Football Follies

[cactuswatcher]

Let's see. The NCAA Championship game will be separate from the current bowls, though only stadiums in the rotation will be allowed to host the Championship game. Starting in 2014 till 2025 the Rose bowl will feature the PAC vs the Big Ten, the Sugar Bowl will feature the Big 12 vs the SEC, and the Orange Bowl will feature the ACC vs either the Big 10 or the SEC or Notre Dame. The conference champions will not appear in those games unless those bowls turn in the rotation that year is for the playoff or the champion of the conference is snubbed by the playoff. Notre Dame will not be accepted to the Orange Bowl more than twice in those 12 years. But conceivably Wake Forest could go all 12 years. The Big 10 and the SEC will each get at least three Orange Bowl bids. Meanwhile the Fiesta Bowl finds itself out of the center of things again waiting with the Cotton Bowl, The Capital One Bowl and The Chick-Fil-A to see if it will be in the rotation for the playoffs. If I read it correctly all twelve slots of the six games in the rotation will be selected by a committee not by the bowls every year. I wonder if a single game can be played in the 2014 rotation before the screaming objections start.

Meanwhile the Big East has officially been demoted to second tier in that they will have to compete with the MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Conference USA for exactly one slot of the yearly 12. Thankfully the WAC will have ceased to exist. Not that we'd expect much from the current independents other than Notre Dame, but the chances that any of them could sneak in are pretty slim even if they get much better in the next decade.

So It looks like each of the first tier conferences are guaranteed from one to three slots, and the second tier gets one. Let the lawsuits begin!