What does At-Large bowl bid mean?

[TN - BRAVES FAN]

In the Excel file it says the Sugar Bowl is SEC vs At-Large. What does At-Large mean? What determines the At-Large team?

[wisgator]

At-large bids come from teams that did not win their conference but are chosen to play in those major bowls.

[Buckeyes_Doc]

ex: Boise/TCU recieved at-large bids last year to play in the Fiesta Bowl.

[jello1717]

This comes from when the team assigned to the bowl plays elsewhere, usually (always?) in the BCS champ. game. IE. if USC won the PAC-10 and Wisconsin won the Big-10, but USC is #1 and playing in the championship game, then Wisconsin (Big10 champ) would play an at large team since USC won't play in the Rose Bowl.

[nmm666]

Quote: Originally Posted by jello1717

This comes from when the team assigned to the bowl plays elsewhere, usually (always?) in the BCS champ. game. IE. if USC won the PAC-10 and Wisconsin won the Big-10, but USC is #1 and playing in the championship game, then Wisconsin (Big10 champ) would play an at large team since USC won't play in the Rose Bowl.

Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl all feature At-Large teams (playing the Big 12, ACC and SEC number one picks, respectively, assuming they aren't in the title game). Starting this year, the Rose Bowl can feature a At-Large team if the Pac-10 champ or Big 10 champ is in the National Title game.

So now with the Rose Bowl allowing at-large bids, we have the possibility of seeing two non-AQ teams in any of the BCS bowls (like last year's Boise vs TCU Fiesta Bowl).

This article [wikipedia] does a good job of explaining which teams end up in which bowls.

[kestrel]

Don't forget the Big East champ, by virtue of playing in a BCS conference, is a BCS bowl at-large team; they don't have a specific BCS bowl tie-in.

[L.A.V.A.]

all of the major conferences have BCS bowl tie-ins.

Pac-10/Big 10 = Rose Bowl
SEC= Sugar Bowl
Big 12 = Fiesta
ACC/Big East = Orange Bowl

That's the conference champ each bowl will pick if they're not playing in the national championship. If the conference champ from one of those conferences is selected for the national championship those bowls will usually take the #2 team unless their are non-bcs teams in the top 12, ie a TCU, Boise St, Utah, etc..

That's how Illinois ended up in the rose bowl a couple years ago when they were ranked 13th. ohio st. was in the national championships.

At-Large teams are teams are teams selected for these games that is not the conference champ, like illinois above. the big east champ will never be at-large, nor will any champ from any bcs conference. they are automatic.