Running bowl thread

We've been through this, Florida's afraid to go to Boise

 

That goes without saying.

Anyway, automatic BCS berths for conferences aside, what is the order of the bowls picking the teams they want? As in, did the Sugar Bowl get to pick both participants at the same time, or just one at a time, and then it was the Orange Bowl's turn, and then the Fiesta's, etc., until every bowl had its respective matchup?

 

No, they picked one team at a time. I believe the order was Sugar, Fiesta, Orange, Orange, Fiesta, Sugar.

 

Interesting that it's snake-style.

 

Except for SEC games and FSU, Florida's afraid to go to northern Alachua County.

 

Not quite.

All the AQ conferences except the Big East have an automatic tie-in. Big 10 and Pac-10, obviously, is the Rose. SEC is the Sugar, Big 12 the Fiesta, ACC the Orange. The Big East winner gets a bid, but there's no automatic tie-in.

When a bowl loses one of its tie-ins to the title game, it gets to pick a replacement first. So the Sugar got to go first, because it lost No. 1 Alabama. It chose Florida. The Fiesta went second, because it lost No. 2 Texas. It chose TCU.

After that, the selection order was Orange, Fiesta, Sugar. That changes year by year, though not quite as logically as one would think.

So the Orange chose Iowa, the Fiesta chose Boise and the Sugar had to choose Cincinnati, because Cincy has to go somewhere.

 

Bowls that "lose" their conference champs get first pick.

So Sugar (lost Alabama) and Fiesta (lost Texas) got to pick first. If there are slots still to be filled after contractual obligations are filled (SEC to Sugar, ACC to Orange, Pac-10/Big Ten to Rose), the order is determined by each bowl's proximity to the national title game, This year that means 1. Orange, 2. Fiesta, 3. Sugar.

For more, go to the "Team Selection Procedures" portion of the following link

http://www.bcsfootball.org/bcsfb/eligibility

 

Fiesta and Sugar got to pick first and second because they lost teams to the BCS title game. Sugar I believe got first choice because the team it lost (Alabama) was ranked No. 1. After that, the Orange makes its one pick (since Georgia Tech, as ACC champ, is locked in). Then it goes back to Fiesta, then the Sugar.

I was laboring under the misperception that the Fiesta was first, when in fact it was the Sugar. Had Texas moved to the top spot (unlikely), the Fiesta then would have gotten the first pick. EDIT2: As BTExpress points out a few posts down, they can't pick a team from the conference that has the No. 2 team (SEC) without the second bowl's permission. So in essence, the Sugar was always going to get Florida, unless they were stupid and let the Fiesta have them.

EDIT: Let's try this again. The selection order for the next few years is as follows:

January 2010 games: Orange, Fiesta, Sugar
January 2011 games: Sugar, Orange, Fiesta
January 2012 games: Fiesta, Sugar, Orange
January 2013 games: Fiesta, Sugar, Orange
January 2014 games: Orange, Sugar, Fiesta

That's after the conferences that lose tie-in to the national title game pick, of course.

So in THAT circumstance, Cincinnati was going to the Sugar no matter what. The only way Florida-Boise State would have happened is if the Sugar, for whatever reason, didn't take Florida. Because Boise State wouldn't have fallen to the last spot.

I think.

 

OK, thanks.

So Fiesta got to choose its second team before the Sugar did.

I put little stock into the "ticket sales" theory. It has zero to do with ticket sales because Boise and Cincy are both bringing the masses to either game. Let's not fool ourselves on that one.

Let's just say Sugar got to go before Fiesta. All of the Ari Fleischer bullshit think-tank'ism aside, do you think it would've taken Boise had the opportunity presented itself?

 

The rules say . . . "When two bowls lose host teams, then the bowl losing the number one team may not select a replacement team from the same conference as the number two team, unless the bowl losing the number two team consents."

Sugar would never have consented to letting Fiesta pick Florida.

 

Ow my brain. But that makes sense.

 

Yes, that was a difficult sentence to read.