SEC Makes Deal With Sugar Bowl
A new bowl alliance system designed by the Bowl Championship Series, formerly the Bowl Alliance, insures the top Southeastern Conference team will finish its season with a sweet reward, a spot in the Sugar Bowl.
The system guarantees the SEC champion will be the host team in the Sugar Bowl as long as it is not playing in the national championship game or the Sugar Bowl is not the national championship game.
Auburn athletic director David Housel said it is an excellent opportunity to have the SEC champion go to the Sugar Bowl because, "historically the SEC champion has gone to the Sugar Bowl. It maintains the SEC's tie with the Sugar Bowl."
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Charles Bloom, assistant commissioner for media relations of the SEC and the BCS, said the Sugar Bowl benefits the SEC because of its home in New Orleans.
"New Orleans is closely located to SEC schools and is aligned with the SEC," Bloom said.
The Sugar Bowl will be the national championship game every four years as it rotates with the Fiesta, Rose and Orange. The Fiesta Bowl will be this year's championship game.
The Bowl Alliance was started three years ago in hopes of establishing a game to decide a true national champion.
It involved the Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowls and assured the top two ranked teams would play as long as one of them was not from the Big Ten or Pac-10 conferences.
The champions from those conferences were required to play in the Rose Bowl.
That led to the argument at the end of last season over who should be the national champion when Michigan and Nebraska both finished undefeated.
Under the old system, they were each awarded a share of the national championship. Under the new system, which includes the Rose Bowl and its member conferences, they would have played against each other and established a true national champion.
"It's great. It's letting it be decided on the field. It gives us our best chance of having a true national champion," Housel said.
This super alliance gives the individual bowl games tie-ins with the conferences that are best suited for each bowl game, while still assuring the top two teams play for the title.
The Rose Bowl will still have the top teams from thBig Ten and Pac-10 as long as they are not one of the top two rated teams.
The Sugar Bowl will get the SEC champion, the Fiesta Bowl will get the Big 12 champion and the Orange Bowl will get the Big East or ACC champion as long as they are not playing in the national championship game.
The way the top teams are picked has also undergone a change in the off-season with the institution of a complex formula to determine the two teams.
The teams that meet in the Fiesta Bowl to determine the national champion will be decided by a system based on the media and coaches polls, win-loss records, strength of schedule and the computer rankings of The New York Times, The Seattle Times and Jeff Sagarin.
The Associated Press media poll and the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll will be averaged together to provide the number of points awarded by the BCS for the poll vote. The computer rankings will also be averaged this way.
The strength of schedule factor will take into account the opponents' records and the records of the teams they played.
"I understand the system and I like it. It allows some degree of human element, but uses the computer to limit the human element," Housel said.
Bloom, who helped devise the system, talked about what he believes is the greatest aspect of the new system.
"It keeps the bowls alive," Bloom said. "Bowls have been good for college football. But it also assures us that the top two teams are playing to decide the national championship."
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