The PAC-12 and Big Ten to face off in two more bowl games

Arizona Sports News online

The Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences have faced off for years in the ‘Grand Daddy of them all,’ the Rose Bowl game for years.

On Monday, the two conferences announced that they will be facing off in two more bowl games for in a deal set for the next six seasons. Starting in 2014, the conferences will face off in both the Holiday Bowl in San Diego and the Fight Hunger Bowl which will be moving to the new 49ers Stadium in Santa Clara.

“Our conferences have a tremendous affinity for one another, obviously a tremendous tradition, playing each other in the Rose Bowl,” said Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott. “And we have looked for ways to play each other more often.”

Both bowl games have seen Pac-12 teams in recent years but now according to the new agreement, will be inviting high seeded ones. The Holiday Bowl will take the number two eligible team after the Alamo Bowl and after teams are seeded for the new NCAA playoff. The Fight Hunger bowl will now take the conference’s number four eligible team.

The new Bowl order for Pac-12 teams is as follows: 1. Rose Bowl or playoff team, 2. Alamo Bowl, 3. Holiday Bowl, 4. Fight Hunger Bowl, 5. Sun Bowl (which also announced today an agreement with the Pac-12 through 2019).

The Big Ten took a different and odd stance to this deal. In each of the six years, the Big Ten will assign teams to the two bowls. According to the conference, in order to avoid repeat performances in the games, the Holiday Bowl cannot have the same team more than twice in the six years and the Fight Hunger Bowl must have five different teams over the course of the six-year deal.

It will be interesting to see as this deal rolls along if in an effort to avoid repeat performances, a high seeded Big Ten team will get shafted and have to play in a lesser seeded bowl, like the Fight Hunger Bowl, to avoid repeat teams. Or a team no where near deserving to reach the Holiday Bowl will be thrusted up to play in the game because teams ahead of them had already played in it twice.

Because all of this relates to Bowl games, this sounds like potential controversy.