The total of 35 team-competitive bowls was unchanged from the previous year. While bowl games had been the purview of only the very best teams for nearly a century, this was the eighth consecutive year that teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games. To fill the 70 available bowl slots, a total of eight teams (11% of all participants) with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games—all eight had a .500 (6–6) season.
The 2013–2014 bowl game schedule, with 70 teams to compete in 35 bowls, was announced in May 2013.[1] All bowl game participants were selected by December 8, 2013.
Note: All times are EST (UTC−5). Rankings from final BCS poll.
To play in a bowl game, a college football team must qualify to do so according to the NCAA rules of bowl eligibility.
As in the 2010, 2011, and 2012 seasons, initial bowl eligibility would go to teams with no lower than a non-losing record (6–6) for the season. On August 2, 2012, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved a significant change to the process to determine bowl eligible teams, going so far as to potentially allow 5–7 teams to go to a bowl, in case there were not enough regular bowl-eligible teams to fill every game.
The easing of the bowl eligibility rules resulted in a record number of teams, 79 versus the 71 or 72 of the past few seasons, being deemed eligible for selection to a 2013–14 bowl game. The easing of rules to include teams with losing records and teams from the lower Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), will carry extra importance starting in the 2014–15 bowl season, when the number of bowl games will increase to 39—requiring 78 eligible teams.
If a bowl has one or more conferences/teams unable to meet their contractual commitments and there are no available bowl-eligible teams, the open spots can be filled – by the particular bowl's sponsoring agencies – as follows:[9]
Teams finishing with an above .500 record, that is, 7–5. In case of two teams with identical record, the team with a .500 or above in conference play, AND winning percentage in a) FIRST non-conference Road games against i) BCS conference opponents, ii) Division I non BCS conference opponents, b) SECOND non-conference Neutral-site games against iii) BCS conference opponents, iv) Division I non BCS conference opponents, c) THIRD non-conference Home games against v) BCS conference opponents, vi) Division I non BCS conference opponents, and last, games at home against lower division opponents.
Teams finishing 6–6 with one win against a team from the lower Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), regardless of whether that FCS school meets NCAA scholarship requirements. Until now, an FCS win counted only if that opponent met the scholarship requirements—specifically, that school had to award at least 90% of the FCS maximum of 63 scholarship equivalents over a two-year period. In the 2013 season, programs in four FCS conferences cannot meet the 90% requirement (56.7 equivalents)—the Ivy League, which prohibits all athletic scholarships; the Pioneer Football League, which does not currently award football scholarships; the Patriot League, which only began awarding football scholarships in the 2012 season and had a limit of 30 equivalents in the 2013 season; and the Northeast Conference, which limits football scholarships to 40 equivalents.
6–6 teams with two wins over FCS schools.
6–7 teams that normally play a 13-team schedule, such as Hawaii's home opponents. Although Hawaii normally plays a 13-game schedule, it is only playing 12 games this season.
FCS teams who are in the final year of the two-year FBS transition process, if they have at least a 6–6 record.
Finally, 5–7 teams that have a top-5 Academic Progress Rate (APR) score. This was later adjusted to allow other 5–7 teams to be selected thereafter—in order of their APR.[10]
Under a rule change approved by the NCAA Legislative Council on May 3, 2013, teams that enter a conference championship game with a 6–6 record, with no more than one win over an FCS school, are bowl-eligible regardless of the result of the championship game, without the team having to seek an NCAA waiver.[11]
Bowl Championship Series
Ten teams were selected for the Bowl Championship Series:
Number of bowl berths available: 70 Number of teams bowl eligible: 79
The easing of the bowl eligibility rules, to include teams with non-losing (6–6) or even losing records, resulted in a record number of teams – 79 versus the 71 or 72 of the past few seasons – being deemed eligible for selection to a 2013–14 bowl game.
Nine eligible teams did not receive a bowl invitation, including two with winning records: Western Kentucky (8–4), Toledo (7–5), Central Michigan (6–6), Florida Atlantic (6–6), Louisiana-Monroe (6–6), San Jose State (6–6), South Alabama (6–6), Texas State (6–6), and Troy (6–6).
Starting in 2014–15, a new system, the College Football Playoff, has been used to determine the national champion.
The new format uses a committee of 13 people to select and seed the top 12 teams.[12] These teams are paired in six of the ten oldest bowl games—the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Peach and Fiesta bowls. These games have been marketed as the "New Year's Six",[13] with three bowls played daily, typically on consecutive days around New Year's Day.
Within this New Year's Six format, the top four seeded teams are paired in two national semi-finals, followed by a national championship game played on the first Monday that is six or more days after the semifinals, at a neutral site.[14] The two semi-finals will rotate each year, first at the Rose and Sugar bowls, then the Orange and Fiesta bowls, then the Cotton and Peach bowls.
In addition, the number of bowls expanded to 39 games in 2014–15, with four new games – the Camellia Bowl, scheduled for the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama pitting the Sun Belt against the MAC; the Bahamas Bowl, played in Nassau between the MAC and the American Athletic Conference; the Miami Beach Bowl, played in Marlins Park with an AAC team as host; and the Boca Raton Bowl, played at FAU Stadium, with a third MAC team taking on a team from Conference USA. The increase to 76 teams (38 bowls + national championship played by semi-final bowl winners) in bowl play required the easing of bowl eligibility rules, allowing teams with losing records or teams in the lower FCS to be deemed eligible for invitation to a bowl game.
^Conference USA was to have sent a team, but because of a lack of bowl eligible teams, the Pac-12 sent a team instead.
^The Big Ten Conference would have had its eighth selection go to this bowl, but it had only 7 eligible teams. Therefore, the ACC sent a team instead.
^Army would have been eligible, but had a losing record.
^The Big 12 Conference was supposed to send its seventh selection to the Pinstripe Bowl. However since only six Big 12 teams were eligible this year, its place will be taken by an at-large team.
^With two SEC in the BCS, the Pac-12 replaces them.
^Neither the Big Ten nor Big 12 were able to fulfill their required bowl slots for this game.
