On Sunday, I saw that the ESPN folks projected Penn State to be in the Cotton Bowl. Since we live about a 5-hour drive from Dallas, I purchased two tickets. Does anyone know the details of how the bowls pick their teams to inform me of what needs to happen for PSU to end up in the Cotton?
Cotton Bowl
- Thread starter WichitaKid
- Start date
If PSU does not make the playoffs they will more than likely go to the Orange Bowl as they would have the first pick for the bowls.
Did you talk to a Orange Bowl rep?
Clemson, Miami, Va Tech, or even ND could get the orange bowl.
Forget who goes to what bowl there still a lot of football to be played. Let's just get through the regular season first.
In the event that we win out and don't get into the playoff, it's highly likely that ND and one of those 3 ACC teams are in the playoff. That leaves 2 of the others. So if one of them do go to the Orange Bowl, there's a good chance we would be their opponent.
I hope you get a good return on those tickets. Way too much football left to be buying tickets to specific bowl games.
Especially when many of these top teams still need to play each other, or high probability to meet in conf championship (Examples: ND/Miami, VT/Miami, Oklahoma/TCU, Oklahoma/OKState, OSU/Wisc, UGA/Bama, Clemson/Miami)
If PSU does not make the playoffs they will more than likely go to the Orange Bowl as they would have the first pick fo
New Year's Bowls
Both participants in the Orange, Cotton and Fiesta Bowls are contracted outside the playoff arrangement (Big Ten and Pac-12 to Rose Bowl; SEC and Big 12 to Sugar Bowl; ACC to Orange Bowl against the highest ranked available team from the SEC, Big Ten and Notre Dame).
If a conference champion qualifies for the playoff, then the bowl will choose a replacement from that conference. When those bowls host the semifinals and their contracted conference champions do not qualify, then the displaced champion(s) will play in one of the other New Year’s bowls.
When not hosting semifinals, the Cotton, Fiesta and Peach Bowls will welcome displaced conference champions and the top-ranked champion from a non-contract conference. The highest-ranked available teams will fill any other berths. The selection committee will make the pairings.
New Year's Bowls
Both participants in the Orange, Cotton and Fiesta Bowls are contracted outside the playoff arrangement (Big Ten and Pac-12 to Rose Bowl; SEC and Big 12 to Sugar Bowl; ACC to Orange Bowl against the highest ranked available team from the SEC, Big Ten and Notre Dame).
If a conference champion qualifies for the playoff, then the bowl will choose a replacement from that conference. When those bowls host the semifinals and their contracted conference champions do not qualify, then the displaced champion(s) will play in one of the other New Year’s bowls.
When not hosting semifinals, the Cotton, Fiesta and Peach Bowls will welcome displaced conference champions and the top-ranked champion from a non-contract conference. The highest-ranked available teams will fill any other berths. The selection committee will make the pairings.
So do I have the rationale/assumptions for us going to Orange Bowl correct?
- Big 10 champ (assuming it's Wisconsin or OSU) goes to the playoff.
- The loser of the Big10 champ game would drop below PSU in the playoff rankings and thus PSU would be the pick as the highest ranked team from the Big10.
- What if Wisconsin inches closer to PSU in the playoff rankings (maybe surpasses them prior to the Big10 champ game) and loses a close game (e.g. OT game) vs OSU in Big10 champ game? Couldn't they as Big10 runner up be considered the logical highest ranked team from Big 10?
- The information above states, "ACC to Orange Bowl against the highest ranked available team from the SEC, Big Ten and Notre Dame." What if the playoff 4 is Alabama, ND, OSU, and Oklahoma? Or you could rplace one of those with Clemson. Either way, it could be conceivable that UGa is higher ranked than PSU. Wouldn't they go to the Orange Bowl vs either Clemson or the ACC replacement?
- If either of these happen, what is the order for Cotton, Fiesta, and Peach?
Wow. Way too many games left to be played for me to even consider getting tickets to one.
And right now the media is just flat out guessing, its like their coaching choices for jobs available.
1) I can't imagine Wisconsin being ranked higher than PSU if they lose to tOSU and PSU wins out. 2) Sure, UGa could be ranked higher than PSU, but they'd have 2 losses, so I doubt it
I still have flights booked for New Orleans, I'm much more optimistic!
I still have flights booked for New Orleans, I'm much more optimistic!
How would UGa have two losses? They are undefeated now. My assumption was they only lose the SEC champ. game.
When they lose to Georgia Tech in Atlanta and obviously tank to Alabama in the SEC championship
Think you might have jumped the gun there just a bit. But the Cotton Bowl will feature some good teams in any event.
Ya, I understand that but I live in Pasadena and its more cheaper for me to fly to Dallas or Atlanta or drive to Phoeniz/Glendale. I can also find cheaper hotel options as well. That is why I was qualifying it with it being my desire not everyone else's.
Sometimes I wonder if people on message boards realize they don't play the games.
LdN
Why Clemson? They lost to that power Syracuse. Which is worse Psu losing to OSU on the road or Clemson losing on the road to Syracuse?
I was assuming that it UGa wins out, but takes a loss to Bama in the SEC championship game, they'll probably still make the 4 team playoff, sending PSU to the Orange. But, yeah, if they aren't selected, then they'll most likely rank ahead of PSU. I guess it also depends on how bad they lose.
Folks, I bought the tickets because there were only about 30 tickets left at face value directly from the Cotton Bowl. If PSU goes elsewhere, I'll just sell the tickets to a frothing-at-the-mouth fan of one of the competing Cotton Bowl teams. Since I don't like the idea of buying tickets on the secondary market, it is worth the speculative try.
