The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games (specifically the Sugar,

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, and Fiesta Bowls) for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship game and to provide quality

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

matchups for the champions of its member conferences. The agreement was in place for the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, 1996, and

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

seasons and had replaced the Bowl Coalition. Each participating team in the Bowl Alliance Championship received $8.5 million from the television sponsors.

Background

In its beginnings, the Bowl Alliance involved the SEC, Big Eight, SWC, ACC, and

Big East conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

champions, as well as independent Notre Dame. Because of this, only one at-large slot was available for teams to vie for. With the disbanding of the Big Eight and SWC following the 1995 football season and the formation of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

in its wake, an additional at-large bid became available. The Alliance bowls were held on three successive days in each of the three years of the Alliance's existence with one game played on New Year's Eve, one on New Year's Day, and one on January 2. A Bowl Alliance Poll was formed by adding together the point totals from

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broad ...

and Coaches' Poll. The top two ranked teams from the Alliance conferences met in the Bowl Alliance national championship game, which rotated between the three Alliance bowls and was always held on January 2. Because the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

and Pac-10 conferences were contractually tied to the Rose Bowl via automatic bids for their conference champions, their conference champions could not participate in the Alliance Bowls. Nevertheless, the conferences could be represented in the games if one of their teams procured an at-large bid to a Bowl Alliance game. This occurred twice, with Penn State and Ohio State playing in the Fiesta and Sugar Bowls in 1997 and 1998. CBS and ABC split television coverage of the Bowl Alliance, with CBS acquiring the rights to the Orange and Fiesta Bowls from NBC following their 1995 playings and ABC already being in possession of the Sugar Bowl rights as they had been since 1970. In the last two years of the Bowl Alliance, the possibility existed for a split national championship. In 1996, No. 1 Florida State played No. 3

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl while No. 2 Pac-10 champion

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

was locked into playing in the Rose Bowl against No. 4

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. Arizona State lost to Ohio State in the

1997 Rose Bowl The 1997 Rose Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game between the Arizona State Sun Devils of the Pacific-10 Conference and the Ohio State Buckeyes of the Big Ten Conference. The game was the 83rd edition of the annual Rose Bowl Game, he ...

, ending the possibility for a split national championship for that season. In 1997, the same problem occurred but with the #1 team in both polls being locked out of the Bowl Alliance's championship game. Following the regular season, the top three teams in both polls’ rankings were

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. As the Big Ten champion, Michigan was contracted to play in the Rose Bowl on January 1. The

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game ...

was to be played the next night between Nebraska and Tennessee, the top teams in the Alliance rankings, but only a Michigan loss to Washington State would result in an undisputed national champion. Michigan defeated Washington State in the Rose Bowl, which ensured that the winner of the Orange Bowl would receive a share of the national championship; the game was won by Nebraska, marking the third time in four years that they had been recognized as the national champion and the second time that they had been part of a split championship after the 1994 Bowl Coalition's final rankings. Following the 1997 season the Bowl Alliance's member conferences and bowls joined with the

and Pac-10 conferences and the Rose Bowl to form the Bowl Championship Series beginning with the 1998 college football season.

Trophy

The Bowl Alliance awarded its own trophy to the winner of its designated national championship game. The Alliance trophy was a large crystal

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'mug', borrowed from Ancient Greek () 'cup') or goblet is a footed cup intended to hold a drink. In religious practice, a chalice is often used for drinking during a ceremony or may carry a certain symbolic meaning. R ...

. It was awarded to the winning coach on the field immediately following the Alliance national championship game.

Demise

Because the Bowl Alliance failed to include the Pac-10, Big Ten (and thus the Rose Bowl), or any so-called mid-major conferences, the Bowl Alliance was reformed just three years after it began.

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

's performance opened the door for mid-major conferences to participate in upper-tier bowls as well. In 1996, despite 18 conference championships in 23 years, one of the winningest records in college football and a #5 ranking in the AP poll, BYU was excluded from a Bowl Alliance bowl and was relegated to the Cotton Bowl (which of the major bowls had been left out when the Bowl Coalition was reformed into the Bowl Alliance), beating

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

to finish the season 14–1. The Bowl Coalition was at risk of antitrust enforcement because of its

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

limiting participation in the most recognized bowls to members of just a few conferences.

LaVell Edwards Reuben LaVell Edwards (October 11, 1930 – December 29, 2016) was an American football head coach for Brigham Young University (BYU). With 257 career victories, he ranks as one of the most successful college football coaches of all time. Among ...

, BYU's

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

, testified in Congress at that time about the inherent unfairness in recruiting for teams who were excluded from bowls simply because of conference affiliation. With the pressure of potential Congressional action, the Bowl Alliance reformed into the Bowl Championship Series that not only included the Big Ten and the Pac-10 conference but also cracked open the door to allow the possibility of a "mid-major" team's participation. BYU's rival

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

became the first mid-major team to participate in a BCS bowl game, in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.

History and schedule

1995–96 season

* December 31, 1995 – Sugar Bowl: #11

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

(Big East champion) 28, #6

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

(Southwest champion) 10 * January 1, 1996 –

: #9 Florida State (ACC champion) 31, #8 Notre Dame 26 * January 2, 1996 –

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been pla ...

, ( National Championship Game): #1

(Big 8 champion) 62, #2

(SEC champion) 24

1996–97 season

* December 31, 1996 –

: #6

41, #9

(Big East champion) 21 * January 1, 1997 –

: #7 Penn State 38, #20

(Big 12 champion) 15 * January 2, 1997 – Sugar Bowl, ( National Championship Game): #3

(SEC champion) 52, #1 Florida State (ACC champion) 20

1997–98 season

* December 31, 1997 –

: #10

35, #14 Syracuse (Big East champion) 18 * January 1, 1998 – Sugar Bowl: #4 Florida State (ACC Champion) 31, #9

14 * January 2, 1998 –

, ( National Championship Game): #2

(Big 12 champion) 42, #3

(SEC champion) 17 ;Notes :Rankings are from the Bowl Alliance Poll prior to bowl games. : 1996 Season: #2

(11–0) lost to #4

in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1997. : 1997 Season: #2

(13–0) would win the Coaches' Poll National Championship, while #1

, (12–0) and winners of the Rose Bowl, won the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

Background

Trophy

Demise

History and schedule

1995–96 season

1996–97 season

1997–98 season

Appearances

Bowl Alliance appearances by team

Bowl Alliance National Championship Game appearances by team

Bowl Alliance appearances by conference

Bowl Alliance National Championship Game appearances by conference

Heisman Trophy winners in Bowl Alliance National Championship Games

References