lindabobhat said:
Ok, now I'm going to crawl out from under the rock where I've apparently been living. When did the Big Ten stop sending teams to the Rose Bowl?
Whoah - you've got a big rock.
The
Bowl Alliance was an agreement among [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_football"]
college football[/ame] bowl games for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCS_National_Championship_Game"]
national championship bowl game[/ame] and to provide quality [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_game"]
bowl game[/ame] 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 [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_Conference"]
SEC[/ame], [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_12_Conference"]
Big 12 Conference[/ame], [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Coast_Conference"]
ACC[/ame] and [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_East"]
Big East[/ame] conference champions and two at-large teams (the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Conference"]
Southwest Conference[/ame] 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 [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Coalition"]
Bowl Coalition[/ame]. The Bowl Alliance's member conferences and bowls joined with the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ten"]
Big Ten[/ame] and [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac_10"]
Pac 10[/ame] conferences and the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Bowl_Game"]
Rose Bowl Game[/ame] beginning with the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998"]
1998[/ame] [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Football"]
College Football[/ame] season to form the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Championship_Series"]
Bowl Championship Series[/ame].
