| Season: | 2011 |
| Regular Season: | September 1, 2011 – December 10, 2011 |
| Number Of Bowls: | 35 |
| All Star Games: | 5 |
| Bowl Start: | December 17, 2011 |
| Bowl End: | January 9, 2012 (team-competitive) |
| Championship Bowl: | 2012 BCS National Championship |
| Championship Location: | Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Champions: | Alabama Crimson Tide |
| Bowl Challenge Cup: | (tie) C-USA and MAC |
| Conference1: | Big Ten |
| Conference1 Teams: | 10 |
| Conference1 Wins: | 4 |
| Conference1 Losses: | 6 |
| Conference1 Ap Poll: | 4 |
| Conference2: | SEC |
| Conference2 Teams: | 9 |
| Conference2 Wins: | 6 |
| Conference2 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference2 Ap Poll: | 5 |
| Conference3: | ACC |
| Conference3 Teams: | 8 |
| Conference3 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference3 Losses: | 6 |
| Conference3 Ap Poll: | 3 |
| Conference4: | Big 12 |
| Conference4 Teams: | 8 |
| Conference4 Wins: | 6 |
| Conference4 Losses: | 2 |
| Conference4 Ap Poll: | 4 |
| Conference5: | Pac-12 |
| Conference5 Teams: | 7 |
| Conference5 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference5 Losses: | 5 |
| Conference5 Ap Poll: | 3 |
| Conference6: | Big East |
| Conference6 Teams: | 5 |
| Conference6 Wins: | 3 |
| Conference6 Losses: | 2 |
| Conference6 Ap Poll: | 2 |
| Conference7: | Conference USA |
| Conference7 Teams: | 5 |
| Conference7 Wins: | 4 |
| Conference7 Losses: | 1 |
| Conference7 Ap Poll: | 2 |
| Conference8: | MAC |
| Conference8 Teams: | 5 |
| Conference8 Wins: | 4 |
| Conference8 Losses: | 1 |
| Conference8 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference9: | Mountain West |
| Conference9 Teams: | 5 |
| Conference9 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference9 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference9 Ap Poll: | 2 |
| Conference10: | Sun Belt |
| Conference10 Teams: | 3 |
| Conference10 Wins: | 1 |
| Conference10 Losses: | 2 |
| Conference10 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference11: | WAC |
| Conference11 Teams: | 3 |
| Conference11 Wins: | 0 |
| Conference11 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference11 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference12: | Independents |
| Conference12 Teams: | 2 |
| Conference12 Wins: | 1 |
| Conference12 Losses: | 1 |
| Conference12 Ap Poll: | 0 |
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 (20% of all participants) with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games - 13 had a .500 (6-6) season and, for the first time ever, a team with a sub-.500 (6-7) season was invited to a bowl game.
See main article: Bowl eligibility and Automatic bids to college bowl games.
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 (or more) 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 (10–2), 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.[1]
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 (72, with 6–7 UCLA becoming bowl-eligible per NCAA waiver)
Western Kentucky (7–5) and Ball State (6–6) 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.[3] [4] In May 2011, the BCS fined the Fiesta Bowl organization US $1 million without removing their BCS spot.
Meineke has transferred their sponsorship from the game in Charlotte to the Houston-based game previously known as the Texas Bowl, and was renamed the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. Belk Department Stores assumes the title sponsorship for the North Carolina contest, renaming that game the Belk Bowl. The Idaho Potato Commission takes over as the title sponsor for the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho and has been renamed the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, while Montreal-based Gildan, a maker of T-shirts, underwear and socks, will begin sponsorship of the previously unsponsored New Mexico Bowl this season. All of the bowl games will have a presenting or title sponsor.
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 (Pinstripe Bowl, TicketCity Bowl) 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 (7-5 or better) records to fill bowl slots. Teams with non-winning (6-6) and losing (6-7) 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 (5-7) losing records to fill bowl selection slots in 2012-13.
The official schedule was released June 17, 2011.[5] 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.[6]
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.[7]
NOTE: All times are US EST (UTC −5).
| Date | Game | Site | Television | Teams | Affiliations | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 2 | Rose Bowl | Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA 5:00 pm |
| Big Ten Pac-12 | Wisconsin 38 Oregon 45 | |
| Fiesta Bowl | University of Phoenix Stadium Glendale, AZ 8:30 pm |
| Big 12 Pac-12 | Oklahoma State 41 Stanford 38 (OT) | ||
| Jan. 3 | Sugar Bowl | Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans, LA 8:30 pm |
| Big Ten ACC | Michigan 23 Virginia Tech 20 (OT) | |
| Jan. 4 | Orange Bowl | Sun Life Stadium Miami Gardens, FL 8:30 pm | style=white-space:nowrap |
| ACC Big East | Clemson 33 West Virginia 70 |
| Jan. 9 | BCS National Championship Game | Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans, LA 8:30 pm |
| SEC SEC | LSU 0 Alabama 21 |
| Date | Game | Site | Television | Participants | Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 16 | Casino del Sol College All-Star Game | Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium Tucson, AZ 6:00 pm | Fox Sports Arizona and Fox College Sports | Stars vs. Stripes | Stripes 24 Stars 21 | |||
| Jan. 21 | 2012 East–West Shrine Game | Tropicana Field St. Petersburg, FL 4:00 pm | East Team vs. West Team | West 20 East 17 | ||||
| NFLPA Collegiate Bowl | The Home Depot Center Carson, CA 6:00 pm | NBC Sports Network | American vs. National | National 20 American 14 | ||||
| The Battle of Florida | FAU Stadium Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL 8:00 pm | Fox College Sports | North Florida vs. South Florida | North Florida 51 South Florida 3 | ||||
| style=white-space:nowrap | Jan. 28 | 2012 Senior Bowl | Ladd–Peebles Stadium Mobile, AL 4:00 pm | NFL Network | style=white-space:nowrap | North Team vs. South Team | North 23 South 13 |
Note: The NFLPA Texas vs The Nation game was not played in 2012, and the NFLPA instead sponsored the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl.