At Large

[SMUFinns]

I am still learning about football and all it's quirks.
Can someone explain what, who or how a team is " At Large " when it come to Bowl games.
Can the ponies be an "At Large" team?
The bowl schedules for 2002 - 03 <A HREF="http://collegefootballnews.com/2002/Bowls/Bowl_Projections.htm" TARGET=_blank>http://collegefootballnews.com/2002/Bowls/Bowl_Projections.htm</A>

Hawaii Bowl
When: Dec. 25
Where: Honolulu, HI
Conference tie-ins: C-USA vs. WAC
Which WAC team gets to play in this? Or is this automatic for Hawaii if they have a wining record!!!

Go Mustangs.................

[PonyExpress]

Basically,there are many conferences that have contractual ties to certain bowl games. The winner of several conferences have guaranteed spots in certain bowl games (assuming they don't qualify for the BCS national championship game - and there isn't enough space on this site to try to explain all the factors that workinto that nightmare.)

Anyway, take the Rose Bowl for example. The game has a contractual arrangement with the Pac-10 and Big 10 conferences. Assuming the game doesn't get the BCS national championship game, as it did last year, it takes the champion from the Big 10 and the Pac-10. But if, for example, Michigan goes 11-0 and wins the Big 10 title -- but qualifies to play for the national title in a bowl game other than the Rose Bowl -- then the team that the Bowl committee chooses to replace is chosen on an at-large basis.

It undoubtedly will be an excellent team, but a team that earned a spot as much on reputation as on the medits of its record. (Last year, Maryland won the Atlantic Coast Conference. But bowls were lining up to offer Florida State an at-lage bid to their games.)

Does this help at all?

[SMUFinns]

Hey PonyExpress,

Thanks a lot, it has cleared up some things.
I'd love to know it all but will settle for this kind of information.
This means that the Mustangs would not be in the mix for an "At Large" slot.

Oh well we will just have to win the WAC, strengthen our schedule, get better each year until we can vie for a national championship...........

Oh father time you can be cruel.

Go Mustangs Go........

[Fresh]

That's not necessarily true. The WAC has contracts with two bowls, right?

Say Fresno goes through the season undefeated and wins the conference title. LaTech then goes 11-1 and gets to the second bowl (that new game in Hawaii). And SMU also goes 11-1, or 10-2. While we wouldn't earn a contractual bowl bid, there might be a bowl out there that would offer us an at-large bid. You're right in saying that we wouldn't be in line for a bid to a BCS bowl (Rose, Sugar, etc.) because those bowls all have contractual arrangements with conferences, and the BCS dictates which teams get any leftover (at-large) bids. But the Humanitarian Bowl, or some other mid- or lower-level bowl, might well extend the Ponies an at-large bid.

However, we would have to have a great year, probably winning 10 games. Because of SMU's struggles on the field since the return of football, the fan base is relatively small, and the number of fans who would travel to a bowl also would be small. Therefore, a team from a "better conference" likely would get a bid over SMU with an inferior record. An 8-4 team from the Mountain West Conference, or even a 6-5 team from a major conference, likely would get the nod over SMU unless the Ponies just destroy their opponents all year on their way to a great record.

With all that having been said, keep in mind that in 1997, the Ponies were 6-4 going in to the season-ending game at TCU (that debacle that prevented the little froggies from registering the 0-fer they so richly deserved.) There was a representative from the Independence Bowl in Shreveport at that game, and had the Ponies won, he said he was ready to extend a bid to SMU to face LSU or some other team with a big travelling fan base. So there is some interest in the Ponies because of the Dallas (advertising) market. But to get an at-large bid in today's system, the Ponies will have to roll through their schedule pretty much unblemished.

Which of course they will.