From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bowl game
Bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is commonly considered dium, which was named "bowl" because its construction
to refer to one of a number of post-season college football was inspired by the Yale Bowl. Other cities saw the pro-
games. The term "bowl" originated from the Rose Bowl motional value for tourism that the Tournament of Ros-
Stadium, site of the first post-season college football es parade and Rose Bowl carried and began to develop
games. The Rose Bowl Stadium, in turn, takes its name their own regional festivals which included college foot-
and bowl-shaped design from the Yale Bowl, the proto- ball games. The label "bowl" was attached to the festival
type of many football stadiums in the United States. name, even though the games were not always played in
Prior to 2002, bowl game statistics were not included bowl-shaped stadiums.
in players’ career totals and the games were mostly con- The historic timing of bowl games, around the new
sidered to be exhibition games involving a payout to par- year, is the result of two factors: originally bowls began
ticipating teams, which had to meet strict eligibility re- in warm climates such as Southern California, Louisiana,
quirements. As the number of bowl games has grown Florida and Texas as a way to promote the area for
(in 2010, in terms of team-competitive games, there will tourism and business. Since commercial air travel was
be 35), a bowl game has become a season-ending event either non-existent or very limited early on, the games
for virtually every team with a winning record and the were timed a substantial amount of time after the end
games have gained increased importance for the revenue of the regular season to allow fans to travel to the game
they bring to participating programs and the opportuni- site.[1]
ty to recruit new players to the teams. In recent years, The Rose Bowl was the only major college bowl game
the term "bowl" has become synonymous with any major in 1930. By 1940, there were five major college bowl
American football event, generally collegiate football games: the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl (1935), the Cotton
with some significant exceptions (such as the Super Bowl Classic (1937), the Orange Bowl (1935), and the Sun
Bowl). One example is the Iron Bowl, a nickname given Bowl (1935). By 1950, the number had increased to eight
to the annual game between the University of Alabama games. In 1960 there were still eight major college bowl
Crimson Tide and the Auburn University Tigers. games, but by 1970 the number had increased again, to 11
Use of the term has also crossed over into profes- games. The number continued to increase, to 15 games in
sional and collegiate Canadian football. A notable exam- 1980, to 19 games in 1990, 25 games in the year 2000 and
ple is the annual Banjo Bowl between the Winnipeg Blue as of 2010, 35 games in total. Up until around the 1950s,
Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian games were played solely on New Years Day, with few ex-
Football League (CFL). Canadian Interuniversity Sport ceptions. In the late 1950s, more bowl games began play-
(CIS) plays two semi-final "bowl games" before the ing their games earlier in December. Also bowl games be-
Vanier Cup national championship game. The Uteck gan to be set in cities which were not thought of as win-
Bowl is normally played between the Atlantic Division ter vacation destinations due to their colder climates.
Champion and the champion from another division. It is Currently, college football bowl games are played
usually held at the venue of the easternmost team play- from mid-December to early January. As the number of
ing in the semi-finals. The Mitchell Bowl is played at the bowl games has increased, the number of games a team
westernmost team’s venue participating in the semi-fi- would need to win to be invited to a bowl game has de-
nals. creased. With a twelve game schedule, a team may have
six wins and be invited to a bowl game. As of the 2009 sea-
History son, the University of Alabama has played in more bowl
games than any other school, with 55 appearances and 31
The history of the bowl game began with the Tourna- victories. The University of Southern California has the
ment East-West football game, sponsored by the Tourna- most wins, with 48 appearances and 32 victories. The Ne-
ment of Roses Association between Michigan and Stan- braska Cornhuskers hold the record for longest streak of
ford, a game which Michigan won 49-0. The Tournament bowl game appearances at 35 straight (1969–2005). The
of Roses eventually sponsored an annual contest starting longest active streak is Florida State with 30.
with the 1916 Tournament of Roses football game. With The attendance of 106,869 for the 1973 Rose Bowl set
the 1923 Rose Bowl it began to be played at the newly the Rose Bowl Stadium record, as well as the NCAA bowl
completed Rose Bowl stadium, and thus the contest itself game attendance record.[2][3] The Rose Bowl stadium still
became known as the Rose Bowl game. The name "bowl" is the largest capacity stadium and the Rose Bowl game
to describe the games thus comes from the Rose Bowl sta- has the highest attendance for post season bowl games.
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bowl game
Professional bowl games top teams from historically black colleges and universi-
ties, one from the SWAC and one from the MEAC.
The National Football League also used the name "bowl" Prior to 1992 most bowls had strict agreements with
for some of its playoff games. While the NFL Champion- certain conferences. For example, the Rose Bowl tradi-
ship was not named a Bowl initially, the league institut- tionally invited the champions of the Pac-10 and the Big
ed the Pro Bowl as the name of its all-star game in 1951, Ten conferences. The Sugar Bowl invited the SEC cham-
and introduced the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl (also known as pion and the Orange Bowl hosted the Big 8 conference
the Playoff Bowl) as a matchup of the two second-place champion. These conference tie-ins led to situations
teams in each division from 1960 to 1969. where the top-ranked teams in the country could not
When the professional football AFL-NFL merger oc- play each other in a bowl game. The national champi-
curred in 1970, the AFL-NFL World Championship Game onship was decided after the bowls, solely by voters for
became the NFL’s championship and is now known as the various media polls, who tried to decide which team was
Super Bowl, as it has been named since 1968 (the name best, sometimes based on wins against far inferior teams.
was coined by Lamar Hunt after playing with a super As a result there could be multiple championship titles
ball). There has also been the American Bowl, a preseason and no single champion. This led to the term "Mythical
match held overseas, and various one-time games infor- National Championship," which is still used to describe
mally nicknamed "bowls," such as the Bounty Bowl, Ice high school national champions, since high school sports
Bowl, Snow Bowl, Freezer Bowl, Fog Bowl, Mud Bowl, Tu- have state championship tournaments but not national.
na Bowl,[4] Manning Bowl[5] and the proposed (but ulti- In 1992, the Bowl Alliance, formed by the major bowls
mately canceled) China Bowl. and conferences, put in place a system where the two
As a result, other professional football leagues used highest ranked teams would play each other, even if they
or use the name "Bowl" for their championships, such as were each affiliated with a different bowl. However, the
the World Football League ("World Bowl"), NFL Europe Pac-10 and Big Ten and the Rose Bowl did not participate.
("World Bowl"), Arena Football League ("ArenaBowl"), Number 1 vs Number 2 bowl match-ups became far more
Indoor Football League ("United Bowl"), Great Lakes In- likely, but were not guaranteed. After the 1997 season,
door Football League ("Great Lakes Bowl") and American undefeated Michigan was ranked first in both major
Indoor Football Association (AIFA Championship Bowl). polls, but as the Big Ten champion, they played eighth-
The Canadian Football League nicknames one of their ri- ranked Pac-10 champion Washington State in the Rose
valries as the Banjo Bowl and another QEW Bowl (also Bowl. The top Bowl Alliance team, #2 and unbeaten Ne-
known as the "Battle of Ontario"). braska, faced one-loss, third-ranked Tennessee in the
Orange Bowl. Michigan won by five in the afternoon and
Bowl games today later that night, Nebraska beat Tennessee by twenty-five.
The AP kept Michigan as the champion, but the Coaches’
Poll jumped Nebraska in part because of their more lop-
Post-season bowls sided victory against a more highly ranked opponent.
See also: Automatic bids to non-BCS bowls The following season, the Rose Bowl, Pac-10, and Big
At the NCAA top level of football, the Division I Football Ten joined the other bowls and major conferences to
Bowl Subdivision (known as Division I-A from 1978 form the Bowl Championship Series. The BCS attempts to
through 2005), teams must earn the right to be bowl el- match the two highest ranked teams in the country with
igible by winning at least six games and by not having a the winner named champion at the conclusion. The AP
losing record during the season. They can then be invited poll reserves the right to crown a separate team cham-
to a bowl game based on their placement and the tie-ins pion, last done after the 2003 season, when three teams
that the conference has to each bowl game. A rule change were equally worthy of reaching the BCS championship
for 2010 allows bowls to tender a bid to any team with a game. One-loss LSU won the BCS National Championship
6-6 record before teams with more than six wins. Bowls over Oklahoma, but the AP crowned one-loss USC cham-
are popular among coaching staffs because the NCAA al- pion after its Rose Bowl win. It is the nature of college
lows college teams going to bowl games extra weeks of football that there may be more than two teams worthy
practice they would otherwise not have, and bowl games of playing for a title when there is not a post-season play-
pay the teams for their participation. Teams belonging off in place, and the BCS attempts to match two nation-
to a conference split the money with their conference al title contenders to play each other, instead of lesser
mates. For the 2010 season, 70 of the 120 Division I FBS teams.
teams played in a bowl game. At lower levels, teams play For the 2006 season (with some bowl games taking
in playoff games with a national championship game at a place in 2007), the BCS added a fifth bowl that would de-
neutral site, like a bowl. The Heritage Bowl was the on- cide the national championship. This BCS National Cham-
ly true bowl for teams below the FBS level. It invited the pionship Game is between the first and second ranked
teams according to the BCS formula.
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bowl game
Small college bowls held in 1979. Apart from the German Bowl, a Junior Bowl
has also been contested in Germany since 1982 and a
Aside from the BCS System and the NCAA Football Bowl
Ladies Bowl was introduced in 1990. Other, related, na-
Subdivision, there are a few bowl games for smaller col-
tional championship games in Germany include the Ger-
leges. One such example is the Victory Bowl sponsored
man Flag Bowl (est. 2000), German Junior Flag Bowl
by the NCCAA, a group that does not restrict its member-
(1999) and a German Indoor Flag Bowl (2000).[7]
ship to either NCAA or NAIA. Another example is the Col-
lege Fanz First Down Classic, a pre-season bowl game for
NAIA teams. Starting with the now defunct Wheat Bowl, See also
the NAIA found it easier to schedule bowl games early in
• List of college bowl games
the season rather than late—this allowed the schedule to
• Bowl Coalition
accommodate large college bowl games and high school
• Bowl Alliance
sports.
• Bowl Championship Series
• NCAA football bowl records
Special games and rivalries • AP Poll - Bowl game results were not included in the
Bowl games that are not part of the post-season are tradi- AP championship until the 1968 season (1974 season
tional games against rival schools such as Iron Bowl and for the UP championship)
Egg Bowl. In the BUAFL, the Steel Bowl is contested be-
tween the Sheffield Sabres and Sheffield Hallam Warri-
ors. Recently, the term "bowl" has been added to other References
games that have some special note or sub-plot to the ac- • "College Bowl Games". HickokSports.com.
tual game, in college or the National Football League. Ex- http://www.hickoksports.com/history/
amples of this are the Bowden Bowl, Manning Bowl and collbowl.shtml. Retrieved September 20, 2005.
Ice Bowl. However, any game that is part of the post sea- [1] Frank Deford, The earmarks of athletics: Sheer
son is considered a bowl game, even if it is not a formal lunacy of bowl games defies all traditional logic,
bowl game, such as all-star games. The Super Bowl, the SportsIllustrated.com, November 29, 2006.
NFL’s championship game, started as a "world champion- [2] UCLA Football - 2007 UCLA Football (Media Guide).
ship" between the champions of the rival American Foot- UCLA Athletic Department (2007), page 165 (PDF
ball League and NFL in the same way many college bowl copy available at www.uclabruins.com)
games bring together the champions of different college [3] 2002 NCAA Records book - Attendance Records
conferences. page 494 (PDF)
There have also been pre-season and regular-season [4] "Tuna Bowl II Goes From Folly to Foley". The Los
games carrying the "bowl" title, including the Mirage Angeles Times. October 20, 1997.
Bowl and Glasnost Bowl. http://articles.latimes.com/1997/oct/20/sports/
Several games between bad teams, particularly poor sp-44880.
in play quality, have been jocularly referred to as Toilet [5] http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/
Bowls or, in professional football, as Draft Bowls.[6] story?id=2386175
[6] Austin Murphy, Washington-Washington State
All-star bowl games playing for pride in Apple Cup, SI.com, November
Following the Bowl Championship Series, a series of all- 20, 2008, Accessed January 9, 2009.
star bowl games round out the post-season schedule. Th- [7] Bowls GFL website, accessed: 26 January 2011
ese games showcase the best departing college players,
just as the NFL showcases its all-stars in the annual post- Further reading
season Pro Bowl. Such college all-star games include the
East-West Shrine Game, the Senior Bowl, and the newly- • Oriard, Michael (2009). Bowled Over: Big-Time College
established NFLPA Game (originally the "Texas vs. The Football from the Sixties to the BCS Era. The University
Nation Game"). of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3329-2.
Outside North America External links
• Football Bowl Association
Germany • College Football Data Warehouse - Bowl Games
In Germany, the national championship game in Amer-
ican football is called the German Bowl and was first
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bowl_game&oldid=464069922"
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bowl game
Categories:
• College football bowls
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