How in the world did UCLA make it into a bowl game?

[jcharliem]

Even though I'm a local in SoCal... this one baffles me. First team in the last 10 years or so with a losing record to make a bowl appearance. I need to be schooled on how that happened... did it have to do with USC's ineligibility?

[Monk]

Even bigger question......how did Illinois make it?
They ended their year with a six game losing record.......the game itself
though was pretty entertaining

[pdub]

The whole bowl bid thing in college football is so dadgum subjective....well, at least they do have a championship game these days, and even THAT gets argued over when the dust settles and the smoke clears.

Hey, listen up NCAA officials- "playoffs." Look it up, Google it. And don't put in "payoffs" instead....that's an easy typo to make....

[CaminoKid]

The biggest question of all,is who cares.

[pdub]

The biggest question of all,is who cares.

Well, a whole half of a nation full of a whole lot of folks do. I've never seen anybody any more rabid than a rabid college football fan.

I was stuck working in Benton Harbor Michigan and one of the supervisors invited me to his house one weekend to watch the football game. Nice gesture, got me out of the motel. So Michigan was playing Notre Dame.

There were some other visitors at the guy's house to watch the game. This one guy, his son had just started at Michigan, and the rivalry between those two schools...well, I had no idea about the magnitude of it until right then. Notre Dame was winning and this guy was going nuclear ballistic, yelling at the TV. I was scared, I was about to leave, it was so scary. This guy wasn't even going to be able to go to work on Monday and stand all the harassment if Notre Dame won.

So yeah, some people care. I've sure seen it, up close and in person.