What if Bowls Were Not Affiliated With Conferences

I was just thinking about the last few bowl games the Gophers have been to and how the location has been pretty much pre-determined by the Big 10 bowl affiliations. We went to the Music City Bowl 3 times in 4 years, the Insight Bowl 3 times in 4 years and now the Texas bowl 2 years in a row. I don't think you can deny that going the same location in back to back years hurts the travel numbers.

So what if the 30 non-BCS bowls were simply ranked by payout and they could could pick any bowl eligible team from any conference in order of their ranking? We would probably still get passed over by other schools that "travel well" from not only our own conference but from other conferences as well. But at least we would most likely get some variety in where we get to go each year. Doing this might also work as an incentive to get bowl games to increase their payouts so they can pick higher in the ranking. It might also cause some of the lower bowls to step up or shut down which wouldn't be all bad either.

There would probably need to be some rule that a 6-6 team can never been chosen ahead of a team with a record of 8-4 or better to ensure that the smaller conferences don't get shut out. I'm sure there are other issues that would need to be taken care of as well. But it sure would have been fun on Sunday if we were waiting to find out if we were going to San Diego, NYC, Florida or Las Vegas among others possibilities instead of pretty much knowing we were going back to Houston.

I'm just thinking out loud and trying to fill the void created between the regular season and bowl season. So feel free tell me why this is a terrible idea and/or why it would never work.

Here are the current payout rankings in case you are curious what the pecking order would be.


BCS Championship $22,000,000
Rose $18,000,000
Fiesta $18,000,000
Sugar $18,000,000
Orange $18,000,000
Chick-fil-A $4,567,500
Capital One $4,250,000
Cotton $3,625,000
Outback $3,500,000
Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl $3,325,000
Alamo $3,175,000
Gator $2,725,000
Russell Athletic $2,275,000
Holiday $2,075,000
Sun $2,000,000
Music City $1,862,500
Pinstripe $1,800,000
Texas $1,700,000
Belk $1,700,000
Liberty $1,437,500
AdvoCare V100Bowl $1,150,000
Las Vegas Bowl $1,100,000
Heart Of Dallas $1,100,000
BBVA Compass Bowl $1,000,025
Military Bowl $1,000,000
Fight Hunger Bowl $837,500
Little Caesars Pizza $750,000
GoDaddy.com $750,000
Hawai'i $650,000
Armed Forces $600,000
Beef 'O' Brady's $537,500
New Orleans $500,000
Poinsettia $500,000
New Mexico $456,250
Famous Idaho Potato $325,000

It is an interesting idea and would be a lot of fun on selection day but would never happen because the major conferences like having those guaranteed high paying landing spots for their teams. Plus you would open the doors to all kinds of back room dealing and what not as teams go on a full court press to woo the top games....again fun for fans but probably a nightmare for teams and the NCAA.

The Big Ten seems to have an advantage with the bowl "lock-ins". Good. Next year they will have a whole lot of say in who goes where.

HopHead said:

I was just thinking about the last few bowl games the Gophers have been to and how the location has been pretty much pre-determined by the Big 10 bowl affiliations. We went to the Music City Bowl 3 times in 4 years, the Insight Bowl 3 times in 4 years and now the Texas bowl 2 years in a row.

Click to expand...

Big Ten #6.

That's the designated slot in the Big Ten's bowl pecking order the Gophers have ended up with in each of their last seven bowl trips.

The bowls need the conferences more than vice versa, and I'm glad that starting next year, the league will take a more active role in the placement of teams. That's no guarantee it will always benefit the Gophers, but I have to think at some point, it will help.

If you changed it this way, it will kill the small schools. Every bowl would be clamoring to take the B10/SEC/B12/P12 #6 well before the MAC #1 and would throw more money at them. It would make the big conferences more money and would cut a lot of money going to some small schools.

upnorthkid said:

Every bowl would be clamoring to take the B10/SEC/B12/P12 #6 well before the MAC #1...

Click to expand...

That's no different than today. The MAC#1 goes to the GoDaddy Bowl for $750,000. The current payouts for the B10/SEC/B12/P12 #6 teams are $1,7000,000/$3,500,000/$1,7000,000/$925,000 respectively.

I really don't think a system like this would drastically effect the total conference payouts. It would just add more variety of locations.

That's all nice and theory but it's nothing any of us remotely have any control over. The Gopher's fate in the bowl pecking order has been near the bottom for ages. What Teague is starting with the surveys and eventually ticket deposits might make a difference and is something all of us has some control over to varying degrees. That is, put your money where you mouth is and put some money down on the bowl you want the Gophers in.