*revised 12/06/09 for the 2009-10 Bowl Season

Currently there are 34 college football bowls, some bigger than others. What’s a bowl? Clearly you missed A Girl’s Guide to the Bowls Part I, so go back and read it!

I was going to break it all down for you but, well, I don’t want to! Because shock of all shocks, they had to go and make it all complicated to figure out with all sorts of crazy rules. Think I’m kidding? Check out the BCS Football Selection Procedures if you don’t believe me.

I’m going to try to give you some stuff about the Bowl Championship Series. These are the one’s people get really into (think of them as the Limoges of football bowls.) At the bottom is a list of all the others and a link to wikipedia for the 2008-2009 Bowl breakdown including who won!

In the beginning there was only one bowl: the Rose. By the 40s it grew to 5 and in the 70s swelled to 11. Now, three of the original five college football bowls are part of the BSC. Only now they are brought to us by very rich sponsors!

How it works:

The BCS uses rankings to determine the top two teams in the country. The top two then head to the National Championship Game.

The rest of the bowls have their own selection process too. Each bowl features a conference and the top ranked team of the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern conferences have an automatic berths in their host’s bowl. Then the bowl picks the oppponent based on that whole selection process mentioned earlier. Oh and Notre Dame automatically gets to go if they are ranked in the top 8. Cause their athletics director helps with BCS standings and decisions. Huh. That seems fair and not at all like bribery.

There are a lot of other rules too like what happens if the team picked for the National Championship Game was supposed to be in the Rose Bowl? It’s very complicated. But basically, they fight about it a bit, the team goes to the big game and then the Bowl gets to pick another team from the pool of eligible teams.

This whole thing made my head hurt. But apparently it has really helped college football because it was all chaotic before they installed this system. Hmm.

But here is what you need to know about the BCS. I welcome any input on this because it’s way over my head still. Not for beginners! Maybe by next football season I’ll be able to understand it all!

Rose Bowl see my blog about the pretty Rose Bowl for additional information.

• Features the Big 10 and the Pac 10.
• Played in Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California.
• 2009 is the 95th anniversary of the Rose Bowl (in it’s current stadium. It has been around since 1902 in other forms)
• Brought to us by citi.
• January 1: Ohio State vs. Oregon 4:30 p.m.
  

Orange

• Features the champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
• 2009 is the 75th anniversary of the Orange Bowl.
• Played in Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida
• Brought to us by FedEx
• January 5: Iowa vs. Georgia Tech 8 p.m.
  

Sugar

• Features the champion of Southeastern Conference
• 2009 is the 75th anniversary of the Sugar Bowl
• Played in the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana
• Brought to us by Allstate
• Because Florida, champ of the SEC, was chosen for the Championship game this year the Sugar Bowl features 2 randoms instead of 1:
• January 1: Florida vs. Cincinnati 8:30 p.m.
  

Fiesta:

• Features the champion of the Big 12 Conference
• Played at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona
• 2009 is the 38th anniversary of the Fiesta Bowl
• Brought to us by Tostitos
• January 4: TCU vs. Boise State 8:00 p.m. Both teams were undefeated this season.

BCS National Championship:

• Features the #1 and #2 Ranked teams in the BCS standings
• Is held every year at one of the BCS Bowl sites
• This year it is held in the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California
• January 8: Alabama vs. Texas 8:00 p.m.  Both teams have had more bowl appearances than any other team. Alabama 57 bowls, Texas 49. The game pitts Heisman Trophy nominees Mark Ingram (Crimson Tide) and Colt McCoy (Longhorns) against each other.

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The Non BCS Bowls are as follows:

EagleBank, New Mexico, St. Petersburg, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Poinsettia, Hawaii, Motor City, Meinieke Car Care Bowl, Champs Sports, Emerald, Independence, Papajohns, Valero Energy, Roady’s, Humanitarian, Pacific Life Holiday, Texas, Bell Helicopters Armed Forces, Gaylord Hotels Music City, Insight, Chick-fil-A, Outback, Gator, Captiol One, Liberty, International, GMAC, Sun, Cotton

The NCAA College Football Bowls and their 2009-2010 Breakdowns or check out last years:

The NCAA College Football Bowls and their 2008-2009 Breakdowns

go back to A Girl’s Guide to the Bowls Part II: The Pretty Rose Bowl

or back to A Girl’s Guide to the Bowls Part I

Or if you want to get Direct TV to watch all the bowl games this year check out: DIRECT TV

About the author: Jennifer Taglione is the owner of this fabulous website Stiletto Sports. Despite writing well over 500 posts, she still maintains that she is not a sports writer! She is however a huge fan of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Mark Sanchez, the Celtics, and totally kicks butt on March Madness brackets! Connect with her by following her on Twitter @StilettoSportsJ and subscribing to her weekly newsletter. For more info check out the About the Editor page!

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