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INSIDE COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Pulling Rank

by David Sabino

Posted: Wed December 3, 1997

The Bowl Alliance and its predecessor, the Coalition, were formed to create a national championship game and put the best teams in the biggest bowls. But the system hasn't been flawless. For instance, this year No. 15 Syracuse will gain an Alliance berth in the Fiesta Bowl by virtue of winning the feeble Big East. Worse, in the last five years two teams not even ranked in the Top 25 made it to one of the big games. Here's how the non-Top 10 Coalition/Alliance teams have fared.

Season	Team	Bowl	Pre-Bowl Record, Rank	Result	Final Rank
1992	Nebraska	Orange	9-2, 11th	Lost to No. 3 Florida State 27-14	14th
1993	Arizona	Fiesta	9-2, 16th	Beat No. 10 Miami 29-0	10th
1994	Notre Dame	Fiesta	6-4-1, unranked	Lost to No. 4 Colorado 41-24	—
1994	Texas Tech	Cotton	6-5, unranked	Lost to No. 21 USC 55-14	—
1994	Southern Cal	Cotton	7-3-1, 21st	Beat unranked Texas Tech 55-14	13th
1995	Virginia Tech	Sugar	9-2, 13th	Beat No. 9 Texas 28-10	10th
1996	Texas	Fiesta	8-4, 20th	Lost to No. 7 Penn State 38-15	23rd

OTHER NOTES

Season's Griddings The Good, the Bad and the Both Games of the Year The Soph Parade Masters of Their Domain Didn't You Used to Be...? Extremely Upsetting Quotebook Extra Points Winners & Losers Looking Ahead Spotlight: Chris McCoy

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Issue date: December 8, 1997