Bowl Alliance
The Bowl Alliance was a scheduling agreement between college football conferences and three bowl games for the purpose of scheduling post-season games between the nation's top teams, with the goal of organizing a No. 1 vs. No. 2 national championship game in one of the participating bowls.
The Alliance branded the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl as the season's Great Games. Under the Alliance system, the games were played on three different nights and no longer competed with each other for television audiences.
The agreement, which replaced the Bowl Coalition, was in place for the 1995, 1996, and 1997 seasons. Each participating team in the Bowl Alliance Championship received $8.5 million from the television sponsors.
Background
In its beginnings, the Bowl Alliance involved the SEC, Big Eight, SWC, ACC, and Big East conference champions, as well as independent Notre Dame. Because of this, only one at-large slot was available for teams to vie for. With the disbanding of the Big Eight and SWC following the 1995 football season and the formation of the Big 12 Conference in its wake, an additional at-large bid became available. The Alliance bowls were held on three successive days in each of the three years of the Alliance's existence with one game played on New Year's Eve, one on New Year's Day, and one on January 2. A Bowl Alliance Poll was formed by adding together the point totals from AP Poll and Coaches' Poll. The top two ranked teams from the Alliance conferences met in the Bowl Alliance national championship game, which rotated between the three Alliance bowls and was always held on January 2.Because the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences were contractually tied to the Rose Bowl via automatic bids for their conference champions, their conference champions could not participate in the Alliance Bowls. Nevertheless, the conferences could be represented in the games if one of their teams procured an at-large bid to a Bowl Alliance game. This occurred twice, with Penn State playing in the 1997 Fiesta Bowl and Ohio State in the 1998 Sugar Bowl.
CBS and ABC split television coverage of the Bowl Alliance, with CBS acquiring the rights to the Orange and Fiesta Bowls from NBC following their 1995 playings and ABC already being in possession of the Sugar Bowl rights as they had been since 1970.
In the last two years of the Bowl Alliance, the possibility existed for a split national championship. In 1996, No. 1 Florida State played No. 3 Florida for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl while No. 2 Pac-10 champion Arizona State was locked into playing in the Rose Bowl against No. 4 Ohio State. Arizona State lost to Ohio State in the 1997 Rose Bowl, ending the possibility for a split national championship for that season.
In 1997, the same problem occurred but with the #1 team in both polls being locked out of the Bowl Alliance's championship game. Following the regular season, the top three teams in both polls' rankings were Michigan, Nebraska, and Tennessee. As the Big Ten champion, Michigan was contracted to play in the Rose Bowl on January 1. The Orange Bowl was to be played the next night between Nebraska and Tennessee, the top teams in the Alliance rankings, but only a Michigan loss to Washington State would result in an undisputed Bowl Alliance national championship game.
Following the 1997 season the Bowl Alliance's member conferences and bowls joined with the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences and the Rose Bowl to form the Bowl Championship Series beginning with the 1998 college football season.
Trophy
The Bowl Alliance awarded its own trophy to the winner of its designated national championship game.Nebraska, winners of the 1996 Fiesta Bowl trophy, were also awarded the Great Games Trophy for the national championship. The trophy was a silver loving cup.
The 1997 season's Alliance trophy was a large crystal chalice. It was awarded to the winning coach Tom Osborne on the field immediately following the Alliance National Championship at the 1998 Orange Bowl.
Demise
Because the Bowl Alliance failed to include the Pac-10, Big Ten, or any so-called mid-major conferences, the Bowl Alliance was reformed just three years after it began. BYU's performance opened the door for mid-major conferences to participate in upper-tier bowls as well. In 1996, despite 18 conference championships in 23 years, one of the winningest records in college football and a #5 ranking in the AP poll, BYU was excluded from a Bowl Alliance bowl and was relegated to the Cotton Bowl, beating Kansas State to finish the season 14–1. The Bowl Coalition was at risk of antitrust enforcement because of its monopoly limiting participation in the most recognized bowls to members of just a few conferences. LaVell Edwards, BYU's head coach, testified in Congress at that time about the inherent unfairness in recruiting for teams who were excluded from bowls simply because of conference affiliation. With the pressure of potential Congressional action, the Bowl Alliance reformed into the Bowl Championship Series that not only included the Big Ten and the Pac-10 conference but also cracked open the door to allow the possibility of a "mid-major" team's participation. BYU's rival Utah became the first mid-major team to participate in a BCS bowl game, the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.History and schedule
1995–96 season
- December 31, 1995 - Sugar Bowl: #11 Virginia Tech 28, #6 Texas 10
- January 1, 1996 - Orange Bowl: #9 Florida State 31, #8 Notre Dame 26
- January 2, 1996 - Fiesta Bowl, : #1 Nebraska 62, #2 Florida 24
1996–97 season
- December 31, 1996 - Orange Bowl: #6 Nebraska 41, #9 Virginia Tech 21
- January 1, 1997 - Fiesta Bowl: #7 Penn State 38, #20 Texas 15
- January 2, 1997 - Sugar Bowl, : #3 Florida 52, #1 Florida State 20
1997–98 season
- December 31, 1997 - Fiesta Bowl: #10 Kansas State 35, #14 Syracuse 18
- January 1, 1998 - Sugar Bowl: #4 Florida State 31, #9 Ohio State 14
- January 2, 1998 - Orange Bowl, : #2 Nebraska 42, #3 Tennessee 17