The 2011–12 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games. They concluded the 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and included 35 team-competitive games and five all-star games. The games began on December 17, 2011 and, aside from the all-star games, concluded with the 2012 BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans, that was played on January 9, 2012. The total of 35 team-competitive bowls was unchanged from the previous year. While bowl games had been the purview of only the very best teams for nearly a century, this was the sixth consecutive year that teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games. To fill the 70 available team-competitive bowl slots, a total of 14 teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games—13 had a.500 season and, for the first time ever, a team with a sub-.500 season was invited to a bowl game.
Selection of the teams
In the previous year's bowl cycle, the NCAA scrapped a bylaw which mandated that a school with a non-losing record of 6–6 in regular season play were not eligible unless conferences could not fill out available bowl positions with teams with a winning record of seven wins. The new rule was stretched further in this 2011-12 bowl season when a team with a losing record, the 6–7 UCLA Bruins, were invited to a bowl game. The Bruins, the Pac-12 South Division winners, finished 6–6 but the USC Trojans, winners of the division, were barred from postseason play because of the University of Southern California athletics scandal of the mid-2000s, and the resulting two-year ban. The conference and the school applied for a waiver, which the NCAA accepted, based on their bowl eligibility after the sixth win, but having to play in an unmerited conference championship game. This interpretation of policy ultimately led to Western Kentucky, with a 7–5 winning record, or Ball State, with a 6–6 non-losing record, going uninvited.
Number of bowl berths available: 70 Number of teams assured of bowl eligibility: 71 Western Kentucky and Ball State were not extended invitations to bowl games.
In March 2011, because of illegal campaign contributions to politicians friendly to the Fiesta Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl Board of Directors fired bowl CEO John Junker. The scandal threatened the Fiesta Bowl's status as a BCS game for the 2011-12 season, as the BCS said it might replace the bowl in its lineup if officials could not convince them it should remain. In May 2011, the BCS fined the Fiesta Bowl organization US $1 million without removing their BCS spot.
The NCAA has placed a three-year moratorium, starting with the 2011-12 bowl season, on any new bowl games. This follows the addition of two new games for the 2010-11 bowl season, bringing the total number of bowl games to 35. The expansion to 70 teams required to fill these 35 bowl games has challenged the ability to actually find enough teams with winning records to fill bowl slots. Teams with non-winning and losing records have participated in bowl games since the expansion to 35 games. By the 2012-13 bowl season, with multiple teams ineligible due to sanctions, the NCAA was forced to anticipate a need to allow teams with even worse losing records to fill bowl selection slots in 2012-13.
Schedule
The official schedule was released June 17, 2011. Though it is traditionally the date for many bowl games to be played, none will be held on January 1, due to that date being on a Sunday and conflict with the National Football League's slate of Sunday games. Subsequently, the Fiesta Bowl moved from January 5 to January 2, in its traditional spot following the Rose Bowl, after the 2011 NFL lockout was settled. The Monday evening spot was held open for a possible Monday Night Football game. NOTE: All times are US EST.
