1991 Bowl Games for the 2013 Season

A majority of teams who are eligible for bowl games will make bowl games in 2013 because there are so damn many of them. For a long time, though, there were not as many bowl games, and the system was even stupider than it is now. For instance, in 1991, there was a split national championship between the Washington Huskies and the Miami Hurricanes, because in spite of the fact that they were by far the top two games heading into the bowl season, the Huskies were contractually obligated to go to the Rose Bowl and play the champion of the Big Ten. And so the stupidity continued. As much as people rag on the BCS, and much of it is deserved, the BCS allows for us to avoid the impossible stupidity of not allowing Big Ten or Pac 10 (or 12) teams to play in a 1 vs. 2 national title game against a different conference.

But what if we were re-immersed into the stupidity of the pre-BCS bowl system? I decided to take the bowl games of the 1991 season--the penultimate season in which there was no Bowl Alliance (a crappier version of the BCS which nevertheless represented a sizable improvement over the anarchy of 1991 and before) and fill them according to 2013 results. Since conferences have changed considerably, I'm going to go by final BCS rankings of teams as placed in their old conferences (for instance, Texas belonged to the now-defunct Southwest Conference in 1991 and thus will be given consideration to bowls as a Southwest Conference team would have in 1991).

Rose Bowl Game (Big 10 Champion vs. Pac 10 Champion): Michigan State vs. Stanford

Sunkist Fiesta Bowl (At-Large vs. At-Large): Oregon vs. Clemson

USF&G Sugar Bowl (SEC Champion vs. At-Large): Auburn vs. Florida State

FedEx Orange Bowl (Big 8 Champion vs. At-Large): Missouri vs. Alabama

Mobil Cotton Bowl (Southwest Champion vs. At-Large): Baylor vs. Ohio State

John Hancock Bowl (At-Large vs. At-Large): Oklahoma vs. Arizona State

Mazda Gator Bowl (At-Large vs. At-Large): South Carolina vs. LSU

Liberty Bowl (Commander-in-Chief Trophy winner vs. At-Large): TBD vs. Louisville

Florida Citrus Bowl (At-Large vs. At-Large): Oklahoma State vs. UCF

Peach Bowl (At-Large vs. At-Large): Texas A&M vs. Georgia

Poulan Independence Bowl (At-Large vs. At-Large): Wisconsin vs. USC

Thrifty Car Rental Holiday Bowl (WAC Champion vs. At-Large): BYU vs. UCLA

Hall of Fame Bowl (At-Large vs. At-Large): Northern Illinois vs. Duke

Weiser Lock Copper Bowl (At-Large vs. At-Large): Fresno State vs. Notre Dame

Blockbuster Bowl (At-Large vs. At-Large): Texas vs. Cincinnati

What you will perhaps first notice is the high number of at-large bids. This is because the point of bowl games has always been to cash in. You will also notice that in this year's situation, things work out fine, because it is likely (though not a guarantee, because once again this system was unspeakably stupid), but in many year's past, it would be a disaster. In fact, every 1 vs. 2 between 2004 and 2010 would be impossible even though a vast majority of people agreed that it was a matchup of the two best teams in the country. 

Another couple of notes: BYU was declared WAC Champion because of pure subjectivity. No 1991 WAC teams made the BCS standings. Additionally, I was going off straight rankings (starting with BCS and then going on to poll results), but Notre Dame would probably wind up in a better bowl game than what is now the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl because Notre Dame. Also, there are a few currently in-conference games in here, but none of the games are in-conference according to 1991. WHICH IS THE YEAR THAT IT CURRENTLY IS.

R.I.P. BCS: You may have been stupid and arbitrary but you could have been worse.