(11-30-2017 12:59 PM)Wedge Wrote:  "What it used to be" before every bowl had contracts with two conferences, was about a third as many bowls as there are now, and almost no bowl appearances for teams outside the power conferences.

Here's the entire bowl lineup from 40 years ago, the 1977 season. 13 bowls. Only 6 contracted bowl places (Pac-8 and Big Ten in Rose, SWC in Cotton, Big 8 in Orange, SEC in Sugar, WAC in Fiesta).

Cotton Bowl: Notre Dame 38, Texas 10
Orange Bowl: Arkansas 31, Oklahoma 6
Rose Bowl: Washington 27, Michigan 20
Sugar Bowl: Alabama 35, Ohio State 6
Bluebonnet Bowl: Southern California 47, Texas A&M 28
Peach Bowl: North Carolina State 24, Iowa State 14
Sun Bowl: Stanford 24, Louisiana State 14
Gator Bowl: Pittsburgh 34, Clemson 3
Fiesta Bowl: Penn State 42, Arizona State 30
Tangerine Bowl: Florida State 40, Texas Tech 17
Hall of Fame Classic: Maryland 17, Minnesota 7
Liberty Bowl: Nebraska 21, North Carolina 17
Independence Bowl: Louisiana Tech 24, Louisville 14

So, 5 of the 13 had independents and non-majors playing in them. The WAC wasn't a major conference (it should have been, when they weren't playing each other, they loaded up on PAC, SWC, and Big 8 teams to round out the schedule unlike the eastern and mid-south indies). Today we can look at this and think there's only one non-major in the lineup (LaTech), but, that's not in proper context.

There was definitely bias back then, but, I'm just saying that without all of the tie-in's, you had choice. And, clearly, in 1977, you did. Sure, if you were a member of the PAC and had 7 wins, you were more likely bowling than the poor sap in the WAC or MAC at 7. I might feel for BYU and SDSU, getting overlooked for the unranked ISU, NCSU, UMD, LSU, etc. (and, with SDSU beating FSU like a drum the second to last game of the season, and good WAC teams usually filling out their non-conference with PAC, Big 8, and SWC teams rather than independents), but, if we're to think Colgate at 10-1 should have been playing around the holidays...I'm not sure about that, even though today, they'd be playing; you still wouldn't see them paired up with anyone good, though.

Where it concerns skipping games...heck. To be asked back then? No, you played. Scarcity has that effect, I guess.