Bowl eligibility

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Bowl eligibility in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) College Football is the standard through which teams become available for selection to participate in postseason bowl games. When a team achieves this state, it is described as "bowl-eligible". Under current regulations, in order for this to occur, a team must have a winning record, which may include one win against a Division I FCS scholarship-awarding[1] opponent, or win their conference, and the team must not be on probation. The NCAA allows one victory per season over a Division I FCS (formerly I-AA) team to count toward an FBS team's bowl eligibility, so long as the FCS team has supplied financial aid for football averaging out to at least 56.7 full scholarships (90% of the limit of 63 allowed to FCS schools) over "a rolling two-year period" that can include the current season.[2]

Teams that are bowl eligible will usually either play in one of the bowl games that its conference is affiliated with based on conference tie-ins or the team will be chosen from the pool of remaining bowl eligible teams to fill one of the at-large positions.

On April 26, 2006, the NCAA announced that they were relaxing the rules for eligibility starting with the 2006 season, particularly in light of the new twelve-game college football season. Now, teams with a minimum non-losing, or .500, record can qualify for bowl games if their conference has a contract with a bowl game. Also, other teams with a minimum non-losing .500 record (i.e. 6–6) could earn bowl bids if all other FBS teams with winning records have been taken and postseason spots still remain vacant. In thirteen-game seasons (used because of conference championship games, or allowable for Hawaiʻi and any of its home opponents in a given season), a team must win seven games.[3]

Occasionally there will be more bowl eligible teams than there are spots in the NCAA football bowl games in the season. In these cases, some bowl eligible teams will not be invited to play in any NCAA football bowl game. Typically, teams with seven or more wins will not be left out of bowl games, although many seasons, most recently 2010, see at least one such team uninvited. Before the 2010–11 season, the Division I rulebook, specifically Bylaw 30.9.2.1, had several provisions that attempted to ensure that teams with seven wins will receive preference for bowl bids:[4]

  • Bowl games that have a contract with a conference must select a team with at least seven wins if one is available.
  • Any bowl berths that become eligible when a conference fails to meet its contracted tie-ins must first be filled by any eligible seven-win teams before any remaining FBS 6–6 teams can be accommodated.
  • Additionally, conferences are not allowed to sign contingency agreements with bowl games that would allow 6–6 teams from their conferences to receive bowl berths at the expense of any potential team with seven or more wins. While this does not prevent conferences from signing contingency agreements that are triggered when a second conference is unable to provide enough eligible teams to fill all of its contracted berths, it does not allow a 6–6 team from the contingency conference access to a bowl game over a seven win team from a third conference.

In 2008, these rules affected bowls contracted to the Big 12 and Pac-10, which each had at least one more bowl slot than eligible teams. The same applies to bowls contracted to the SEC. However, in that season, the WAC had a contingency agreement with one of the Pac-10's bowls, specifically the Poinsettia Bowl, providing that the bowl would select a WAC team (ultimately Boise State) if the Pac-10 did not have enough teams to fulfill their bowl contracts. The same contingency agreement applied in that season to the Sun Belt Conference and the Papa John's, Independence & St. Petersburg Bowls. Similarly, these rules affected bowls contracted to the ACC in 2009 because that conference has nine bowl tie-ins, but only had seven eligible teams that season.

Starting with the 2010–11 bowl season, the rule that required the selection of seven-win teams before any 6–6 teams was eliminated.[5] The first season of the new rule saw Temple go uninvited despite going 8–4, including a win over eventual Big East BCS representative Connecticut. In the 2011-12 bowl season, the UCLA Bruins were invited to a bowl game despite a losing record (6-7), while 7-5 winning team Western Kentucky and 6-6 non-losing team Ball State did not receive invites.

Like NCAA sports where a tournament determines an automatic conference bid to the postseason tournament, a team can finish with a losing record (or a winning record but not eligible because of FCS wins) and still appear in a bowl game. In another change to bowl eligibility rules that took effect in 2010–11, a team that wins its conference but has an overall losing record must receive an NCAA waiver to appear in a bowl game.[6] Previously, the waiver required no NCAA action. The new rule is still largely consistent with the NCAA rules in all other team sports, where a team that has a losing record that wins their conference championship through the conference tournament earns the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.[7] The UCLA Bruins were invited to a bowl game despite the double ineligibility of a losing record (6-7) and losing their conference championship game, claiming that they would have finished their season 6-6 if they had not been forced to play, and lose, their conference championship game when the USC Trojans (10-2) were denied post season play due to NCAA sanctions.[8]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Some FCS conferences prohibit the issuance of athletic scholarships. A well-known example of this policy is in the Ivy League.
  2. ^ "Bylaw 18.7.2.2.1 Exception – Football Championship Subdivision Opponent." (PDF). 2010–11 NCAA Division I Manual. National Collegiate Athletic Association. p. 316. http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/D111.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-28. 
  3. ^ ESPN - NCAA approves 31 bowl games for 2006 - College Football at sports.espn.go.com
  4. ^ "Bylaw 30.9.2.1 Exception – 12 Game Season." (PDF). 2009–10 NCAA Division I Manual. National Collegiate Athletic Association. pp. 354–55. http://www.ncaapublications.com/Uploads/PDF/D1_Manual9d74a0b2-d10d-4587-8902-b0c781e128ae.pdf. Retrieved 2009-11-09. [dead link]
  5. ^ "Bylaw 18.7.2 Postseason Football Championship and Postseason Bowl Licensing." (PDF). 2010–11 NCAA Division I Manual. National Collegiate Athletic Association. pp. 316–17. http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/D111.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-28.  Note that there is no provision in this rule that gives any preference to teams with seven or more wins over 6–6 teams.
  6. ^ "Bylaw 18.7.2.2.2 Waiver for Conference Champion." (PDF). 2010–11 NCAA Division I Manual. National Collegiate Athletic Association. p. 316. http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/D111.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-28. 
  7. ^ "Bylaw 31.3 Selection of Teams and Individuals for Championships Participation." (PDF). 2010–11 NCAA Division I Manual. National Collegiate Athletic Association. pp. 391–94. http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/D111.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-28.  See especially Bylaws 31.3.4 and 31.3.4.1.
  8. ^ http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/30661/losing-record-ucla-still-wants-a-bowl

[edit] External links

NCAA football bowl seasons

1934–35  • 1935–36  • 1936–37  • 1937–38  • 1938–39  • 1939–40
1940–41  • 1941–42  • 1942–43  • 1943–44  • 1944–45  • 1945–46  • 1946–47  • 1947–48  • 1948–49  • 1949–50
1950–51  • 1951–52  • 1952–53  • 1953–54  • 1954–55  • 1955–56  • 1956–57  • 1957–58  • 1958–59  • 1959–60
1960–61  • 1961–62  • 1962–63  • 1963–64  • 1964–65  • 1965–66  • 1966–67  • 1967–68  • 1968–69  • 1969–70
1970–71  • 1971–72  • 1972–73  • 1973–74  • 1974–75  • 1975–76  • 1976–77  • 1977–78  • 1978–79  • 1979–80
1980–81  • 1981–82  • 1982–83  • 1983–84  • 1984–85  • 1985–86  • 1986–87  • 1987–88  • 1988–89  • 1989–90
1990–91  • 1991–92  • 1992–93  • 1993–94  • 1994–95  • 1995–96  • 1996–97  • 1997–98  • 1998–99  • 1999–00
2000–01  • 2001–02  • 2002–03  • 2003–04  • 2004–05  • 2005–06  • 2006–07  • 2007–08  • 2008–09  • 2009–10
2010–11  • 2011–12
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bowl_eligibility&oldid=468107659"
Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export