Bowl game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the USA, a bowl game is traditionally a post-season college football game; however the term "bowl" has become synonymous with a major football event and variations of the traditional post-season match-up between two successful college teams do exist. In college football parlance, the term "bowl" can also be used as a verb: as in a successful team going "bowling". The term "bowl" comes from the remarkable bowl shape of the stadium they are playing in.
Contents |
[edit] History
The history of the bowl game begins in 1902, with a 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, which began to be played at the Rose Bowl when that stadium was completed, and thus the contest itself became known as the Rose Bowl. The historic timing of bowl games, around the new year, is the result of two factors: originally bowls began in warm climates such as Southern California, Florida and Texas as way to promote the area for tourism and business. Since commercial air travel was either non-existent or very limited early on, the games were timed a substantial amount of time after the end of the regular season to allow fans to travel to the game site.[1]
The number of bowl games each year has increased since the 1930s. The Rose Bowl was the only major college bowl game in 1930. By 1940, there were 5 major college bowl games: the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, and the Sun Bowl. By 1950, the number had increased to 8 games. In 1960 there were still 8 major college bowl games, 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, and to 25 games in the year 2000. Up until around the 1950s, games were played solely on New Years Day, with few exceptions. In the late 1950s, more bowl games began playing their games earlier in December. Currently, they are played from mid-December to mid-January. As the number of bowl games has increased, the number of games a team would need to win to be invited to a bowl game has decreased.
[edit] Bowl games today
[edit] Post-season bowls
- See also: Automatic bids to non-BCS bowls
At the NCAA top level of football, Division I-A, teams must earn the right to be bowl eligible by winning at least 6 games or by having a winning record (a team that finishes 6-7 is not bowl eligible, although 13 game schedules are not common) during the season. They are then invited to a bowl game based on their placement and the tie-ins that the conference has to each bowl game. As per NCAA rules, 6-win teams without an automatic bowl tie-in cannot be picked above an available 7-win team[2]. 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; the also provide many teams a chance to end the season on a winning note; in addition bowl games sometimes offer huge sums of money to the teams involved; these facts make even minor bowl games popular among teams. For the 2006 season, 64 of the 119 Division I-A teams will play in a bowl game. At lower levels, bowl games are typically only the national championship game.
Also, unlike the current BCS system, the majority of bowls kept strict agreements with certain conferences to invite teams from those conferences. For example, the Rose Bowl traditionally invites the champion of the Pac-10 and the Big Ten conferences. These conference tie-ins often led to situations where the top-ranked teams in the country could not play each other in a bowl game. The BCS attempts to match up the top two ranked teams in the country to determine a single national championship; in effect this creates a two-team playoff for the championship.
[edit] Special Games and Rivalries
Bowl games that are not part of the post-season are traditional games against rival schools such as Iron Bowl and Egg Bowl . Recently, the term "bowl" has been added to other games that have some special note or sub-plot to the actual game, especially in the National Football League. Examples of this are the Bowden Bowl, Manning Bowl and Ice Bowl. However, any game that is part of the post season is considered a bowl game, even if it isn't a formal bowl game, such as all-star games. The Super Bowl, the NFL's championship game, started as a "world championship" between the champions of the rival American Football League and NFL in the same way many college bowl games bring together the champions of different college conferences.
There have also been pre-season games carrying the "bowl" title, including the Mirage Bowl and Glasnost Bowl.
[edit] "Toilet" Bowl
Fans will sometimes use the phrase "Toilet Bowl" to refer to a game that is particularly poor in play quality. While this name is certainly not official, it does bear mentioning.
Two specific college games that are often referred to as "Toilet Bowl" games are:
- 1983 Oregon vs Oregon State The 1983 contest between the two teams produced a scoreless tie. Played during a rainstorm, the game is commonly known as the "Toilet Bowl", due to the poor quality of play exhibited in the game (it was not a steadfast defensive struggle). No NCAA Division I football game has ended in a scoreless tie since, and due to the recent introduction of overtime into NCAA football (which eliminated ties), it is unlikely to ever happen in the future, unless a subsequent rule change allows tie games to once again occur.
- 1987 Kansas vs Kansas State: on November 7, 1987 the Kansas Jayhawks traveled to Manhattan, Kansas to play the Kansas State Wildcats. The one tie in the Governor's Cup series, which occurred on November 7, 1987, in Manhattan, Kansas, is the most infamous game in the history of the series. The game, which was termed "The Toilet Bowl" by national commentators during the week leading up to it, featured a KU team with a 1-7 record and 0-8 K-State. The contest lived down to expectations and resulted in a 17-17 tie, which was secured when Kansas State missed a field goal at the end of the game. ESPN College Football broadcaster Lee Corso said this about the game: "A tie is like kissing your sister, but a loss is like kissing your brother."
[edit] All-star Bowl Games
Following the Bowl Championship Series, a series of all-star bowl games round out the post-season schedule. These games showcase the best players from a particular region, just as the NFL showcases its all-stars in the annual post-season Pro Bowl. Such college all-star games include the East-West Shrine Game, the Hula Bowl, the Senior Bowl, and the newly-established Texas vs. The Nation Game.
For the 2006 (with bowl games taking place in 2007) season, the BCS added a fifth bowl that would decide the national championship. Called, descriptively, the BCS National Championship Bowl, and played in Glendale, Arizona, the Florida Gators defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes, 41-14.
[edit] See also
- List of college bowl games
- NCAA football bowl games, 2006-07
- NCAA football bowl games, 2005-06
- NCAA football bowl games, 2004-05
- Bowl Coalition
- Bowl Alliance
- Bowl Championship Series
- NCAA football bowl records
[edit] References
- College Bowl Games. HickokSports.com. Retrieved on September 20, 2005.
- ^ Frank Deford, The earmarks of athletics: Sheer lunacy of bowl games defies all traditional logic, SportsIllustrated.com, November 29, 2006.
- ^ Stewart Mandel, Bowl Projections: ACC, Big 12 title games will cause big domino effect, SportsIllustrated.com, November 27, 2006.
