College Football Bowl Basics

Basics Of College Football Bowls

In 1869, colleges began to have their own separate football teams that would compete against each other.  While the competition was nothing new when it came to sports, the setup of the competition was something different and alluring.  Columbia, Harvard, and Yale were some of the first schools to invest in the college football games that would be played. 

In the 1880’s, the rules of college football were revised, and with the revision came a new appreciation for the sport and the colleges that played.  In 1915, numbers were finally added to the jerseys of the players, so they could easily be identified.  As more and more people became interested in the sport, bigger and better competitions were held; the most exciting of these were referred to as college football bowls.  College bowls have grown in popularity, and today are covered by many sports news channels.  Additionally, gambling on different college football bowls has also become popular and helped add to the number of spectators for the college bowls.

Most Famous College Football Bowls

The Alamo Bowl:  The modern college football bowl referred to as the Alamo Bowl was initially started in 1993.  Recently, the full title of the college bowl was changed to the Valero Alamo Bowl.  Out of all the college bowls, the Alamo Bowl has produced eight out of the twenty most popular and watched college football bowls as broadcast by ESPN™. 

Fiesta Bowl:  Initially, the Fiesta Bowl was started by the Western Athletic Conference.  The Conference was frustrated by the fact that they had been thus far unable to receive any invitations to the existing college bowls.  In the last two years of the 1960’s, Wyoming and Arizona State, both championship teams, were not given invitations to any of the existing college football bowls.  The Fiesta Bowl created a tie-in for the snubbed Conference teams. 

GMAC Bowl:  Previously referred to as the Mobile Alabama Bowl, the GMAC Bowl hosted the highest scoring college bowl game of all time.  In 2001, the score rose to 61-64 in double overtime.  The Marshall Thundering Herd overcame a substantial deficit in order to beat the East Carolina Pirates in one of the most impressive college football bowls.

Gator Bowl:  The first of the Gator Bowls took place in 1946.  In 2007, CBS™ Sports televised the Gator Bowl as the payout for the invited teams rose to $2.5 million.  Of the college football bowls, the Gator Bowl is one of the sporting highlights for the city of Jacksonville, Florida, the location of where the bowl is hosted. 

Orange Bowl:  Most often played during the first week of January, the Orange Bowl takes place in Miami, Florida.  In 1998, the Bowl Championship Series system was created, and as a result, the Orange Bowl was linked to the other three football college bowls that are considered to be the Bowl Championship Series college bowls.  The four championship college bowls are comprised of the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and the Rose Bowl.

Rose Bowl:  Of the available college bowls, the Rose Bowl is the game that is most often played on the first of January, New Year’s Day.  Since the Rose Bowl is the oldest of any college football bowls, it is affectionately referred to as “the granddaddy of them all.”  The Rose Bowl was originally titled as the Tournament East-West football game, and the first game took place back in 1902.

Sugar Bowl:  Three college football bowls started in 1935:  the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and the Sun Bowl.  The Sugar Bowl is played in New Orleans, Louisiana and is the oldest of the college bowls, second only to the Rose Bowl, which was started in 1902.  During the 2005-2006 Sugar Bowl, the participating teams each received a payout of between $14 and $17 million.

Teams need to be invited to play in order to compete in the college football bowls.  In exchange for playing, the teams are able to amass a bit of money that they are given in order to attend the bowl, and the winners get bragging rights.  Millions of dollars are paid to the teams to appear, but it seems that many of the teams who get invited to play in the college football bowls are really in it for the glory that comes from winning, not necessarily the money that they are paid to attend.

About.com™ has created a very useful site for individuals wanting to learn more about the specific college bowls that are played.  At their website, http://football.about.com/od/officialbowlsites/Official_College_Bowl_Websites.htm, fans can scan the list to find the specific college football bowls about which they are most interested in learning.  There are separate links to each of the different college bowls played each year.

Sporting events and gambling often go hand in hand.  For individuals interested in placing bets on any of the teams playing in the college bowls, it can help to understand the odds for each team.  At http://www.madduxsports.com/college-bowl-picks.html and http://www.infoplays.com/free-college-bowl-picks.shtml, individuals can become more educated when it comes to college football bowls and the picks and odds for the teams that attend.