Bowl game
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InNorth America,abowl game,or simplybowl,is one of a number of postseasoncollege footballgames that are primarily played by teams belonging to theNCAA'sDivision I Football Bowl Subdivision(FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivision had avoided using aplayoff tournamentto determine an annual national champion, which was instead traditionally determined by a vote of sports writers and other non-players. In place of such a playoff, various cities across the United States developed their own regional festivals featuring postseason college football games. Prior to2002,bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals. Despite attempts to establish a permanent system to determine theFBS national championon the field (such as theBowl Coalitionfrom 1992 to 1994, theBowl Alliancefrom 1995 to 1997, theBowl Championship Seriesfrom 1998 to 2013, and theCollege Football Playofffrom 2014 to the present), various bowl games continue to be held because of the vested economic interests entrenched in them.
Bowl games originally featured the very best teams in college football, with strictbowl eligibilityrequirements for teams to receive an invitation to a bowl game in a particular year; as of 1971, there were only 10 team-competitive (as compared to all-star) bowl games. The number of bowl games has grown, reaching 20 games by the1997 season,then rapidly expanding beyond 30 games by the2006 seasonand 40 team-competitive games, not including theCollege Football Playoff National Championship,by the2015 season.The increase in bowl games has necessitated a virtual elimination of the NCAA bowl eligibility rules, since reduced to allow teams with non-winning 6–6 records (numerous teams since2002 season,including 21 such teams in the suddenly 43-bowl2023 season) and even losing 5–6 and 5–7 seasons (numerous teams since the2001 season,including one such team in the 43-bowl 2023 season, meaning over one quarter of the teams that bowl season did not have winning records) to fill many of the increasingly available bowl slots.
The term "bowl" originated from theRose Bowl stadium,site of the first postseason college football games. The Rose Bowl Stadium, in turn, takes its name andbowl-shapeddesign from theYale Bowl,the prototype of many football stadiums in theUnited States.The term has since become almost synonymous with any majorAmerican footballevent, generally collegiate football with some significant exceptions. Two examples are theEgg Bowl,the name of the annual matchup between theMississippi StateBulldogsand theOle MissRebels,and theIron Bowl,a nickname given to the annual game between theAlabamaCrimson Tideand theAuburnTigers.Inprofessional football,the names of theNational Football League(NFL)'sSuper BowlandPro Bowlare references to college football bowl games.
The use of the term has crossed over into professional and collegiateCanadian football.A notable example is the annualBanjo Bowlbetween theWinnipeg Blue BombersandSaskatchewan Roughridersof theCanadian 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 theVanier Cupnational championship game; since 2002 these have been theUteck Bowland theMitchell 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.
History
[edit]
The history of the bowl game began with the1902 Tournament East-West football game,sponsored by theTournament of Roses AssociationbetweenMichiganandStanford,a game which Michigan won 49–0. The Tournament of Roses eventually sponsored an annual contest starting with the1916 Tournament East-West Football Game.With the1923 Rose Bowlit began to be played at the newly completedRose Bowl stadium,and thus the contest itself became known as theRose Bowl game.The name "bowl" to describe the games thus comes from the Rose Bowl stadium.[citation needed]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" 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 asSouthern California,Louisiana,Florida,andTexasas a way to promote the area for tourism and business. Since commercial air travel 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.[1]While modern travel is more convenient, all but 5 of 41 bowl games (as of 2017[update]) are still located incities 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, 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[update],theUniversity of Alabamahas played in more bowl games than any other school, with 69 appearances (countingCollege Football Playoffsemifinals and finals). Alabama also holds the record for most bowl victories with 41 under that same metric. As of 2019[update],theVirginia Tech Hokiesholds the official NCAA-recognized record of consecutive bowl berths, along with the longest active streak of consecutive bowl appearances, at 26 straight bowls.[2][3][4]
Florida Stateheld the record of consecutive bowl berths at 36 bowl appearances from 1982 until 2017. However, it is not recognized by the NCAA since the NCAA vacated FSU's2006 Emerald Bowlvictory over UCLA due to an academic issue.[5]
The Rose Bowl was the only major college bowl game in 1930. By 1940, there were five major college bowl games: the Rose Bowl, theSugar Bowl(established in 1935), theCotton Bowl Classic(1937), theOrange Bowl(1935), and theSun 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 theNational Champion). Up until around the 1950s, the small number of games were played solely onNew 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 the2016–17 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 the1973 Rose Bowlset theRose Bowl Stadiumrecord, and an NCAA bowl game attendance record.[6][7]The Rose Bowl stadium still 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 sellingnaming rights.While some include the traditional name in some form (e.g. theRose Bowl Gamepresented byNorthwestern Mutual), others have eliminated their traditional name in favor of solely using their corporate sponsor's name (e.g. the formerCitrus Bowlbecame theCapital One Bowlfor some time after the financial services companyCapital Onebought 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 thePac-10and theBig Tenconferences. The Sugar Bowl invited the SEC champion and the Orange Bowl hosted theBig 8conference 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 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.
Attempts to determine a national champion
[edit]
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, theDivision I Bowl Subdivisionlong 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, theBowl 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 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, undefeatedMichiganwas ranked first in both major polls, but as the Big Ten champion, they played eighth-ranked Pac-10 championWashington Statein the Rose Bowl. The top Bowl Alliance team, #2 and unbeatenNebraska,faced one-loss, third-rankedTennesseein the Orange Bowl. Michigan won by five on New Year's Day and the next night, Nebraska beat Tennessee (playing with an injury-hobbledPeyton Manning) by 25. The AP kept Michigan as the champion, but the Coaches' Poll jumped Nebraska, playing its final game for retiring coachTom Osborne,in part because of their more lopsided victory against a more highly ranked opponent.
The following season, the Rose Bowl, Pac-10, and Big Ten joined the other bowls and major conferences to form theBowl 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, theRose Bowl,Fiesta Bowl,Sugar Bowl,andOrange Bowl,rotating the role of "national championship." In 2006, a dedicatedBCS Championship Gamerotated among the BCS venues. The BCS Championship Game, while separate from the four main bowls, was still rotated among their sites. TheCoaches Pollwas contractually obligated to recognize the winner of the game as its national champion. However, other polls such as theAP Pollmay deviate and pick a different team, particularly in years when multiple teams were equally worthy of reaching the game. In 2003, for instance, one-lossLSUwon the BCS National Championship overOklahoma,but the AP crowned one-lossUSCchampion after its Rose Bowl win.
For the 2014–15 season, the BCS was replaced by a new consortium, theCollege Football Playoff(CFP). The new system uses a four-teamsingle-elimination tournament,with its participants selected and seeded by a committee; the semi-final games are rotated between pairs of the six member bowls yearly, the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, then Orange Bowl andCotton Bowl Classic,and then the Fiesta Bowl andPeach Bowl.The winners from the two semi-final bowls advance to theCollege Football Playoff National Championship,which is played at a neutral site determined using bids. Members of theNew Year's Sixthat are not hosting semi-final games revert to their traditional tie-ins. Like its predecessors, and in contrast to the officially sanctioned NCAA tournaments at lower levels, the College Football Playoff is not officially recognized as an NCAA championship.
Professional bowl games
[edit]TheNational Football Leaguealso used the name "bowl" for some of its playoff games. While theNFL Championshipwas not named a Bowl initially, the league instituted thePro Bowlas the name of its all-star game in 1951, and introduced theBert Bell Benefit Bowl(also known as the Playoff Bowl) as a matchup of the two second-place teams in each division from 1960 to 1969.
When the professional footballAFL–NFL mergeroccurred in 1970, the AFL–NFL World Championship Game became the NFL's championship and is now known as theSuper Bowl,as it has been named since 1968 (the name was coined byLamar Huntafter watching his daughter play with asuper ball). There has also been theAmerican Bowl,apreseason matchheld overseas, and various one-time games informally nicknamed bowls, such as theBounty Bowl,Ice Bowl,Snow Bowl,Freezer Bowl,Fog Bowl,Mud Bowl,TunaBowl,[8]Manning Bowl,[9]Harbaugh Bowl,Kelce Bowland 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 theWorld 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) andAmerican Indoor Football Association(AIFA Championship Bowl). TheCanadian Football Leaguenicknames one of their rivalries as theBanjo Bowland anotherQEWBowl (also known as 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, theGrey Cup).
Bowl games today
[edit]Postseason bowls
[edit]At theNCAAtop level of football, theDivision IFootball Bowl Subdivision(FBS, previously known as Division I-A from 1978 through 2005), teams must earn the right to bebowl eligible,generally by winning at least six games and by not having 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 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.[10]Originally known as the Football Bowl Association, the organization announced a rebranding as "Bowl Season" in October 2020.[11]It aims to work "with all existing bowls to promote the benefits of the entire bowl system".[11]
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 the Power Five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC and FBS Independent Notre Dame) coming in the second week.
Non-FBS bowl games
[edit]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, theCelebration Bowl,formerly theHeritage Bowl.It invites the top teams fromhistorically black colleges and universities,one from theSWACand one from theMEAC.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 theDivision IIlevel there are currently four postseason bowls for teams that did not qualify for the DII playoffs: theLive United Texarkana Bowl,Heritage Bowl,America's Crossroads Bowl,andFlorida Beach Bowl.All four of the Division II bowls are played on the first weekend of December.
At theNCAA Division IIIlevel, all bowls that are currently played are recent developments (starting in 2008 or later). For the2017 season,10 bowls were scheduled to be played by teams that did not qualify for the DIII playoffs: asix-bowl seriesorganized forECACteams, a two-bowl series organized between theCentennial ConferenceandMAC,theNew York State Bowl(betweenLiberty LeagueandEmpire 8), and theNew England Bowl(between theECFC,MSCAC,CCCandNEWMAC).
Prior to 2008, the ECAC also held theECAC Bowl(1989–2003) for Division I-AA and the North Atlantic Bowl (2007), the last of which is now integrated into the conference's six-bowl series. Additionally, theDivision IIIchampionship game has historically been known as the Amos AlonzoStagg Bowl.
Outside theNCAA,theVictory Bowlis sponsored by theNCCAA,a group that does not restrict its membership to either NCAA orNAIA.The NAIA does not have any invitational postseason bowl games. Starting with the now defunctWheat 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 theCollege Fanz First Down Classic,a pre-season bowl game for NAIA teams.
All-star bowl games
[edit]Following team-competitive bowl games, a series of all-star bowl games round out the postseason schedule. These games seek to showcase the best departing college players. Such college all-star games include theEast–West Shrine Bowl,theSenior Bowl,and theHula Bowl.Other all-star games, now defunct, include theNorth–South Shrine Game,andNFLPA Collegiate Bowl.
Special games and rivalries
[edit]There have also been pre-season and regular-season games carrying the "bowl" moniker, including theMirage Bowl,theGlasnost Bowland theCanadian Football League'sBanjo Bowl.
Examples of bowl games that are not part of the postseason include theIron Bowland theEgg 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 theNational Football League.An example of this is theBowden Bowlgiven to games whereFlorida StateandClemsonwere coached by the father-son duo ofBobby BowdenandTommy Bowden,respectively.
Games between two very poor teams and/or of a very poor standard of play have been jokingly referred to as the "Toilet Bowl".[12]
Outside North America
[edit]Brazil
[edit]The championship game of theSuperliga Nacional de Futebol Americanois known as the Brasil Bowl.
European Football League
[edit]In theEuropean Football League(EFL), aEuropean Cupstyle tournament for European American Football teams affiliated withIFAF Europe,the final game of the EFL is called theEurobowl,and has been held annually since 1986.
Denmark
[edit]InDenmark,the national championship game is calledMermaid Bowl,named after theHans Christian Andersenfairy tale.
Finland
[edit]InFinland,the national championship game is calledVaahteramalja( "Maple Bowl" ) and was first held in 1980.
Germany
[edit]InGermany,the national championship game in American football is called theGerman Bowland was first held in 1979. Apart from the German Bowl, aJunior Bowlhas also been contested in Germany since 1982 and 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).[13]
Great Britain
[edit]The annual championship game of theBritish American Football AssociationNational Leaguesis known as theBritbowl.
Ireland
[edit]The championship game of theAmerican Football IrelandPremier Division is called theShamrock Bowl.It is generally held around July or August each year and has been played every year since 1986 except for 2000 & 2020.
Israel
[edit]The winner of theIsraeli Football Leagueis determined every year in the Israel Bowl. The first to lift the Becker Trophy was the Jerusalem Lions in 2008.
Japan
[edit]The championship game between the East Japan and West Japan champions in college football, is known as theKoshien Bowl.The top middle school teams also compete in the Koshien Bowl. While the pro football championship is known as theJapan X Bowl.The winners of the Koshien and Japan X bowls play each other for the Japan National Championship in theRice Bowl.The annual high school football championship game is theChristmas Bowl.
Netherlands
[edit]The championship game of the Dutch AFBN First Division is called the Tulip Bowl. The first edition was held in 1986.
Switzerland
[edit]The championship game of the Swiss Nationalliga A is called theSwiss Bowl.It was first held in 1986.
See also
[edit]
- List of college bowl games
- List of announcers of major college bowl games
- Bids to college bowl games
- Bowl Coalition
- Bowl Alliance
- Bowl Championship Series
- List of NCAA football bowl records
- AP Poll– Bowl game results were not included in the AP championship until the 1968 season (1974 season for the UPI championship)
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^Deford, Frank(November 29, 2006)."The earmarks of athletics: Sheer lunacy of bowl games defies all traditional logic".Sports Illustrated.Archived fromthe originalon December 5, 2006.
- ^Virginia Tech 39, Pittsburgh 36.Quote: "Virginia Tech won at Pittsburgh for the first time since 1999, clinching a 24th consecutive bowl berth – the longest active streak in the nation."
- ^Brief, Sam."Virginia Tech Tops the List of Longest Bowl Streaks After Beating Marshall".Sports Illustrated.Retrieved9 December2019.
- ^Martinez, Courtney."7 of the longest active winning and postseason streaks across the NCAA".NCAA.NCAA.Retrieved9 December2019.
- ^"VT continues to claim nation's longest bowl streak over Florida State".Tallahassee Democrat.RetrievedNovember 30,2016.
- ^UCLA Football – 2007 UCLA Football (Media Guide).UCLA Athletic Department (2007), page 165 (PDF copy available at uclabruins )
- ^2002 NCAA Records book – Attendance RecordsArchivedApril 8, 2008, at theWayback Machinepage 494 (PDF)
- ^"Tuna Bowl II Goes From Folly to Foley".The Los Angeles Times.October 20, 1997.
- ^"'Manning Bowl', MNF twin bill highlight schedule peek – NFL – ESPN ".ESPN.2006-03-28.Retrieved2013-12-17.
- ^Pope, Edwin (April 30, 1989)."Arrogant CFA threatens bowls with playoffs".Miami Herald.p. 6D.RetrievedOctober 24,2020.
- ^ab"'Bowl Season' Announced as New Name of College Football's Postseason ".bowlseason(Press release). October 23, 2020.RetrievedOctober 24,2020.
- ^Austin Murphy,Washington–Washington State playing for pride in Apple Cup,SI, November 20, 2008, Accessed January 9, 2009.
- ^BowlsArchived2015-09-29 at theWayback MachineGFL website, accessed: 26 January 2011
Sources
[edit]- "College Bowl Games".HickokSports.Archived fromthe originalon February 23, 2002.RetrievedSeptember 20,2005.
Further reading
[edit]- Oriard, Michael (2009).Bowled Over: Big-Time College Football from the Sixties to the BCS Era.The University of North Carolina Press.ISBN978-0-8078-3329-2.
External links
[edit]- Bowl Season(formerly, the Football Bowl Association)
