Bowl Coalition

Since the Associated Press began crowning its national champion in 1968 following the bowl games, the two top-ranked teams going into the bowls had faced one other in a bowl only six times, most recently in the 1987 season. Due to often rigid existing bowl tie-ins, and various conference regulations, it was not uncommon that the two top-ranked teams at the end of the regular season would never meet on the field, even when there was a clear-cut #1 and #2. Following two consecutive seasons of split national championships (1990 and 1991), there was a renewed interest in devising a system that would provide for a #1 vs. #2 national championship bowl game.

The College Football Bowl Coalition consisted of five member conferences (SEC, Big 8, SWC, ACC, and Big East) along with independent Notre Dame and seven bowl games (Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Fiesta, Gator, Sun, and, for the 1992 season only, the Blockbuster Bowl).^[1]

Under the agreement, bowl bids would be extended to the five member conference champions plus five at-large teams. The at-large teams would come from a pool of the member conference runners-up (SEC, Big 8, SWC, ACC, Big East), independent Notre Dame, the runner-up of the Pac-10, and the SEC's third-place team (the SEC started playing a championship game in 1992 and the championship game loser was tied to the Citrus Bowl). The Orange, Sugar, Cotton, and Fiesta Bowls were "Tier 1 Bowls" under the Coalition agreement, and the Gator, Sun, and Blockbuster were "Tier 2 Bowls".

The Orange, Sugar, and Cotton bowls retained their long-standing agreements to invite the Big 8, SEC, and SWC champions, respectively. According to the initial Bowl Coalition rules, if champions from these conferences were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, they would not have played each other in a national championship game and instead each gone to their respective traditional bowl.^[2]

In later years,^{[citation needed]} the Big 8, SEC, and SWC champions would be released to play in another bowl if it was necessary to force a "title game". For example, if the SEC and SWC champions were ranked first and second, the Cotton Bowl would have released the SWC champ to play in the Sugar Bowl, or the Sugar would have released the SEC champ to play in the Cotton. This did not happen in any of the three years, as either the Big East or ACC champion qualified for the championship in those years.

The top "host" team played the top "at-large" team in the host team's affiliated bowl. Slots for the games were chosen by the "Bowl Poll," in which the points from the AP and Coaches polls were combined. If the top two teams were both "at-large", then the Fiesta would have hosted the "title game." The third place team from the SEC hosted the Gator Bowl.

The system worked perfectly in its first year. Big East champion Miami was ranked first in both polls, while SEC champion Alabama was ranked second. As Big East champion, Miami was free to face Alabama in the 1993 Sugar Bowl, forcing the first bowl matchup between the consensus #1 and #2 teams since 1987.

The Coalition was flawed in several respects. Most significantly, it did not include the champions of the Big Ten and Pac-10, both of whom were contractually obligated to play in the Rose Bowl. The Coalition's founders tried to get the Tournament of Roses Association to release the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions to play in a title game if one of them was ranked #1 or #2 in the Bowl Poll, but it refused to do so due to concerns about this potentially violating its television contract with ABC.

The possibility also still existed that an undefeated and untied team would not get a chance to play for the national championship. This occurred during the 1993 season. Nebraska and West Virginia both finished the season 11–0. West Virginia ranked #2 in the final regular season Coaches Poll (behind #1 Nebraska), but was ranked #3 in the final regular season AP Poll (behind #1 Florida State and #2 Nebraska). The margin between West Virginia and Florida State was large enough to drop the Mountaineers to third in the Bowl Coalition poll, forcing them to settle for a berth in the Sugar Bowl.

The Coalition did not include the so-called "mid-major" Division I-A conferences (WAC, Big West, and Mid-American), nor any of the I-A independents besides Notre Dame. However, it was argued that most of these schools did not have schedules strong enough to be legitimate title contenders. For example, when BYU won the national championship in 1984 — the last time a team from a mid-major conference has won a consensus national championship to date — some college football pundits argued that the Cougars had not played a legitimate schedule. BYU had only played one ranked team all season, and only two of the Cougars' opponents won more than seven games. Despite criticism of their schedule, the Cougars were a near-unanimous pick as national champion at the end of the season. The Coalition's exclusion of mid-major conferences made it difficult for this to ever happen again.

The Bowl Coalition's demise came about, in large part, as the result of two events that occurred in the 1994 season. First, the Southwest Conference, which had seen a marked decline in its quality of play over the past decade, announced it would dissolve after the 1995 season. Also, after finishing 10–1–1 in 1992 and 11–1 in 1993, Notre Dame slipped to 6–4–1 in 1994. They were still invited to the Fiesta Bowl that season, losing 41–24 to Colorado. The sudden fall of Notre Dame led some involved in the Bowl Coalition to be concerned about the possibility of Notre Dame failing to win the minimum six games to be eligible for a bowl invitation. To alleviate these concerns, before the 1995 season the Bowl Coalition was reconfigured into the Bowl Alliance, breaking up the conference tie-ins and tweaking a system that still did not include the Big Ten and the Pac-10.

The final year of the Bowl Coalition saw its formula break down completely, as the situation it was designed to prevent (a split national championship) presented itself as a serious possibility. Nebraska (12–0) finished the regular season ranked #1 in both the AP and Coaches polls while Penn State (11–0) ranked #2 in both polls. Penn State had decided prior to the formation of the Bowl Coalition to give up its independent football status to join the Big Ten,^[3] a conference not part of the coalition and whose champion was contractually obligated to play in the Rose Bowl. Nebraska, as Big 8 champion, qualified automatically for the Orange Bowl. Since the #2 team in the polls was unavailable, the coalition invited the next highest ranked team, #3 Miami, to face Nebraska in its national championship game. The Orange Bowl was scheduled for New Year's night in Miami, while Penn State would face Oregon the following afternoon in the Rose Bowl (New Year's Day fell on a Sunday in 1995; when this happens bowls scheduled for January 1 are typically moved back one day). This meant that not only would there be a split championship if Miami won, but that Penn State's fate could be sealed before they even had a chance to play their game.^{[citation needed]} In the end Nebraska defeated Miami to win the Orange Bowl and became consensus champions despite Penn State's win over Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

One legacy of the Bowl Coalition was that it cemented the status of the Fiesta Bowl as a major bowl. The Fiesta Bowl was by far the youngest of the "Tier 1" bowls. Indeed, it was the only "Tier 1" bowl that was less than a half-century old at the time, and was far newer than the "Tier 2" Gator and Sun Bowls.