SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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We are going to the Camping World Bowl. What is that and how much does it mean in terms of prestige? It’s hard to keep track of the first because the names of bowls change a kaleidoscopic fashion, (Camping World is the 7th name used for this one). The second can be measured in terms of the bowl pay-out, (per Wikipedia this is the 8th richest bowl with $5,800,000 total pay-out). I was interested in the historical prestige of the bowls: the cumulative value of the teams that have played in it. I decided to use the rankings done at the end of the regular season and grant teams points on the 25 for 1st, 24 for 2nd and 23 for 3rd, etc. basis. The combined points then tell us the prestige of the bowl in that year. Teams that weren’t ranked earn no points for their bowl.
Let’s look at 1936 as an example. #3 Pittsburgh played #5 Washington in the Rose Bowl. My shot-cut method is to add those numbers and subtract from 52: 3 + 5 = 8 subtracted from 52 = 44 points for the Rose Bowl for 1936. (The long way: #3 produces 23 points and #5 produces 21 points for a total of 44.) In the Sugar Bowl, #2 Louisiana State played #6 Santa Clara, which also produces 44 points for the Sugar Bowl. The Cotton Bowl had #16 Texas Christian and #20 Marquette for 16 points. The Orange Bowl had #14 Duquesne playing unranked Mississippi State for 12 points. Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl 44 points, Cotton bowl 16 points, Orange Bowl 12 points.
It was fun to add them up over the years because it made it like a horse race. Each year the bowls would move forward mathematically. One would catch another, then fall back, etc. The Rose took the lead in 1937 was ahead until the Sugar tied it again in 1953. The Rose took the lead in 1955, the Sugar in 1957, (solo for the first time), the Rose in ‘58, the Sugar in ’59, the Rose in ’60, etc. They both became the first bowls to hit the 1,000 point mark in 1961 with the Sugar back in the lead with 1,007 points to an even 1,000. The Rose re-took the lead in 1965. The Sugar took it back in ’66 only to have the Rose back in front in ’67. The Sugar took the lead for good in 1982 and hit the 2,000 point mark in 1987, (when Syracuse went there), and the 3,000 point mark in 2013. The Cotton Bowl was ahead of the orange until 1975 and has fallen further and further behind since. The Gator was a solid #5 from its creation in 1945. Eventually the Fiesta, which didn’t exist until 1971, caught it in 2007. He Fiesta has long since put the Gator in the rear view mirror. But when we played there in 1966, they were solidly the #5 bowl in prestige.
Below are the final totals as of this year. The total for the same bowl under various names have bene added up. I’ve also divided the totals by the number of years the bowls have been in existence. I used the AP, (writer’s poll) to compute the point totals until the BCS standings and then the playoff committee rankings came into existence. AP had a top 20 until 1961, then just a top ten from 1962-67, (so did the UPI coach’s poll). Then they went back to a top 20 until 1988. It became a top 25 in 1989. I supplemented the AP rankings with UPI teams that weren’t in the AP Top 20 from when the UPI poll began in 1950. By that I mean that the 21st team would be the team UPI ranked highest that was not in the AP top 20. The 22nd team would be UPI’s second highest ranked team that was not also in the AP Top 20. Example in 1950 Southern Methodist was ranked #15 by UPI but not at all by AP. Stanford was ranked #19 by UPI but not at all by AP. I thus presumed that SMU was AP’s 21st ranked team and Stanford their 22nd ranked team. Unfortunately, neither went to a bowl game that year, (there were only 9 and several were what we would now call small college bowl games). The first year this supplemental ranking produced points was in 1954 when Georgia Tech was ranked #13 by UPI but not at all by AP and they played #10 Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. I gave Tech 5 points as the 21st ranked AP team and Arkansas 16 for being their #10 team so the Cotton Bowl got 21 points that year. One final note: beginning in 2007, the BCS championship game was not technically in a bowl: it was in a special game played at a bowl site a week after the bowls had finished. I have not counted those games as the bowls at those cites had already been played there. Those were separate championship games, not bowl games. The years refer to the season. Some bowls are played early in the next year but are part of the season listed. Although I have listed the entire span of years of each bowl, averages are from 1936 on, since that’s when the rankings started. My sources were the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia and their website. The bowls in bold are the ones Syracuse had been to.
3,197 points - Sugar (1935-2018) 3,197 divided by 83 years = 38.5 average points
3,144 points - Rose (1901, 1915-2018) average: 37.9
3,049 points – Orange (1935-2018) average: 36.7
2,531 points – Cotton (1936-2018) average: 30.5
1,576 points - Fiesta (1971-2018) average: 32.8
1,188 points - Gator AKA Taxslayer (1945-2018) average: 16.1
1,014 points - Citrus AKA Tangerine, Florida Citrus, Capital One, Buffalo Wild Wings (1947-2018)
average: 14.1
616 points - Holiday (1978-2018) average: 15.0
579 points - Peach AKA Chick-fil-A (1968-2018) average: 11.4
454 points - Sun AKA John Hancock (1936-2018) average: 5.5
424 points - Bluebonnet AKA Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl (1959-1987) average: 14.6
405 points - Outback AKA Hall of Fame Bowl, (not the same as the Hall of Fame Classic) (1985-2018) average: 11.9
396 points - Liberty (1959-2018) average: 6.6
327 points - Alamo (1993-2018) average: 4.0
206 points - Camping World AKA Blockbuster, Carquest, Micron PC, Tangerine, Champs Sport, Russell Athletic (1990-2018) average: 7.1
176 points - Aloha (1982-2000) average: 9.3
123 points - Las Vegas AKA California, Maaco (1981-2018) average: 3.2
58 points - Cheez-it Bowl AKA Cooper, Insight.com, Buffalo Wild Wings, Motel 6, Cactus (1989-2018) average: 1.9
52 points - Freedom (1984-94) average: 4.7
47 points - Belk AKA Continental Tire, Meinike Car Care (2002-2018) average: 2.8
47 points - Poinsetta (2005-2016) average: 3.9
42 points - All American AKA Hall of Fame Classic, (not the same game as the Hall of Fame Bowl) (1977-1990) average: 3.0
42 points - Independence AKA AdvoCare V100 (1976-2018) average: 1.0
37 points - Dollar General AKA Mobile, Alabama, GMAC, Go Daddy (1999-2018) average: 1.85
32 points - Oil (1943, 1945-1946) average: 10.7
29 points - Treasury (1944) average: 29.0
27 points - Redbox AKA San Francisco, Emerald, Fight Hunger, Foster Farms (2002-2018) average: 1.6
26 points - Music City (1998-2018) average: 1.2
23 points - Famous Idaho Potato AKA Humanitarian, MPC Computing (1997-2018) average: 1.05
22 points - Delta (1947-1948) average: 11.0
19 points - Oahu (1998-2000) average: 6.3
18 points - Dixie (1947-1948) average: 6.0
16 points - Armed Forces AKA Fort Worth (2003-2018) average: 1.0
16 points - Gotham (1961-1962) average: 8.0
16 points - Little Caesar’s AKA Motor City (1997-2013) average: 0.9
16 points – Texas (2006-2018) average: 1.2
15 points – Seattle (2001-2002) average: 7.5
12 points - Houston AKA Gallery Furniture (2000-2005) average: 2.0
9 points - First Responder AKA Ticket City, Heart of Dallas (2011-2018) average: 1.1
9 points - Hawaii (2002-2018) average: 0.5
7 points - Bluegrass (1958) average: 7.0
7 points - Cigar (1946-1954) average: 0.8
7 points – Military AKA Eagle Bank (2008-2018) average: 0.6
6 points – Cherry (1984-1985) average: 3.0
6 points - Garden State (1978-81) average: 1.5
6 points - Pinstripe (2010-2018) average: 0.7
6 points - Silicon Valley (2000-2004) average: 1.2
5 points - Pasadena (1967-1971) average: 1.0
4 points - Birmingham AKA Papa John’s, BBVA Compass (2006-2018) average: 0.3
2 points - Boca Raton (2014-2018) average: 0.4
The following bowls have never had a ranked team play in them:
Alamo (1947)
Arizona (2015-2018)
Aviation Bowl (1961)
Bacardi AKA Rhumba (1937)
Bahamas (2014-2018)
Camellia (1948, 1961-1975, 1980, 2014-2018)
Cure (2015-2018)
Dixie Classic (1921, (1924, 1933: there were no ranked teams until 1936)
Fort Worth Classic (1920)
Frisco (2017-18)
Gasparilla AKA St. Petersburg, Beef O’Brady’s (2008-2018)
Great Lakes (1947)
Harbor Bowl (1946-1948)
International Bowl (2006-2009)
Los Angeles Christmas Festival (1924)
Miami Beach (2014-2016)
New Mexico (2006-2018)
New Orleans (2001-2018)
Presidential Cup (1950)
Quick Lane (2014-2018)
Raisin Bowl (1945-1949)
Salad Bowl (1947-1951)
San Diego East-West Christmas Classic (1921-1922)
Shrine (1948-1949)
Alas there is no Pesci or Ty-Dee Bowl.
Let’s look at 1936 as an example. #3 Pittsburgh played #5 Washington in the Rose Bowl. My shot-cut method is to add those numbers and subtract from 52: 3 + 5 = 8 subtracted from 52 = 44 points for the Rose Bowl for 1936. (The long way: #3 produces 23 points and #5 produces 21 points for a total of 44.) In the Sugar Bowl, #2 Louisiana State played #6 Santa Clara, which also produces 44 points for the Sugar Bowl. The Cotton Bowl had #16 Texas Christian and #20 Marquette for 16 points. The Orange Bowl had #14 Duquesne playing unranked Mississippi State for 12 points. Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl 44 points, Cotton bowl 16 points, Orange Bowl 12 points.
It was fun to add them up over the years because it made it like a horse race. Each year the bowls would move forward mathematically. One would catch another, then fall back, etc. The Rose took the lead in 1937 was ahead until the Sugar tied it again in 1953. The Rose took the lead in 1955, the Sugar in 1957, (solo for the first time), the Rose in ‘58, the Sugar in ’59, the Rose in ’60, etc. They both became the first bowls to hit the 1,000 point mark in 1961 with the Sugar back in the lead with 1,007 points to an even 1,000. The Rose re-took the lead in 1965. The Sugar took it back in ’66 only to have the Rose back in front in ’67. The Sugar took the lead for good in 1982 and hit the 2,000 point mark in 1987, (when Syracuse went there), and the 3,000 point mark in 2013. The Cotton Bowl was ahead of the orange until 1975 and has fallen further and further behind since. The Gator was a solid #5 from its creation in 1945. Eventually the Fiesta, which didn’t exist until 1971, caught it in 2007. He Fiesta has long since put the Gator in the rear view mirror. But when we played there in 1966, they were solidly the #5 bowl in prestige.
Below are the final totals as of this year. The total for the same bowl under various names have bene added up. I’ve also divided the totals by the number of years the bowls have been in existence. I used the AP, (writer’s poll) to compute the point totals until the BCS standings and then the playoff committee rankings came into existence. AP had a top 20 until 1961, then just a top ten from 1962-67, (so did the UPI coach’s poll). Then they went back to a top 20 until 1988. It became a top 25 in 1989. I supplemented the AP rankings with UPI teams that weren’t in the AP Top 20 from when the UPI poll began in 1950. By that I mean that the 21st team would be the team UPI ranked highest that was not in the AP top 20. The 22nd team would be UPI’s second highest ranked team that was not also in the AP Top 20. Example in 1950 Southern Methodist was ranked #15 by UPI but not at all by AP. Stanford was ranked #19 by UPI but not at all by AP. I thus presumed that SMU was AP’s 21st ranked team and Stanford their 22nd ranked team. Unfortunately, neither went to a bowl game that year, (there were only 9 and several were what we would now call small college bowl games). The first year this supplemental ranking produced points was in 1954 when Georgia Tech was ranked #13 by UPI but not at all by AP and they played #10 Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. I gave Tech 5 points as the 21st ranked AP team and Arkansas 16 for being their #10 team so the Cotton Bowl got 21 points that year. One final note: beginning in 2007, the BCS championship game was not technically in a bowl: it was in a special game played at a bowl site a week after the bowls had finished. I have not counted those games as the bowls at those cites had already been played there. Those were separate championship games, not bowl games. The years refer to the season. Some bowls are played early in the next year but are part of the season listed. Although I have listed the entire span of years of each bowl, averages are from 1936 on, since that’s when the rankings started. My sources were the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia and their website. The bowls in bold are the ones Syracuse had been to.
3,197 points - Sugar (1935-2018) 3,197 divided by 83 years = 38.5 average points
3,144 points - Rose (1901, 1915-2018) average: 37.9
3,049 points – Orange (1935-2018) average: 36.7
2,531 points – Cotton (1936-2018) average: 30.5
1,576 points - Fiesta (1971-2018) average: 32.8
1,188 points - Gator AKA Taxslayer (1945-2018) average: 16.1
1,014 points - Citrus AKA Tangerine, Florida Citrus, Capital One, Buffalo Wild Wings (1947-2018)
average: 14.1
616 points - Holiday (1978-2018) average: 15.0
579 points - Peach AKA Chick-fil-A (1968-2018) average: 11.4
454 points - Sun AKA John Hancock (1936-2018) average: 5.5
424 points - Bluebonnet AKA Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl (1959-1987) average: 14.6
405 points - Outback AKA Hall of Fame Bowl, (not the same as the Hall of Fame Classic) (1985-2018) average: 11.9
396 points - Liberty (1959-2018) average: 6.6
327 points - Alamo (1993-2018) average: 4.0
206 points - Camping World AKA Blockbuster, Carquest, Micron PC, Tangerine, Champs Sport, Russell Athletic (1990-2018) average: 7.1
176 points - Aloha (1982-2000) average: 9.3
123 points - Las Vegas AKA California, Maaco (1981-2018) average: 3.2
58 points - Cheez-it Bowl AKA Cooper, Insight.com, Buffalo Wild Wings, Motel 6, Cactus (1989-2018) average: 1.9
52 points - Freedom (1984-94) average: 4.7
47 points - Belk AKA Continental Tire, Meinike Car Care (2002-2018) average: 2.8
47 points - Poinsetta (2005-2016) average: 3.9
42 points - All American AKA Hall of Fame Classic, (not the same game as the Hall of Fame Bowl) (1977-1990) average: 3.0
42 points - Independence AKA AdvoCare V100 (1976-2018) average: 1.0
37 points - Dollar General AKA Mobile, Alabama, GMAC, Go Daddy (1999-2018) average: 1.85
32 points - Oil (1943, 1945-1946) average: 10.7
29 points - Treasury (1944) average: 29.0
27 points - Redbox AKA San Francisco, Emerald, Fight Hunger, Foster Farms (2002-2018) average: 1.6
26 points - Music City (1998-2018) average: 1.2
23 points - Famous Idaho Potato AKA Humanitarian, MPC Computing (1997-2018) average: 1.05
22 points - Delta (1947-1948) average: 11.0
19 points - Oahu (1998-2000) average: 6.3
18 points - Dixie (1947-1948) average: 6.0
16 points - Armed Forces AKA Fort Worth (2003-2018) average: 1.0
16 points - Gotham (1961-1962) average: 8.0
16 points - Little Caesar’s AKA Motor City (1997-2013) average: 0.9
16 points – Texas (2006-2018) average: 1.2
15 points – Seattle (2001-2002) average: 7.5
12 points - Houston AKA Gallery Furniture (2000-2005) average: 2.0
9 points - First Responder AKA Ticket City, Heart of Dallas (2011-2018) average: 1.1
9 points - Hawaii (2002-2018) average: 0.5
7 points - Bluegrass (1958) average: 7.0
7 points - Cigar (1946-1954) average: 0.8
7 points – Military AKA Eagle Bank (2008-2018) average: 0.6
6 points – Cherry (1984-1985) average: 3.0
6 points - Garden State (1978-81) average: 1.5
6 points - Pinstripe (2010-2018) average: 0.7
6 points - Silicon Valley (2000-2004) average: 1.2
5 points - Pasadena (1967-1971) average: 1.0
4 points - Birmingham AKA Papa John’s, BBVA Compass (2006-2018) average: 0.3
2 points - Boca Raton (2014-2018) average: 0.4
The following bowls have never had a ranked team play in them:
Alamo (1947)
Arizona (2015-2018)
Aviation Bowl (1961)
Bacardi AKA Rhumba (1937)
Bahamas (2014-2018)
Camellia (1948, 1961-1975, 1980, 2014-2018)
Cure (2015-2018)
Dixie Classic (1921, (1924, 1933: there were no ranked teams until 1936)
Fort Worth Classic (1920)
Frisco (2017-18)
Gasparilla AKA St. Petersburg, Beef O’Brady’s (2008-2018)
Great Lakes (1947)
Harbor Bowl (1946-1948)
International Bowl (2006-2009)
Los Angeles Christmas Festival (1924)
Miami Beach (2014-2016)
New Mexico (2006-2018)
New Orleans (2001-2018)
Presidential Cup (1950)
Quick Lane (2014-2018)
Raisin Bowl (1945-1949)
Salad Bowl (1947-1951)
San Diego East-West Christmas Classic (1921-1922)
Shrine (1948-1949)
Alas there is no Pesci or Ty-Dee Bowl.