 0.1. Teams on probation were not included in the BCS standings, but quality win points were given to teams who beat teams on probation as if they were ranked accordingly in the BCS. In response to the controversy created by the voters in the AP poll naming USC as the No. 1 ranked team at the end of 2003, when
6540-402: The Orange Bowl. Michigan won by five on New Year's Day and the next night, Nebraska beat Tennessee (playing with an injury-hobbled Peyton Manning ) by 25. The AP kept Michigan as the champion, but the Coaches' Poll jumped Nebraska, playing its final game for retiring coach Tom Osborne , in part because of their more lopsided victory against a more highly ranked opponent. The following season,
6649-412: The Playoff Bowl) as a matchup of the two second-place teams in each division from 1960 to 1969. When the professional football AFL–NFL merger occurred in 1970, the AFL–NFL World Championship Game became the NFL's championship and is now known as the Super Bowl , as it has been named since 1968 (the name was coined by Lamar Hunt after watching his daughter play with a super ball ). There has also been
SECTION 60
#17327840166956758-426: The Power Four conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and FBS Independent Notre Dame) coming in the second week. At lower levels, teams play in playoff tournaments with a national championship game at a neutral site, making invitational bowl games less popular than in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) features only one bowl game, the Celebration Bowl , formerly
6867-427: The Rose Bowl and UCLA winning the Fiesta Bowl). Washington (11–1) was voted No. 2 following the bowl season with their only blemish a late season loss at Pac-10 champion USC. Coupled with winning its last 11 games in 1983, BYU finished the 1984 season with a 24-game winning streak. Several coaches and reporters claimed that BYU had not played a legitimate schedule and should not be recognized as national champion. Not only
6976-498: The Rose Bowl as the Pac-10 Conference champion against Big Ten champion Michigan, they could not play Big East member Miami, who played in the Orange Bowl. Both teams won their bowl games convincingly and shared the national championship, Miami winning the Associated Press poll and Washington earning the top spot in the Coaches Poll. A split national championship has happened on several occasions since then as well (1997, 2003). (See: NCAA Division I FBS National Football Championship for
7085-403: The Rose Bowl, Pac-10, and Big Ten joined the other bowls and major conferences to form the Bowl Championship Series . The BCS attempted to match the two highest ranked teams in the country based upon calculations from various sources, including statistics and coaches' polls, with one of the four bowl games in the consortium, the Rose Bowl , Fiesta Bowl , Sugar Bowl , and Orange Bowl , rotating
7194-409: The SEC West division, play each other in the 2012 BCS Championship game , where Alabama defeated LSU in a shutout win. Thereafter, acknowledging the many game, polling, and other related controversies, fans' complaints, and declining game viewership, among other factors, the major conferences decided to institute the College Football Playoff , which began in the 2014 regular season. As a legal entity,
7303-487: The SEC champion and the Orange Bowl hosted the Big 8 conference champion. These conference tie-ins led to situations where the top-ranked teams in the country could not play each other in a bowl game. The national championship was decided after the bowls, solely by voters for various media polls, who tried to decide which team was best, sometimes based on wins against far inferior teams. As a result, there could be multiple championship titles and no single champion. This led to
7412-402: The Tournament of Roses Association elected to continue its association with ABC. Under the terms of the contract, Fox aired three of the four BCS National Championship Games that were played during the time. The only exception was the 2010 contest, which aired on ABC as per its contracts with the Rose Bowl and Tournament of Roses Association. After the January 2010 bowl games, the contract to air
7521-428: The automatic berths were granted, the remaining berths, known as "at-large" berths, were filled from a pool of FBS teams who were ranked in the top 14 and had at least nine wins. The actual teams chosen for the at-large berths were determined by the individual bowl committees. Teams from both AQ and non-AQ conferences were eligible for at-large berths. If there were not enough teams eligible for at-large selection to fill
7630-421: The benefits of the entire bowl system". NCAA bowl season generally lasts from mid-December to early January with the first week of bowl games usually featuring teams from the Group of Five conferences (American Athletic Conference, Conference-USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, Sun Belt Conference and FBS Independents with the exception of Notre Dame) with bowl games featuring mainly teams from
7739-477: The best departing college players. Such college all-star games include the East–West Shrine Bowl , the Senior Bowl , and the Hula Bowl . Other all-star games, now defunct, include the North–South Shrine Game , and NFLPA Collegiate Bowl . There have also been pre-season and regular-season games carrying the "bowl" moniker, including the Mirage Bowl , the Glasnost Bowl and the Canadian Football League 's Banjo Bowl . Examples of bowl games that are not part of
7848-648: The death of her husband. In his career in public relations for the American Gas Association , Houlgate is known for coining or popularizing the phrase "Now you're cooking with gas!" and planting the phrase with writers for Bob Hope 's radio programs in an early example of product placement . The Houlgate System is listed as a "major selector" of national championships in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book. Contemporary National champions under
7957-541: The first eight seasons of the BCS contract, the championship game was rotated among the four bowls, with each bowl game hosting the national championship once every four years. Starting with the 2007 BCS, the National Championship Games became a separate game played on January 8 at the site of the BCS bowl game that served as the final game on January 1, or January 2 if January 1 was a Sunday. The University of Oklahoma and Ohio State University are
8066-522: The former Citrus Bowl became the Capital One Bowl for some time after the financial services company Capital One bought the naming rights; it later reverted to its original name in 2015). Prior to 1992, most bowls had strict agreements with certain conferences. For example, the Rose Bowl traditionally invited the champions of the Pac-10 and the Big Ten conferences. The Sugar Bowl invited
8175-648: The game. In 2003, for instance, one-loss LSU won the BCS National Championship over Oklahoma , but the AP crowned one-loss USC champion after its Rose Bowl win. For the 2014–15 season, the BCS was replaced by a new consortium, the College Football Playoff (CFP). The new system uses a four-team single-elimination tournament , with its participants selected and seeded by a committee; the semi-final games are rotated between pairs of
8284-651: The last of which is now integrated into the conference's six-bowl series. Additionally, the Division III championship game has historically been known as the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl . Outside the NCAA , the Victory Bowl is sponsored by the NCCAA , a group that does not restrict its membership to either NCAA or NAIA . The NAIA does not have any invitational postseason bowl games. Starting with
8393-526: The move to establish a permanent system to determine the FBS national champion on the field (the Bowl Coalition , 1992-1994; the Bowl Alliance 1995-1997; the Bowl Championship Series, 1998-2013; and the College Football Playoff , 2014-present), some bowls are still held. Historically, the four "major" bowl games, originally played on New Year's Day , were: Bowls originally featured
8502-694: The national championship game is called Mermaid Bowl , named after the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. In Finland , the national championship game is called Vaahteramalja ("Maple Bowl") and was first held in 1980. In Germany , the national championship game in American football is called the German Bowl and was first held in 1979. Apart from the German Bowl, a Junior Bowl has also been contested in Germany since 1982 and
8611-440: The national championship when that designation was assigned to the original four bowls in rotation. Miami played in the 2001 Sugar Bowl , 2002 Rose Bowl (national championship), 2003 Fiesta Bowl (national championship), and 2004 Orange Bowl . Ohio State won the 2011 Sugar Bowl , but vacated their appearance and victory due to NCAA penalties and sanctions for impermissible acceptance of monetary gifts. Initially, ABC held
8720-583: The now defunct Wheat Bowl , the NAIA found it easier to schedule bowl games early in the season rather than late—this allowed the schedule to accommodate large college bowl games and high school sports; one such extant example is the College Fanz First Down Classic , a pre-season bowl game for NAIA teams. Following team-competitive bowl games, a series of all-star bowl games round out the postseason schedule. These games seek to showcase
8829-445: The number of games a team would need to win to be invited to a bowl game has decreased. With a 12-game schedule, a number of teams with only 5 wins have been invited to a bowl game. As of 2018 , the University of Alabama has played in more bowl games than any other school, with 69 appearances (counting College Football Playoff semifinals and finals). Alabama also holds the record for most bowl victories with 41. Florida State held
8938-471: The official and only champion. The BCS was created to end split championships and for the champion to win the title on the field between the two teams selected by the BCS. The system also selected match-ups for four other prestigious BCS bowl games: the Rose Bowl Game , Fiesta Bowl , Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl . The ten teams selected included the conference champion from each of the six Automatic Qualifying conferences plus four others (two others prior to
9047-703: The officially sanctioned NCAA tournaments at lower levels, the College Football Playoff is not officially recognized as an NCAA championship. The National Football League also used the name "bowl" for some of its playoff games. While the NFL Championship was not named a Bowl initially, the league instituted the Pro Bowl as the name of its all-star game in 1951, and introduced the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl (also known as
9156-472: The only schools to appear in all five BCS Bowls. Oklahoma played in the 2007 , 2008 , and 2011 Fiesta Bowl , the 2004 (national championship) and 2014 Sugar Bowl , the 2001 and 2005 Orange Bowl (both of which were national championships), the 2003 Rose Bowl , and the 2009 BCS National Championship Game . Oklahoma's record was 4–5 with a 1–3 record in National Title games. Ohio State played in
9265-494: The other college bowl games (the game rotated among four existing bowl games from the 1998 to 2005 season, and was a separate game from the 2006 to 2013 seasons). The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) was contractually bound to vote the winner of this game as the BCS National Champion and the contract signed by each conference required them to recognize the winner of the BCS National Championship game as
9374-543: The postseason has historically consisted of individual bowl games . The bowl system began in 1902 with the first ever East–West game in Pasadena, California, held at Tournament Park on New Year's Day in conjunction with the Tournament of Roses parade. This game was an exhibition game pitting a highly rated team from the west coast against a team from east of the Mississippi River . This was an ideal time for
9483-505: The postseason include the Iron Bowl and the Egg Bowl . Recently, the term "bowl" has been added to other games that have some special note or sub-plot to the actual game, in college or the National Football League . An example of this is the Bowden Bowl given to games where Florida State and Clemson were coached by the father-son duo of Bobby Bowden and Tommy Bowden , respectively. Games between two very poor teams and/or of
9592-631: The proposal in June 2009, citing a "lack of overall support" among the member conferences. In June 2012, the BCS conference commissioners made the announcement that "we have developed a consensus behind a four-team, seeded playoff." This took effect in 2014, as the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee in Washington, D.C. gave its expected final approval a few days later. The games are listed in chronological order,
9701-417: The record of consecutive bowl berths at 36 bowl appearances from 1982 to 2017. However, it is not recognized by the NCAA since the NCAA vacated FSU's 2006 Emerald Bowl victory over UCLA due to an academic issue. The Rose Bowl was the only major college bowl game in 1930. By 1940, there were five major college bowl games: the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl (established in 1935), the Cotton Bowl Classic (1937),
9810-458: The regular season and a conference championship game), and quality wins were determined using a team's current subtotal, not the ranking when the game was played. The subtotal ranks were used to determine quality win deductions to create a team's final score. The BCS continued to purge ranking systems which included margin of victory, causing the removal of the Matthews and Rothman ratings before
9919-502: The rights to all four original BCS games, picking up the Fiesta and Orange Bowls from their former homes at CBS , and continuing their lengthy relationships with the Rose and Sugar Bowls. This relationship continued through the bowl games of January 2006. From the 2006–07 season through the 2009–10 season, Fox Sports held the rights to the BCS games with the exception of the Rose Bowl, as
10028-481: The role of "national championship." In 2006, a dedicated BCS Championship Game rotated among the BCS venues. The BCS Championship Game, while separate from the four main bowls, was still rotated among their sites. The Coaches Poll was contractually obligated to recognize the winner of the game as its national champion. However, other polls such as the AP Poll may deviate and pick a different team, particularly in years when multiple teams were equally worthy of reaching
10137-439: The season prior to that also fueled the controversy surrounding the perceived inequalities that the BCS seemed to perpetuate (see BCS Controversies below or in this more detailed separate article ). However, little headway was made to institute an alternative system like a playoffs tournament, given the entrenched vested economic interests in the various bowls, until after the 2011 season, which saw LSU and Alabama, both members of
10246-679: The six member bowls yearly, the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, then Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl Classic , and then the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl . The winners from the two semi-final bowls advance to the College Football Playoff National Championship , which is played at a neutral site determined using bids. Members of the New Year's Six that are not hosting semi-final games revert to their traditional tie-ins. Like its predecessors, and in contrast to
10355-609: The teams for their participation. Teams belonging to a conference split the money with their conference mates. For the 2010 season, 70 of the 120 Division I FBS teams played in a bowl game. An association of the bowl games themselves, independent of the NCAA, has existed since at least 1989. Originally known as the Football Bowl Association, the organization announced a rebranding as "Bowl Season" in October 2020. It aims to work "with all existing bowls to promote
10464-457: The term "Mythical National Championship", which is still used to describe high school national champions, since high school sports have state championship tournaments but not national. Because of the vested economic interests entrenched in the various bowl games, the longer regular season compared to lower divisions of college football, and a desire not to have college players play several rounds of playoff games during final exams and winter recess,
10573-598: The top two teams to compete in the BCS National Championship Game . The system was in place for the 1998 through 2013 seasons and in 2014 was replaced by the College Football Playoff under its original four-team format. The BCS relied on a combination of polls and computer selection methods to determine relative team rankings, and to narrow the field to two teams to play in the BCS National Championship Game, held after
10682-447: The top two teams. By entirely excluding all the other conferences, the Bowl Coalition also made it impossible for a non-Bowl Coalition team to win a national championship. This system was in place from the 1992 season through the 1994 season. While traditional tie-ins between conferences and bowls remained, a team would be released to play in another bowl if it was necessary to force a championship game. However, this system did not include
10791-485: The very best teams in college football, with strict bowl eligibility requirements for teams to receive invitations to participate. The number grew from 10 team-competitive (as compared to all-star) bowls in 1971 to 43 in 2023. Now the NCAA allows teams with 6–6 records and, since the 2001 season , sometimes even losing 5–6 and 5–7 seasons to participate to fill the slots. More than a quarter of 2023 bowl teams did not have winning records. The term "bowl" originated from
10900-475: Was Pittsburgh the only ranked team the Cougars faced all season, but at the time BYU played in the mid-major WAC. Nonetheless, BYU was a near-unanimous choice as national champion in final polls. To address these problems, five conferences, six bowl games, and leading independent Notre Dame joined forces to create the Bowl Coalition , which was intended to force a de facto "national championship game" between
11009-519: Was a clear-cut top two. Indeed, since the AP began releasing its final poll after the bowl games in 1968, the two top-ranked teams in the final regular-season AP Poll had only played each other in a bowl six times until special bowl arrangements began in 1992. Under these circumstances, it was not uncommon to have the Coaches Poll crown a different national champion than the AP Poll, resulting in
11118-477: Was a key component in the decision of the computer rankings to determine the BCS standings. Before the 1999–2000 season, five more computer rankings were added to the system: Richard Billingsley , Richard Dunkel , Kenneth Massey , Herman Matthews/ Scripps Howard , and David Rothman . The lowest ranking was dropped and the remainder averaged. Beginning in 2001, The Peter Wolfe and Wes Colley/ Atlanta Journal-Constitution computer rankings were used in place of
11227-417: Was attached to the festival name, even though the games were not always played in bowl-shaped stadiums. The historic timing of bowl games, around the new year, is the result of two factors—warm climate and ease of travel. The original bowls began in warm climates such as Southern California , Louisiana , Florida , and Texas as a way to promote the area for tourism and business. Since commercial air travel
11336-419: Was either non-existent or very limited, the games were scheduled well after the end of the regular season to allow fans to travel to the game site. While modern travel is more convenient, all but 5 of 41 bowl games (as of 2017 ) are still located in cities below approximately 36° N . Currently, college football bowl games are played from mid-December to early January. As the number of bowl games has increased,
11445-427: Was in the top 15 in the BCS standings, a range of 1.5 to .1 points was subtracted from their total. Beating the No. 1 ranked team resulted in a subtraction of 1.5-point, beating the No. 2 team resulted in a deduction of 1.4 points, and so on. Beating the No. 15 ranked team would have resulted in a deduction of .1 points. A team would only be awarded for a quality win once if it beat a Top 10 team more than once (such as in
11554-481: Was involved in the BCS National Championship game, the conference tie-ins were: The Big East/The American champion took one of the remaining spots. If the Pac-10/Pac-12 or Big Ten champion was picked for the BCS National Championship Game, then the Rose Bowl was required to choose the highest-ranked school from a non-AQ conference if there was a non-AQ school ranked at least #4 in the final BCS standings. This
11663-613: Was released in two editions in 1946 and 1954. Houlgate released annual supplements for the 1954–1958 seasons until his death in 1959. The NCAA recognizes the Houlgate System as a "major selector" of college football national championships and lists the system's post-bowl selections, as published in the 1954 edition of The Football Thesaurus , in the official NCAA records book. Houlgate was born in Peru, Nebraska , on May 8, 1905. He graduated from Ventura High School and attended
11772-407: Was the "random-walker rankings" studied by applied mathematicians Thomas Callaghan, Peter Mucha, and Mason Porter that employed the science of networks . The BCS formula calculated the top 25 teams in poll format. After combining a number of factors, a final point total was created and the teams that received the 25 lowest scores were ranked in descending order. The factors were: Margin of victory
11881-432: Was the case in 2010, when the #2 Oregon Ducks made it to the national championship, permitting the #3 TCU Horned Frogs to attend, and win, the 2011 Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl was permitted to override this provision if it had been used within the previous four seasons. As agreed by all 11 conferences, the results of the 2004–07 regular seasons were evaluated to determine which conferences earned automatic qualification for
#694305