Bowl Alliance

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship bowl game and to provide quality bowl game matchups for the champions of its member conferences. The agreement was in place for the 1995, 1996, and 1997 seasons.

The Bowl Alliance involved the SEC, Big 12 Conference, ACC and Big East conference champions and two at-large teams (the Southwest Conference champ in 1996; there were also special provisions for Notre Dame). It included the Orange, Sugar and Fiesta Bowls. The championship game rotated among all three bowls. The top two teams in the combined played in the title game.

The Bowl Alliance replaced the Bowl Coalition. The Bowl Alliance's member conferences and bowls joined with the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences and the Rose Bowl Game beginning with the 1998 college football season to form the Bowl Championship Series.

1 Bowl Alliance Championship Game results
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Bowl Alliance Championship Game results

Season	Date	Winner	Score	Loser	Score	Site
1997*	January 2, 1998	2 Nebraska (12-0)	42	3 Tennessee (11-1)	17	Orange Bowl
1996*	January 2, 1997	3 Florida (11-1)	52	1 Florida St. (11-0)	20	Sugar Bowl
1995	January 2, 1996	1 Nebraska (11-0)	62	2 Florida (12-0)	24	Fiesta Bowl

Notes:

Rankings are from the Associated Press (Writers Poll). Records and Rankings are prior to bowl games.
1996 Season: No. 2 Arizona State (11-0) lost in the Rose Bowl on January 1.
1997 Season: Nebraska (13-0) won the ESPN-USA Today Coaches Poll National Championship, while No. 1 Michigan, (12-0) and winners of the Rose Bowl, won the Associated Press (Writers Poll) National Championship. This was prior to, and therefore unaffected by, the Bowl Championship Series' later agreement with the USA Today Coaches Poll locking in the outcome of that poll based on the title game's outcome.