Cotton Bowl’s History Outweighs Supposed BCS Prestige

The historically rich Cotton Bowl adds yet another installment on which to hang its hat tonight. A match-up of Kansas State vs. Arkansas came about as a result of crucial flaws in the Bowl Championship Series process. What the college football watching populace gets is a pairing of two top level teams, superficial prestige aside.

The Cotton Bowl’s exclusion from the BCS is one of the more perplexing facets to an altogether confounding system. Some of the sport’s greatest moments are tales from the Cotton Bowl’s 76-year lore, including:

Ernie Davis leading the Syracuse Orangemen over Texas and to a national championship

Joe Montana laying the foundation for his legacy in the “Chicken Soup Game,” Notre Dame’s 35-34 defeat of Houston

Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary miracle encore

Randall “The Thrill” Hill’s six shooters

Only the Rose Bowl Game boasts a more illustrious history than the Cotton Bowl Classic. Yet, in the BCS era, the marquee showdown in a land where football is king gets second billing.

Transition from the traditional bowl system and a national champion determined by voters to the BCS and a champion determined by…well, largely still voters was bridged by the Bowl Coalition. In the mid-1990s as the Coalition took shape, the Southwest Conference was disbanding. Tied into the SWC was the Cotton Bowl, which put in a bid to be part of the Coalition’s championship rotation but was rejected — possibly due to the instability losing its guaranteed participant wrought.

Yet, by the time of the first BCS in the 1998 season, the Cotton Bowl had secured a tie-in to the expanded Big 8-now-12. A preexisting relationship with the SEC would seemingly make it an attractive enough. Nope. The BCS even opted for repeat use of venue rather than add a fifth bowl to its rotation upon its 2006 expansion.

Continued slights against the BCS matter not. While hosting national championship games as it had in the past would be an undeniable benefit, the Classic has maintained its prestige these last 13 years. By not being accepted into the championship rotation, the Cotton Bowl has avoided the inevitable ghastly match-ups the four top tier games have hosted. Among the more frequent complaints opponents have against the BCS are guaranteed bids. The Fiesta Bowl has been handcuffed to such undesirable automatics as Pitt (2004) and UConn (2010). Meanwhile, the Orange Bowl has become a shell of what it was through the 1980s and early 1990s. Wednesday’s 70-33 drubbing of Clemson by West Virginia continues a run of poor match-ups down in Miami barring title games — and coincidentally, even recent championships played near South Beach have been duds.

Not being tethered to guaranteed entrants has allowed the Cotton Bowl to continue benefiting from its original Big 12-SEC partnership. Now, that hasn’t always resulted in the best of match-ups; no bowl is going to have marquee games every single season. Missouri decimated Arkansas a few short seasons ago, for example. But Mizzou’s involvement in the 2008 Classic further exemplifies its reaping the rewards of BCS folly.

Mizzou was denied an at-large berth into one of the 2008 BCS bowls, despite finishing 11-2 and winner of the Big 12 North. The Orange Bowl invited a Kansas team that MU defeated, but finished with a better won-loss percentage because it didn’t play in the Big 12 Championship. Thus, the Jayhawks’ computer score was higher. And since the BCS only allows two bids per conference, Hawai’i received the invitation that would have been better suited MU. The Warriors were on the receiving end of a beatdown vs. Georgia, similar to the one MU handed Arkansas.

The SEC and Big 12 have routinely produced three teams in the nation’s top 12. There to absorb the BCS runoff? Cotton. MU, Texas Tech in 2009, LSU last year: all were BCS at-large worthy teams that landed instead in Dallas. Now you can add Arkansas to that list; Kansas State, too, but for a different yet no less ridiculous BCS mandate.

The decision to reward a Virginia Tech team with zero wins vs. the Top 25 by inviting it to the Sugar Bowl backfired when VPI struggled to sell tickets. K-State had no trouble selling Cotton Bowl tickets. And Arkansas, in typical SEC fashion, will travel well. The result is an atmosphere that should match the quality of the game.

That quality is high. The contrast in the two offenses is night and day, but the results are similar. The aerial assault of Arkansas gets its power from a deep and talented receiving corps. Tyler Wilson connects with Jarius Wright, Joe Adams, Chris Gragg and Cobi Hamilton for over 2600 yards, making the Hogs one of the most prolific passing attacks in all college football. K-State plays a ball control style that would be easily deemed conservative, were it not so explosive.

Collin Klein emerged on many Heisman radars, employing the kind of bruising rushing style out of quarterback that has folks buzzing about a certain snap taker in Denver.

An entertaining game is almost a certainty. Even more certain is the winner will end the season in the top 5. No label necessary for validation.