Bowl Game Home or Away

[rock55choc]

So, while I was reading up on all the bowl game matchups for this year, an interesting thought crossed my mind. Who determines which team wears their home or away uniforms each year ?? Any help in answering this question would be appreciated. Thanks, guys.

[BigEd76]

Because of the ACC's ties to the Orange Bowl, Florida State gets to wear their home jerseys instead of the much-higher ranked Penn State...

An article on the Army/Navy game mentioned that Navy is wearing the road whites in their bowl game vs Colorado State, despite having a better record...

[BJ Sands]

I think, and I'm far from certain, that if it's a game with longstanding conference ties, the first choice of jersey alternates from year to year between conferences.

[praeda]

I've actually been charting this for a few years. It's imperfect especially due to shifts in conference tie-ins, but it holds up pretty well for the last few years. As a nomenclature note, odd/even mean for the season so the 2005 sets would be odd even for the games played in 2006.

These are who is in darks and is home. My guesses for each for 2005 are listed as well. I have not done any work to check on these but it seems like every year that I make some sort of adjustment to this list that I didn't foresee.

Rose -- Odd Big Ten, Even Pac-10 (hard to say if this is still the case as we have had so few Pac-10-Big Ten Rose Bowls recently) Big Ten or Pac-10 if there is an untraditional non-championship matchup. -- Southern California

Sugar -- SEC always -- Georgia

Orange -- Auto choice of Big East or ACC -- Florida State

Sun -- Odd Pac-10, Even Big Ten -- UCLA

Gator -- Odd ACC, Even Big East -- Virginia Tech

Cotton -- Odd SEC, Even Big 12 -- Alabama

Capital One -- Odd SEC, Even Big Ten -- Auburn

Liberty -- Even C-USA (MWC was in Odd -- my guess is C-USA always for the time being) -- Tulsa

Peach -- Odd SEC, Even ACC -- LSU as home but in white

Fiesta -- Big 12 always -- Toss-up this year

Independence -- Odd Big 12, Even SEC -- Missouri

Holiday -- Odd Big 12, Even Pac-10 -- Oklahoma

Outback -- Odd SEC, Even Big Ten -- Florida

Insight -- Odd Big East, Even Pac-10 -- Rutgers

Champs Sports -- Odd Big 12, Even ACC -- Colorado

Las Vegas -- Odd MWC, Even Pac-10 -- Brigham Young

Alamo -- Odd Big 12, Even Big Ten -- Nebraska

Motor City -- MAC always -- Akron

MPC Computers -- WAC always -- Boise State

Music City -- Odd SEC, Even Big Ten -- Toss-up but probably Minnesota instead of at-large Virginia

GMAC -- C-USA always -- UTEP

Houston -- Odd Big 12, Even SEC -- Iowa State

New Orleans -- Sun Belt always -- Arkansas State

Hawaii -- Odd WAC, Even C-USA -- Nevada

Meineke -- ACC always (this one still surprises me) -- North Carolina State

Emerald -- Odd MWC, Even Pac-10 -- Utah

Ft. Worth -- Odd Big 12, Even C-USA -- Kansas

Poinsetta -- MWC always (this is just my guess and substantiated by this thread) -- Colorado State

[TheStoicPaisano]

Notre Dame is the home team in the Fiesta this year, apparently since they were picked first, even though they were ranked lower in the BCS.

So Ohio State wears the whites for their third trip to Tempe. Also wore the aways when they defeated Kansas State and Miami for the 'chip.

[bhambruiser]

Bama hasn't worn the home jerseys in a bowl since the 2000 Orange Bowl vs. Michigan..it would be a welcome change.

2001 Independence vs. Iowa St. - we wore white

2004 Music City vs. Minnesota- we wore white

and of course our "fake bowl games" versus Hawaii the years we were on probabtion- we wore white

2002- at Hawaii - white

2003- at Hawaii - white

So ending the season in the home threads would be a nice change from the last 4 years

[cableguy]

I have always thought the higher ranked team is considered the home team and has thier choice of jerseys... this seems to always be true...is this incorrect then?

[cableguy]

I may be wrong but I would be willing to bet Ohio State will be in their Scarlet jerseys against Notre Dame..the buckeyes are the higher ranked team.

[BigEd76]

Like I said, it has nothing to do with ranking or record. PSU is the #3 team in the country and they're wearing white....

P.S. -- I've also heard that ND will be in navy, OSU in white....

[smzimbabwe]

MPC Computers -- WAC always  -- Boise State

Actually, the WAC team alternates between being the home or road team. This year's game, Boise State will be the visitors and will be wearing their white jerseys, though they'll use their locker room...

MPC Bowl

NOTES: Boise State will be the designated visitor for the MPC Bowl, so the Broncos likely will wear white jerseys on their home field. They will keep their usual locker room and sideline.

[oddball]

As far as the Rose Bowl game is concerned, when it's the traditional matchup Big 10 - Pac 10, in the year that it is odd, the Pac 10 is the home team. For example in 1999 UCLA wore their home unis vs Wisonsin. In 2000 Wisconsin wore their home uniforms vs Stanford. As far as the BCS tie-in since 2002 it goes as follows:

02 Nebraska #2 BCS(Home) Miami (Road)#1 BCS- Big 10 Home

03 Washington State (Home) Oklahoma (Road) -Pac 10 Home

04 Michigan (Home) USC (Road) - Big 10 Home

05 Michigan (Home) Texas (Road) - Pac 10 Home

06 USC (Home?) Texas (Road?) -Big 10 Home

I'm taking a guess on this year's game, but looking at it I see the trend, if it's a Big 10 or Pac 10 vs another conference they're designated the home team so I guess USC will wear red. I could be wrong. But normally if it was Pac 10 - Big 10 (USC/Penn State), the Big 10 would be the home team.

[praeda]

As far as the Rose Bowl, this year, even if it were USC-Penn State (and I was a happy Angeleno because of it), USC would be home by virtue of being number 1. In an oddity, 4 years ago, Miami as #1 and the home team chose to wear white against Nebraska.

As far as the MPC Bowl goes, I'm very pleased to hear that they will start alternating this year. With the exeception of 1997, either the Big West Champ or the WAC selection has always been the dark team however given Georgia Tech's history, I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually the home team in 2003 and chose to wear white instead of gold. For the record, it has gone like this:

WAC v. ACC #6

2004 -- Fresno State (Bulldogs Red), Virginia (White)

2003 -- Tulsa (Royal Blue), Georgia Tech (White)

WAC v. Big 12 #8

2002 -- Boise State (Blue), Iowa State (White)

WAC #2 v. At-Large

2001 -- Louisiana Tech (Blue), Clemson (White)

Big West Champ v. At-Large

2000 -- Boise State (Blue), Texas-El Paso (White)

1999 -- Boise State (Blue), Louisville (White)

1998 -- Idaho (Black), Southern Mississippi (Gold)

1997 -- Cincinnati (Black), Utah State (White)

[pittfan11]

I hope noone wears any alternates.

[HatManTC]

P.S. -- I've also heard that ND will be in navy, OSU in white....

i like the white jersey a bit better than i do the scarlet one. i was hoping that ND would pull out the green jeresys....

[tohasbo]

Since the history of the BCS National Title Games

1998: #1 Tennessee (Home); #2 Florida State (Away)

1999: #1 Florida State (Home); #2 Virginia Tech (Away)

2000: #1 Oklahoma (Home); #2 Florida State (Away)

2001: #1 Miami (Away); #2 Nebraska (Home)

2002: #1 Miami (Home); #2 Ohio State (Away)

2003: #1 Oklahoma (Home); #2 LSU (Away)

2004: #1 USC (Home); #2 Oklahoma (Away)

2005: #1 USC (Home); #2 Texas (Away)

Teams in BOLD are NATIONAL CHAMPS.

[02Rover]

I may be wrong but I would be willing to bet Ohio State will be in their Scarlet jerseys against Notre Dame..the buckeyes are the higher ranked team.

As was stated earlier, its confirmed that Ohio State will ge the road team and in their white jerseys.

I understand that its becuase ND was chosen first in the BCS picks.

One report in Columbus said that Tressel prefered and maybe requested thewhites because of the past success OSU has had recently in the Fiesta in the whites. I find that hard to believe, that JTwould even get involved in something like that.

At any rate, OSU is in white and ND will be in dark (blue or green?)

Its on the official Fiesta web site.

[jagler]

i dont know how much this messes up some of the theories--but as for the miami/nebraska rose bowl--the canes were the home team. that doesnt mean they automatically wear orange or green, though. what it meant was that they had the first choice of what to wear. and they chose to wear the whites, because all of their prior titles had been won wearing white jerseys. which makes the team's decision to wear green vs. ohio state in the fiesta bowl that much more frustrating.

[praeda]

i dont know how much this messes up some of the theories--but as for the miami/nebraska rose bowl--the canes were the home team. that doesnt mean they automatically wear orange or green, though. what it meant was that they had the first choice of what to wear. and they chose to wear the whites, because all of their prior titles had been won wearing white jerseys. which makes the team's decision to wear green vs. ohio state in the fiesta bowl that much more frustrating.

I remember at the time knowing the Miami was the home team and elected to wear white. At least in my charting (which I'm doing some work on now that finals are over), I've gone under the assumption that LSU and Georgia Tech (until recently) always would have chosen to wear white. As long as one of these teams is sandwiched between two other of the same Bowl game where there seems to be a clear pattern, I feel fine. When there's not (like Georgia Tech 2 years ago in Boise), then it becomes a lot harder. And of course, there are the times when the "home" team chooses to wear white like Miami. Unfortunately, there is almost no way to catch this other than a break with a pattern (there is was the fact that #1 has always had the option to choose its jersey).

While for whatever reason I actually do care about this, it really doesn't matter that much. Beyond jersey choice, the only other areas that jump out at me as being determined by home-road are coin flips (often special coins get used at least in the high profile games), locker rooms, and sidelines.

When I get some more work done, I'll try to share games of the last 10 or so years that broke the patterns.

[Mac the Knife]

FYI, there's nothing in the NCAA regs that mandate this, so apparently its a matter for the individual bowl committees to decide.

You can look at an electronic copy of the NCAA's Post-Season Football Handbook by Clicking here.

[BigEd76]

Odd....Navy is wearing their home navy blues, which contradicts the Army/Navy article...

(If anyone is keeping track, Arkansas State, UTEP and California wore their home unis.)