Bowl game
Encyclopedia
In North America
, a bowl game is commonly considered to refer to one of a number of post-season college football
games. Prior to 2002
, bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals and the games were mostly considered to be exhibition game
s involving a payout to participating teams, which had to meet strict eligibility requirements. As the number of bowl games has grown (in 2010
, in terms of team-competitive games, there will be 35), a bowl game has become a season-ending event for virtually every team with a winning record and the games have gained increased importance for the revenue they bring to participating programs and the opportunity to recruit new players to the teams.
In recent years, the term "bowl" has become synonymous with any major American football
event, generally collegiate football with some significant exceptions (see Super Bowl
). One example is the Iron Bowl
, a nickname given to the annual game between the University of Alabama
Crimson Tide
and the Auburn University
Tigers
.
The term "bowl" originated from the Rose Bowl Stadium, site of the first post-season college football games. The Rose Bowl stadium takes its name and bowl-shaped
design from the Yale Bowl
, the prototype of many football stadiums in the United States.
In Canada, Canadian Interuniversity Sport
(CIS) plays two semi-final "bowl games" before the Vanier Cup
Game. The Uteck Bowl
is normally played between the Atlantic Division Champion and the champion from another division. It is usually held at the venue of the eastern most team playing in the semi-finals. The Mitchell Bowl
is played at the western most team's venue participating in the semi-finals. Carleton University
and The University of Ottawa
, cross town rivals in Canada's national capital, used to play in the Panda Bowl which was a highly attended regular season game.
, sponsored by the Tournament of Roses Association between Michigan
and Stanford
, a game which Michigan won 49-0. The Tournament of Roses eventually sponsored an annual contest starting with the 1916 Tournament of Roses football game
. With the 1923 Rose Bowl
it began to be played at the newly completed Rose Bowl stadium
, and thus the contest itself became known as the Rose Bowl game. The name "bowl" to describe the games thus comes from the Rose Bowl stadium, which was named "bowl" because its construction was inspired by the Yale Bowl
. Other cities saw the promotional value for tourism that the Tournament of Roses parade and Rose Bowl carried and began to develop their own regional festivals which included college football games. The label "bowl" was attached to the festival name, even though the games were not always played in bowl-shaped stadiums.
The historic timing of bowl games, around the new year, is the result of two factors: originally bowls began in warm climates such as Southern California
, Louisiana
, Florida
and Texas
as a way to promote the area for tourism and business. Since commercial air travel was either non-existent or very limited early on, the games were timed a substantial amount of time after the end of the regular season to allow fans to travel to the game site.
The Rose Bowl was the only major college bowl game in 1930. By 1940, there were five major college bowl games: the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl
(1935), the Cotton Bowl Classic (1937), the Orange Bowl (1935), and the Sun Bowl
(1935). By 1950, the number had increased to eight games. In 1960 there were still eight major college bowl games, but by 1970 the number had increased again, to 11 games. The number continued to increase, to 15 games in 1980, to 19 games in 1990, 25 games in the year 2000 and , 35 games in total. Up until around the 1950s, games were played solely on New Years Day, with few exceptions. In the late 1950s, more bowl games began playing their games earlier in December. Also bowl games began to be set in cities which were not thought of as winter vacation destinations due to their colder climates.
Currently, college football bowl games are played from mid-December to early January. As the number of bowl games has increased, the number of games a team would need to win to be invited to a bowl game has decreased. With a twelve game schedule, a team may have six wins and be invited to a bowl game. As of the 2009 season, the University of Alabama
has played in more bowl games than any other school, with 55 appearances and 31 victories. The University of Southern California has the most wins, with 48 appearances and 32 victories. The Nebraska Cornhuskers
hold the record for longest streak of bowl game appearances at 35 straight (1969–2005). The longest active streak is Florida State
with 30.
The attendance of 106,869 for the 1973 Rose Bowl
set the Rose Bowl Stadium
record, as well as the NCAA bowl game attendance record. The Rose Bowl stadium still is the largest capacity stadium and the Rose Bowl game has the highest attendance for post season bowl games.
also used the name "bowl" for some of its playoff games. While the NFL Championship was not named a Bowl initially, the league instituted the Pro Bowl
as the name of its all-star game in 1951, and introduced the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl
(also known as the Playoff Bowl) as a matchup of the two second-place teams in each division from 1960 to 1969.
When the professional football AFL-NFL merger
occurred in 1970, the AFL-NFL World Championship Game became the NFL's championship and is now known as the Super Bowl
, as it has been named since 1968 (the name was coined by Lamar Hunt
after playing with a super ball
). There has also been the American Bowl
, a preseason match
held overseas, and various one-time games informally nicknamed "bowls," such as the Bounty Bowl
, Ice Bowl, Snow Bowl
, Freezer Bowl
, Fog Bowl, Mud Bowl, Tuna
Bowl, Manning
Bowl
and the proposed (but ultimately canceled) China Bowl
.
As a result, other professional football leagues used or use the name "Bowl" for their championships, such as the World Football League
("World Bowl
"), NFL Europe
("World Bowl
"), Arena Football League
("ArenaBowl
"), Indoor Football League
("United Bowl
"), Great Lakes Indoor Football League ("Great Lakes Bowl") and American Indoor Football Association (AIFA Championship Bowl). The Canadian Football League
nicknames one of their rivalries as the Banjo Bowl and another QEW
Bowl (also known as the "Battle of Ontario").
by winning at least six games and by not having a losing record during the season. They can then be invited to a bowl game based on their placement and the tie-ins that the conference has to each bowl game. A rule change for 2010 allows bowls to tender a bid to any team with a 6-6 record before teams with more than six wins. Bowls are popular among coaching staffs because the NCAA allows college teams going to bowl games extra weeks of practice they would otherwise not have, and bowl games pay the teams for their participation. Teams belonging to a conference split the money with their conference mates. For the 2010 season, 70 of the 120 Division I FBS teams played in a bowl game. At lower levels, teams play in playoff games with a national championship game at a neutral site, like a bowl. The Heritage Bowl
was the only true bowl for teams below the FBS level. It invited the top teams from historically black colleges and universities
, one from the SWAC
and one from the MEAC
.
Prior to 1992 most bowls had strict agreements with certain conferences. For example, the Rose Bowl traditionally invited the champions of the Pac-10 and the Big Ten
conferences. The Sugar Bowl invited the SEC champion and the Orange Bowl hosted the Big 8
conference champion. These conference tie-ins led to situations where the top-ranked teams in the country could not play each other in a bowl game. The national championship was decided after the bowls, solely by voters for various media polls, who tried to decide which team was best, sometimes based on wins against far inferior teams. As a result there could be multiple championship titles and no single champion. This led to the term "Mythical National Championship," which is still used to describe high school national champions, since high school sports have state championship tournaments but not national.
In 1992, the Bowl Alliance
, formed by the major bowls and conferences, put in place a system where the two highest ranked teams would play each other, even if they were each affiliated with a different bowl. However, the Pac-10 and Big Ten and the Rose Bowl did not participate. Number 1 vs Number 2 bowl match-ups became far more likely, but were not guaranteed. After the 1997 season, undefeated Michigan
was ranked first in both major polls, but as the Big Ten champion, they played eighth-ranked Pac-10 champion Washington State
in the Rose Bowl. The top Bowl Alliance team, #2 and unbeaten Nebraska
, faced one-loss, third-ranked Tennessee
in the Orange Bowl. Michigan won by five in the afternoon and later that night, Nebraska beat Tennessee by twenty-five. The AP kept Michigan as the champion, but the Coaches' Poll jumped Nebraska in part because of their more lopsided victory against a more highly ranked opponent.
The following season, the Rose Bowl, Pac-10, and Big Ten joined the other bowls and major conferences to form the Bowl Championship Series
. The BCS attempts to match the two highest ranked teams in the country with the winner named champion at the conclusion. The AP poll reserves the right to crown a separate team champion, last done after the 2003 season, when three teams were equally worthy of reaching the BCS championship game. One-loss LSU
won the BCS National Championship over Oklahoma, but the AP crowned one-loss USC
champion after its Rose Bowl win. It is the nature of college football that there may be more than two teams worthy of playing for a title when there is not a post-season playoff in place, and the BCS attempts to match two national title contenders to play each other, instead of lesser teams.
For the 2006 season (with some bowl games taking place in 2007), the BCS added a fifth bowl that would decide the national championship. This BCS National Championship Game
is between the first and second ranked teams according to the BCS formula.
sponsored by the NCCAA
, a group that does not restrict its membership to either NCAA or NAIA
. Another example is the College Fanz First Down Classic
, a pre-season bowl game for NAIA teams. Starting with the now defunct Wheat Bowl
, the NAIA found it easier to schedule bowl games early in the season rather than late—this allowed the schedule to accommodate large college bowl games and high school sports.
and Egg Bowl
. In the BUAFL, the Steel Bowl is contested between the Sheffield Sabres and Sheffield Hallam Warriors. Recently, the term "bowl" has been added to other games that have some special note or sub-plot to the actual game, in college or the National Football League
. Examples of this are the Bowden Bowl, Manning Bowl
and Ice Bowl
. However, any game that is part of the post season is considered a bowl game, even if it is not a formal bowl game, such as all-star games. The Super Bowl
, the NFL's championship game, started as a "world championship" between the champions of the rival American Football League
and NFL in the same way many college bowl games bring together the champions of different college conferences.
There have also been pre-season and regular-season games carrying the "bowl" title, including the Mirage Bowl and Glasnost Bowl
.
Several games between bad teams, particularly poor in play quality, have been jocularly referred to as Toilet Bowls or, in professional football, as Draft
Bowls.
showcases its all-stars in the annual post-season Pro Bowl
. Such college all-star games include the East-West Shrine Game
, the Senior Bowl
, and the newly-established NFLPA Game (originally the "Texas vs. The Nation Game").
, the national championship game in American football is called the German Bowl
and was first held in 1979. Apart from the German Bowl, a Junior Bowl
has also been contested in Germany since 1982 and a Ladies Bowl was introduced in 1990. Other, related, national championship games in Germany include the German Flag Bowl (est. 2000), German Junior Flag Bowl (1999) and a German Indoor Flag Bowl (2000).
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, a bowl game is commonly considered to refer to one of a number of post-season college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
games. Prior to 2002
2002 NCAA Division I-A football season
The 2002 NCAA Division I-A football season ended the season with what most consider an exciting double overtime national championship game. Ohio State and Miami both came into the Fiesta Bowl undefeated. The underdog Buckeyes defeated the Hurricanes 31–24, ending Miami's 34 game winning...
, bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals and the games were mostly considered to be exhibition game
Exhibition game
An exhibition game is a sporting event in which there is no competitive value of any significant kind to any competitor regardless of the outcome of the competition...
s involving a payout to participating teams, which had to meet strict eligibility requirements. As the number of bowl games has grown (in 2010
2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season, or the college football season, began on Thursday, September 2, 2010. The season progressed through the regular season and bowl season, and concluded with the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game on Monday, January 10, 2011.-Rule changes for...
, in terms of team-competitive games, there will be 35), a bowl game has become a season-ending event for virtually every team with a winning record and the games have gained increased importance for the revenue they bring to participating programs and the opportunity to recruit new players to the teams.
In recent years, the term "bowl" has become synonymous with any major American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
event, generally collegiate football with some significant exceptions (see Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
). One example is the Iron Bowl
Iron Bowl
The Iron Bowl is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Alabama Crimson Tide football team of the University of Alabama and the Auburn Tigers football team of Auburn University. The series is considered one of the best and most hard-fought rivalries in all of sports...
, a nickname given to the annual game between the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
Crimson Tide
Alabama Crimson Tide football
|TeamName = Alabama football |Image = Alabama Crimson Tide Logo.svg |ImageSize = 110 |Helmet = Alabama Football.png |ImageSize2 = 150 |CurrentSeason = 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide football team...
and the Auburn University
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
Tigers
Auburn Tigers football
Only Mohamed Amin Abughadir set the record with 1,890 yards in 1 season. He was the QB for Auburn in 1998.The Auburn Tigers football team represents Auburn University in college football as a member of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, competing in the Western Division of the...
.
The term "bowl" originated from the Rose Bowl Stadium, site of the first post-season college football games. The Rose Bowl stadium takes its name and bowl-shaped
Bowl (vessel)
A bowl is a common open-top container used in many cultures to serve food, and is also used for drinking and storing other items. They are typically small and shallow, although some, such as punch bowls and salad bowls, are larger and often intended to serve many people.Bowls have existed for...
design from the Yale Bowl
Yale Bowl
The Yale Bowl is a football stadium in New Haven, Connecticut on the border of West Haven, about 1½ miles west of Yale's main campus. Completed in 1914, the stadium seats 61,446, reduced by renovations from the original capacity of 70,869...
, the prototype of many football stadiums in the United States.
In Canada, Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is The Canadian Colleges Athletic Association...
(CIS) plays two semi-final "bowl games" before the Vanier Cup
Vanier Cup
The Vanier Cup is the name of the championship of Canadian Interuniversity Sport football and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is currently played between the winners of the Uteck Bowl and the Mitchell Bowl...
Game. The Uteck Bowl
Uteck Bowl
The Uteck Bowl is one of the two semifinals in Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's football, held in the easternmost of the two semifinal venues. The Uteck Bowl champion moves on to face the Mitchell Bowl champion for the Vanier Cup...
is normally played between the Atlantic Division Champion and the champion from another division. It is usually held at the venue of the eastern most team playing in the semi-finals. The Mitchell Bowl
Mitchell Bowl
The Mitchell Bowl is one of the two semifinal bowls of Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's football, and is the semifinal held in the westernmost location of the two semifinal venues. The winner of this game goes on to play against the Uteck Bowl champions for the Vanier Cup...
is played at the western most team's venue participating in the semi-finals. Carleton University
Carleton University
Carleton University is a comprehensive university located in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The enabling legislation is The Carleton University Act, 1952, S.O. 1952. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines. Carleton has...
and The University of Ottawa
University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...
, cross town rivals in Canada's national capital, used to play in the Panda Bowl which was a highly attended regular season game.
History
The history of the bowl game began with the Tournament East-West football game1902 Rose Bowl
Originally titled the "Tournament East-West football game," what is now known as the Rose Bowl Game was first played on January 1, 1902 in Pasadena, California, starting the tradition of New Year's Day bowl games.The inaugural game featured Fielding H...
, sponsored by the Tournament of Roses Association between Michigan
1901 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1901 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1901 college football season. In their first year under new head coach Fielding H. Yost, Michigan finished the season undefeated with an 11–0 record, outscored their opponents by the unprecedented total of 550...
and Stanford
Stanford Cardinal football
The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference's North Division. Stanford, the top-ranked academic institution with an FBS program, has a highly successful football tradition. The...
, a game which Michigan won 49-0. The Tournament of Roses eventually sponsored an annual contest starting with the 1916 Tournament of Roses football game
1916 Rose Bowl
Originally titled the "Tournament of Roses football game," the second of what is now known as the Rose Bowl Game was played on January 1, 1916...
. With the 1923 Rose Bowl
1923 Rose Bowl
The 1923 Rose Bowl, played on January 1, 1923, was an American Football bowl game. It was the 9th Rose Bowl Game. The USC Trojans defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions 14-3. Leo Calland, a USC guard, was named the Rose Bowl Player of the Game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were...
it began to be played at the newly completed Rose Bowl stadium
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
, and thus the contest itself became known as the Rose Bowl game. The name "bowl" to describe the games thus comes from the Rose Bowl stadium, which was named "bowl" because its construction was inspired by the Yale Bowl
Yale Bowl
The Yale Bowl is a football stadium in New Haven, Connecticut on the border of West Haven, about 1½ miles west of Yale's main campus. Completed in 1914, the stadium seats 61,446, reduced by renovations from the original capacity of 70,869...
. Other cities saw the promotional value for tourism that the Tournament of Roses parade and Rose Bowl carried and began to develop their own regional festivals which included college football games. The label "bowl" was attached to the festival name, even though the games were not always played in bowl-shaped stadiums.
The historic timing of bowl games, around the new year, is the result of two factors: originally bowls began in warm climates such as Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
as a way to promote the area for tourism and business. Since commercial air travel was either non-existent or very limited early on, the games were timed a substantial amount of time after the end of the regular season to allow fans to travel to the game site.
The Rose Bowl was the only major college bowl game in 1930. By 1940, there were five major college bowl games: the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl
Sugar Bowl
The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Sugar Bowl has been played annually since January 1, 1935, and celebrated its 75th anniversary on January 2, 2009...
(1935), the Cotton Bowl Classic (1937), the Orange Bowl (1935), and the Sun Bowl
Sun Bowl
The Sun Bowl is an annual U.S. college football bowl game that is usually played at the end of December in El Paso, Texas. The Sun Bowl, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl are the second-oldest bowl games in the country, behind the Rose Bowl...
(1935). By 1950, the number had increased to eight games. In 1960 there were still eight major college bowl games, but by 1970 the number had increased again, to 11 games. The number continued to increase, to 15 games in 1980, to 19 games in 1990, 25 games in the year 2000 and , 35 games in total. Up until around the 1950s, games were played solely on New Years Day, with few exceptions. In the late 1950s, more bowl games began playing their games earlier in December. Also bowl games began to be set in cities which were not thought of as winter vacation destinations due to their colder climates.
Currently, college football bowl games are played from mid-December to early January. As the number of bowl games has increased, the number of games a team would need to win to be invited to a bowl game has decreased. With a twelve game schedule, a team may have six wins and be invited to a bowl game. As of the 2009 season, the University of Alabama
Alabama Crimson Tide football
|TeamName = Alabama football |Image = Alabama Crimson Tide Logo.svg |ImageSize = 110 |Helmet = Alabama Football.png |ImageSize2 = 150 |CurrentSeason = 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide football team...
has played in more bowl games than any other school, with 55 appearances and 31 victories. The University of Southern California has the most wins, with 48 appearances and 32 victories. The Nebraska Cornhuskers
Nebraska Cornhuskers football
The Nebraska Cornhuskers represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in college football. The program has established itself as a traditional powerhouse, and has the fourth-most all-time victories of any NCAA Division I-A team. Nebraska is one of only six football programs in NCAA Division I-A...
hold the record for longest streak of bowl game appearances at 35 straight (1969–2005). The longest active streak is Florida State
Florida State Seminoles football
The Florida State Seminoles football team represents Florida State University in college football. The Florida State Seminoles compete in NCAA Division I-FBS and are members of the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference...
with 30.
The attendance of 106,869 for the 1973 Rose Bowl
1973 Rose Bowl
The 1973 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 1973. It was the 59th Rose Bowl Game. The USC Trojans defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 42-17. USC running back Sam "Bam" Cunningham scored four touchdowns and was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game...
set the Rose Bowl Stadium
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
record, as well as the NCAA bowl game attendance record. The Rose Bowl stadium still is the largest capacity stadium and the Rose Bowl game has the highest attendance for post season bowl games.
Professional bowl games
The National Football LeagueNational Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
also used the name "bowl" for some of its playoff games. While the NFL Championship was not named a Bowl initially, the league instituted the Pro Bowl
Pro Bowl
In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
as the name of its all-star game in 1951, and introduced the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl
Playoff Bowl
The Playoff Bowl was a post-season game for third place in the NFL, played ten times following the -69 seasons. Bell was a co-founder of the Philadelphia Eagles as well as a co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers during much of the 1940s...
(also known as the Playoff Bowl) as a matchup of the two second-place teams in each division from 1960 to 1969.
When the professional football AFL-NFL merger
AFL-NFL Merger
The AFL–NFL merger of 1970 was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League and the American Football League...
occurred in 1970, the AFL-NFL World Championship Game became the NFL's championship and is now known as the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, as it has been named since 1968 (the name was coined by Lamar Hunt
Lamar Hunt
Lamar Hunt was an American sportsman and promoter of American football, soccer, basketball, and ice hockey in the United States and an inductee into three sports' halls of fame. He was one of the founders of the American Football League and Major League Soccer , as well as MLS predecessor the...
after playing with a super ball
Super Ball
SuperBalls or bouncy balls is a toy, invented in 1964 by chemist Norman Stingley by compressing a synthetic rubber material under high pressure...
). There has also been the American Bowl
American Bowl
The American Bowl was a series of National Football League pre-season exhibition games that were held at sites outside the United States between 1986 and 2005.- Overview :...
, a preseason match
National Football League exhibition season
The National Football League preseason refers to the period each year during which NFL teams play several not-for-the-record exhibition games before the actual "championship" or "regular" season starts. Beginning with the featured Pro Football Hall of Fame game in early August, five weekends of...
held overseas, and various one-time games informally nicknamed "bowls," such as the Bounty Bowl
Bounty Bowl
The Bounty Bowl was the name given to two notorious NFL games held in 1989 between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys. The first, the 1989 Thanksgiving Classic game in Dallas was most noted for allegations that the Philadelphia Eagles put a $200 bounty on Dallas Cowboys kicker Luis...
, Ice Bowl, Snow Bowl
Snow Bowl (disambiguation)
-Sporting events:* Snow Bowl , American football game played on November 25, 1950, between the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University...
, Freezer Bowl
Freezer Bowl
In NFL lore, the Freezer Bowl was the 1981 AFC Championship Game between the San Diego Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals. The game was played in the coldest temperature in NFL history in terms of wind chill...
, Fog Bowl, Mud Bowl, Tuna
Bill Parcells
Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells is a former American football head coach, most recently with the Dallas Cowboys from 2003 to 2006...
Bowl, Manning
Peyton Manning
Peyton Williams Manning is an American football quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League . Manning holds the record for most NFL MVP awards with four. He was drafted by the Colts as the first overall pick in 1998 after a standout college football career with the...
Bowl
Eli Manning
Eli Nelson Manning is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League. He is the younger brother of NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and the son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning...
and the proposed (but ultimately canceled) China Bowl
China Bowl
The China Bowl was the name of a proposed National Football League pre-season exhibition game that had been scheduled to take place in August 2007, but later postponed to 2009 and ultimately canceled, between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at the National Stadium in Beijing...
.
As a result, other professional football leagues used or use the name "Bowl" for their championships, such as the World Football League
World Football League
The World Football League was a short-lived gridiron football league that played in 1974 and part of 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest the WFL reached was placing a team – the Hawaiians – in Honolulu, Hawaii. The...
("World Bowl
World Bowl (WFL)
The World Bowl, also known as World Bowl 1, was the American football championship game of the short-lived World Football League. It was televised on TVS Television Network....
"), NFL Europe
NFL Europe
NFL Europe was an American football league which operated in Europe from 1991 until 2007. Backed by the National Football League , the largest professional American football league in the United States, it was founded as the World League of American Football to serve as a type of spring league...
("World Bowl
World Bowl
The World Bowl was the American football Championship game of NFL Europe, similar to the Super Bowl of the National Football League.The World Bowl trophy itself was a globe made of glass measuring 35.5 cm in diameter and weighing 18.6 kg .-World League of American Football:When NFL Europe was...
"), Arena Football League
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League is the highest level of professional indoor American football in the United States. It is currently the second longest running professional football league in the United States, after the National Football League. It was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster...
("ArenaBowl
ArenaBowl
The ArenaBowl is the Arena Football League's championship game. From 1987 to 2004, the ArenaBowl was hosted by either the team with the better regular-season record or the higher seeding in the playoffs. From ArenaBowl XIX in 2005 until ArenaBowl XXII in 2008, the game was played at a neutral site...
"), Indoor Football League
Indoor Football League
The Indoor Football League began in 1999 as an offshoot of the troubled Professional Indoor Football League. Keary Ecklund, the owner of the Green Bay Bombers and Madison Mad Dogs, left the PIFL after its first, financially-troubled, season to start his own league. Unlike the PIFL, the IFL was an...
("United Bowl
United Bowl
United Bowl may refer to:* The championship game of the former United Indoor Football league from 2005 to 2008* The championship game of the Indoor Football League, which acquired UIF, from 2009 to the present...
"), Great Lakes Indoor Football League ("Great Lakes Bowl") and American Indoor Football Association (AIFA Championship Bowl). The Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
nicknames one of their rivalries as the Banjo Bowl and another QEW
Queen Elizabeth Way
The Queen Elizabeth Way, commonly abbreviated as the QEW, is a 400-Series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The freeway links Buffalo, New York and the Niagara Peninsula with Toronto. It begins at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and travels around the western shore of Lake Ontario, ending...
Bowl (also known as the "Battle of Ontario").
Post-season bowls
At the NCAA top level of football, the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (known as Division I-A from 1978 through 2005), teams must earn the right to be bowl eligibleBowl eligible
Bowl eligibility in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision College Football is the standard through which teams become available for selection to participate in postseason bowl games. When a team achieves this state, it is described as "bowl-eligible"...
by winning at least six games and by not having a losing record during the season. They can then be invited to a bowl game based on their placement and the tie-ins that the conference has to each bowl game. A rule change for 2010 allows bowls to tender a bid to any team with a 6-6 record before teams with more than six wins. Bowls are popular among coaching staffs because the NCAA allows college teams going to bowl games extra weeks of practice they would otherwise not have, and bowl games pay the teams for their participation. Teams belonging to a conference split the money with their conference mates. For the 2010 season, 70 of the 120 Division I FBS teams played in a bowl game. At lower levels, teams play in playoff games with a national championship game at a neutral site, like a bowl. The Heritage Bowl
Heritage Bowl
The Heritage Bowl is a defunct NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision bowl game pitting a team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference against a team from the Southwestern Athletic Conference...
was the only true bowl for teams below the FBS level. It invited the top teams from historically black colleges and universities
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
, one from the SWAC
Southwestern Athletic Conference
The Southwestern Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black universities in the Southern United States...
and one from the MEAC
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference is a collegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities in the Southeastern United States...
.
Prior to 1992 most bowls had strict agreements with certain conferences. For example, the Rose Bowl traditionally invited the champions of the Pac-10 and the Big Ten
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
conferences. The Sugar Bowl invited the SEC champion and the Orange Bowl hosted the Big 8
Big Eight Conference
The Big Eight Conference, a former NCAA-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football, was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association by its charter member schools: the University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University...
conference champion. These conference tie-ins led to situations where the top-ranked teams in the country could not play each other in a bowl game. The national championship was decided after the bowls, solely by voters for various media polls, who tried to decide which team was best, sometimes based on wins against far inferior teams. As a result there could be multiple championship titles and no single champion. This led to the term "Mythical National Championship," which is still used to describe high school national champions, since high school sports have state championship tournaments but not national.
In 1992, the Bowl Alliance
Bowl Alliance
The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship bowl game and to provide quality bowl game matchups for the champions of its member conferences...
, formed by the major bowls and conferences, put in place a system where the two highest ranked teams would play each other, even if they were each affiliated with a different bowl. However, the Pac-10 and Big Ten and the Rose Bowl did not participate. Number 1 vs Number 2 bowl match-ups became far more likely, but were not guaranteed. After the 1997 season, undefeated Michigan
1997 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1997 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season. In its third year under head coach Lloyd Carr, Michigan compiled a perfect 12–0 record, won the Big Ten Conference championship, defeated Washington State in the 1998...
was ranked first in both major polls, but as the Big Ten champion, they played eighth-ranked Pac-10 champion Washington State
1997 Washington State Cougars football team
The 1997 Washington State Cougars football team represented Washington State University during the 1997 NCAA college football season. The Cougars were led by ninth-year head coach Mike Price and played their home games at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington....
in the Rose Bowl. The top Bowl Alliance team, #2 and unbeaten Nebraska
1997 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team
The 1997 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team represented the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was coached by Tom Osborne and played their home games in Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.-Schedule:...
, faced one-loss, third-ranked Tennessee
1997 Tennessee Volunteers football team
The 1997 Tennessee Volunteers football team represented the University of Tennessee during the 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season. Quarterback Peyton Manning had already completed his degree in three years, and had been projected to be the top overall pick in the 1997 NFL Draft, but returned...
in the Orange Bowl. Michigan won by five in the afternoon and later that night, Nebraska beat Tennessee by twenty-five. The AP kept Michigan as the champion, but the Coaches' Poll jumped Nebraska in part because of their more lopsided victory against a more highly ranked opponent.
The following season, the Rose Bowl, Pac-10, and Big Ten joined the other bowls and major conferences to form the Bowl Championship Series
Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...
. The BCS attempts to match the two highest ranked teams in the country with the winner named champion at the conclusion. The AP poll reserves the right to crown a separate team champion, last done after the 2003 season, when three teams were equally worthy of reaching the BCS championship game. One-loss LSU
2003 LSU Tigers football team
The 2003 LSU Tigers football team represented Louisiana State University in the college football season of 2003–2004. Coached by Nick Saban, the Tigers played their home games at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After a bit of controversy, LSU won the BCS National Championship, the first...
won the BCS National Championship over Oklahoma, but the AP crowned one-loss USC
2003 USC Trojans football team
The 2003 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California in the 2003-2004 NCAA Division I-A college football season...
champion after its Rose Bowl win. It is the nature of college football that there may be more than two teams worthy of playing for a title when there is not a post-season playoff in place, and the BCS attempts to match two national title contenders to play each other, instead of lesser teams.
For the 2006 season (with some bowl games taking place in 2007), the BCS added a fifth bowl that would decide the national championship. This BCS National Championship Game
BCS National Championship Game
The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, is the final bowl game of the annual Bowl Championship Series and is intended by the organizers of the BCS to determine the U.S. national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision...
is between the first and second ranked teams according to the BCS formula.
Small college bowls
Aside from the BCS System and the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision, there are a few bowl games for smaller colleges. One such example is the Victory BowlVictory Bowl
The Victory Bowl is the championship football game between schools that sponsor football and are members of the NCCAA and did not qualify for either the NCAA or NAIA playoffs. It is one of the few post-season bowl games for smaller schools...
sponsored by the NCCAA
National Christian College Athletic Association
The National Christian College Athletic Association is an association of approximately 100 Christian universities, colleges, and Bible colleges in the United States and Canada which see collegiate sports primarily as an opportunity for Christian fellowship and ministry. The national headquarters...
, a group that does not restrict its membership to either NCAA or NAIA
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...
. Another example is the College Fanz First Down Classic
College Fanz First Down Classic
The First Down Classic is the only National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics endorsed Pre-Season bowl game. It began operations in 2007, taking over for the defunct Wheat Bowl that operated from 1995 until 2006...
, a pre-season bowl game for NAIA teams. Starting with the now defunct Wheat Bowl
Wheat Bowl
The Wheat Bowl was the only National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics endorsed Pre-Season bowl game that operated from 1995 until 2006. The Wheat Bowl Football Classic was headquartered in the Central Kansas town of Ellinwood and was played in nearby Great Bend annually as the kickoff for...
, the NAIA found it easier to schedule bowl games early in the season rather than late—this allowed the schedule to accommodate large college bowl games and high school sports.
Special games and rivalries
Bowl games that are not part of the post-season are traditional games against rival schools such as Iron BowlIron Bowl
The Iron Bowl is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Alabama Crimson Tide football team of the University of Alabama and the Auburn Tigers football team of Auburn University. The series is considered one of the best and most hard-fought rivalries in all of sports...
and Egg Bowl
Egg Bowl
The Battle for the Golden Egg, also known as the Egg Bowl, is an American college football rivalry game between played annually by the Mississippi State Bulldogs football team of Mississippi State University and the Ole Miss Rebels football team of the University of Mississippi . The rivalry is...
. In the BUAFL, the Steel Bowl is contested between the Sheffield Sabres and Sheffield Hallam Warriors. Recently, the term "bowl" has been added to other games that have some special note or sub-plot to the actual game, in college or the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
. Examples of this are the Bowden Bowl, Manning Bowl
Manning Bowl
Manning Bowl is a former American football and soccer stadium located in Lynn, Massachusetts. It was the home stadium for Lynn English, Lynn Classical, Lynn Tech, St. Mary's High School...
and Ice Bowl
Ice Bowl
The term Ice Bowl may refer to several different sporting events that are or were scheduled during cold weather:* Ice Bowl , a college football game held in Fairbanks, Alaska from 1948 to 1952...
. However, any game that is part of the post season is considered a bowl game, even if it is not a formal bowl game, such as all-star games. The Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, the NFL's championship game, started as a "world championship" between the champions of the rival American Football League
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
and NFL in the same way many college bowl games bring together the champions of different college conferences.
There have also been pre-season and regular-season games carrying the "bowl" title, including the Mirage Bowl and Glasnost Bowl
Glasnost Bowl
The Glasnost Bowl was an attempt to stage an American college football game in Moscow, USSR at the beginning of the 1989 season. The game was named after the policy of glasnost introduced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985...
.
Several games between bad teams, particularly poor in play quality, have been jocularly referred to as Toilet Bowls or, in professional football, as Draft
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
Bowls.
All-star bowl games
Following the Bowl Championship Series, a series of all-star bowl games round out the post-season schedule. These games showcase the best departing college players, just as the NFLNational Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
showcases its all-stars in the annual post-season Pro Bowl
Pro Bowl
In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
. Such college all-star games include the East-West Shrine Game
East-West Shrine Game
The East–West Shrine Game is an annual post-season college football all-star game played each January since 1925. The game is sponsored by the fraternal group Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and the net proceeds are earmarked to some of the Shrine's charitable works, most notably the Shriners...
, the Senior Bowl
Senior Bowl
The Senior Bowl is a post-season college football exhibition game played in Mobile, Alabama which showcases the best NFL Draft prospects of those collegiate players who have completed their eligibility. First played in 1950 in Jacksonville, Florida, the game moved to Mobile's Ladd Peebles Stadium...
, and the newly-established NFLPA Game (originally the "Texas vs. The Nation Game").
Germany
In GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the national championship game in American football is called the German Bowl
German Bowl
The German Bowl is the annual national championship game in the sport of American football in Germany. It is contested by the two best teams of the German Football League....
and was first held in 1979. Apart from the German Bowl, a Junior Bowl
German Junior Bowl
The German Junior Bowl, usually only referred to as Junior Bowl, is the annual national championship game for junior teams in the sport of American football in Germany. It is contested by the two best teams of the GFL Juniors....
has also been contested in Germany since 1982 and a Ladies Bowl was introduced in 1990. Other, related, national championship games in Germany include the German Flag Bowl (est. 2000), German Junior Flag Bowl (1999) and a German Indoor Flag Bowl (2000).
See also
- List of college bowl games
- Bowl CoalitionBowl CoalitionThe Bowl Coalition was a predecessor of the Bowl Championship Series that was formed through an agreement among college football bowl games and conferences for the purpose of forcing a national championship game between the top two teams and to provide quality bowl game matchups for the champions...
- Bowl AllianceBowl AllianceThe Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship bowl game and to provide quality bowl game matchups for the champions of its member conferences...
- Bowl Championship SeriesBowl Championship SeriesThe Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...
- NCAA football bowl recordsNCAA football bowl recordsA list of the all time win/loss NCAA Div-1/FBS sanctioned bowl game records for all NCAA college football teams:...
- AP PollAP PollThe Associated Press College Poll refers to weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation...
- Bowl game results were not included in the AP championship until the 1968 season (1974 season for the UP championship)