Bowl Match-Ups: The Good & Bad

The BCS is solely designed to match the top two teams in the championship game. After that, the BSC bowls draft teams, with consideration for conference commitments and (more importantly) ticket sales. Matching two highly ranked teams is of secondary importance.

The best match-ups, based on lowest BSC rank and total number of wins, is somewhat surprising:

24…BCS (3) LSU vs Alabama

22…Fiesta (7) Oklahoma State vs Stanford

22…Rose (15) Oregon vs Wisconsin

20…Cotton (18) Arkansas vs Kansas State

20…Outback (20) Georgia vs Michigan State

21…Sugar (30) Michigan vs Virginia Tech

19…Capital One (31) South Carolina vs Nebraska

19…Orange (37) Clemson vs West Virginia

21…Ticket City (44) Houston vs Penn State

20…GoDaddy.com: Northern Illinois vs Arkansas State

The only other post-New Year’s game is the Gator Bowl, which managed an attractive matchup based on Urban Meyer: the former Gator coach freshly hired by the Buckeyes. This overshadows the mundane 6-6 record of each team. Three other bowls match six-win teams: Meineke, Fight Hunger, and Music City. In addition to these eight six-win teams, another five bowl teams managed only six wins: Vandy, Iowa State, Purdue, Arizona State, and Marshall.

12…Gator: Florida vs Ohio State

12…Music City: Wake Forest vs Mississippi State

The Chickfila Bowl’s magical run of highly ranked matchups ended this year. Often thought of as the best non-BCS and/or non-New Years Bowl, the CFA lost out on highly ranked teams from both its conference affiliates. UGA headed to sunny Florida. SC was last year’s SEC representative. Arkansas opted for the Cotton Bowl, who secured higher-ranked teams than two BCS teams. With its move to Jerry-World, the Cotton Bowl has positioned itself as the front-runner as the next BCS bowl in-waiting.

No New Years Eve Bowl is fielding a ranked team, though six earlier bowls landed one. Ten pre-New Years Eve bowls have win totals higher than the five December 31 bowl games. UCLA managed a New Years Eve bowl bid, despite having a losing record.

15…Chickfila: Virginia vs Auburn

15…Sun: Georgia Tech vs Utah

14…Liberty: Vandy vs Cincinnati

12…Meineke: Northwestern vs Texas A&M

12…Fight Hunger: UCLA vs Illinois