The Gator Bowl and Bobby Bowden
One story this Bowl season that really should hold alot of interest for the public is Bobby Bowdens last game as head coach at Florida State. As soon as Bowden announced Dec. 1 that he would step down at the end of the season, Gator Bowl officials started setting up a New Year’s Day matchup between Florida State and West Virginia.
From a fans point of view and from the view of Gator bowl officials as well, this is a major catch for the Gator Bowl. This dream pairing pits the schools Bowden has coached over the past 40 years. The game is expected to draw the largest crowd in the history of Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, which is the home of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and the annual Florida-Georgia game and has played host to a Super Bowl.
“In my 16 years here, I’ve never seen anything like this demand,” Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett said.
The move also allowed a 6-6 Florida State team to move ahead of conference rivals in the ACC bowl pecking order. Florida State’s Gator Bowl invitation caused Clemson, Miami, North Carolina and Boston College – teams with better overall and conference records – to end up in less prestigious bowls.
“We’re the fortunate ones, in my opinion, to be there because there are other teams that have better records. But I’m glad we’re there,” Bowden said. “[In] 1978, we were 8-3 and did not get a bowl bid and there were other people who got them with poorer records. We felt like we had not been done right.”
The move also allowed a 6-6 Florida State team to move ahead of conference rivals in the ACC bowl pecking order. Florida State’s Gator Bowl invitation caused Clemson, Miami, North Carolina and Boston College – teams with better overall and conference records – to end up in less prestigious bowls.
“We’re the fortunate ones, in my opinion, to be there because there are other teams that have better records. But I’m glad we’re there,” Bowden said. “[In] 1978, we were 8-3 and did not get a bowl bid and there were other people who got them with poorer records. We felt like we had not been done right.”
The Gator Bowl has the second choice of ACC teams that don’t earn BCS bids, but the ACC typically prohibits one of its bowl partners from selecting one team over another school that had at least two fewer losses in conference play. Clemson went 6-2 and Florida State was 4-4 in ACC competition.
So how did a team with a .500 record end up in Jacksonville? The Gator Bowl capitalized on a loophole in its contract with the ACC.
Under the terms of its deal, the Gator Bowl had to invite the ACC championship game loser at least once every four years. The bowl fulfilled that requirement when Georgia Tech was selected after falling to Wake Forest in the 2006 ACC championship game.
Moreover, language in the contract allowed the Gator Bowl not to have to consider the ACC championship game loser’s record when it set the benchmark for the ACC’s “one-loss rule.”
So after the Chick-fil-A Bowl selected Virginia Tech (6-2 in conference play) this season, the Gator Bowl was free to pass on Clemson and take any team with a 5-3 or 4-4 conference record. Gator Bowl officials wasted no time making their selection.
“It’s pretty simple,” Catlett said. “It’s to honor one of the greatest icons in college athletics. We had that opportunity to salute him in that last game. It was very important to all of us and something that he fittingly deserves.”
The send-off for Bowden makes the Gator Bowl arguably the most anticipated of any non-BCS matchup.
Gator Bowl officials already had sold 58,000 tickets before announcing the Florida State-West Virginia pairing. The game sold out less than 2 1/2 hours after the final 20,000 tickets went on sale. Gator Bowl officials then decided to add 6,000 chairback seats in the upper level of the end zones and distributed 3,000 more tickets to each of the schools. Catlett predicts this game will break the Jacksonville Municipal Stadium record crowd of 85,412, set when Florida State beat Alabama 21-14 on Sept. 29, 2007.
That represents a sharp contrast from the past four Gator Bowls, which drew an average attendance of 64,742.
This one should be a great one even if Florida State is really not the usual powerhouse they usually are.
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