On Campus — Big Ten Bowls Need Realignment

By Jacob Carpenter

Created:
11/30/08 8:28pm

Last updated:
11/30/08 8:28pm

4 comments

Complaining about the BCS is so cliché, so I’m going to complain about the college football postseason a different way.
The bowls that partner with the Big Ten need to be slightly realigned so as to maximize the best matchups between teams.

While I’m a staunch supporter of the Big Ten vs. Pac-10 Rose Bowl matchup because of the tradition steeped in Pasadena, a change needs to be made by the Capital One and/or Outback bowls.

The point of the college football postseason is to pit teams of different conferences and areas against one another. By matching Big Ten and Southeastern Conference foes in both non-BCS New Year’s Day bowls partnered with the Big Ten, the two conferences are taking some of the fun out of the bowl season.

If the Capital One and Outback bowls wanted to maximize parity in bowl selections while keeping their Big Ten representatives, one would do better to switch a SEC team to a team from another conference, such as the Big East or Atlantic Coast conferences.

While both bowls have a decent amount of tradition — the Capital One Bowl is formerly known as the Citrus and Tangerine bowls dating back to the 1940s and the Outback Bowl has been in existence since the 1980s — there isn’t enough history to not make a switch in matchups, especially for the Outback Bowl.

Each New Year’s Day, the Outback Bowl plays second fiddle to the Capital One Bowl in both prestige and attention. Nothing distinguishes the Outback Bowl because it’s essentially Capital One Lite. With another combination of teams, the Outback Bowl might get some desperately needed flash while emerging from the shadow of the Capital One Bowl.

Now if we could just get a college football playoff, none of this would matter.

Commentary

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Juan

(11/30/08 9:16pm)
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Jacob, nobody cares about the Big East. We already have the Champs bowl for playing the ACC. The SEC-Big 10 matchups are perfect now. If you think most people in the Big 10 would rather the Outback or Capital One bowls switch from the SEC to the Big East or ACC, you are mistaken. There is no story here.

MSU Alum 05

(12/01/08 1:48pm)
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The Big 10 has been critisized far and wide over the last few years as being a lesser conference. Having good showings against the SEC does A LOT more for our reputation than even big wins against Big East of ACC schools. In order to be the best, we have to beat the best.

DC Spartan

(12/01/08 3:52pm)
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Not a good story here. If either one of these bowls wanted to switch a conference out it would likely be the Big Ten team that goes. As both of the previous posts stated; the SEC is one of the best conferences to play against. Why would we want to give up that potential matchup?

Pat

(12/01/08 5:09pm)
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Screw the ACC and Big Least. Let’s play a Big 12 team

About The Huddle

Sports reporter Jacob Carpenter examines sports issues from the past and present.

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