2013-2014 Bowl Results by Conference
Following Florida State’s dramatic win over Auburn last night in the National Championship game, the 2013-2014 College Bowl Season is officially over. Now we can look back and reflect on which conferences were the most successful, making the most of their bowl games, and which ones did not do as well.
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Biggest Winners:
ACC: The big winner of the Bowl season is the ACC. First-and-foremost, the conference sent a league record 11 teams to postseason play, even picking up bowl slots from other conferences that did not field enough eligible teams (Big XII, American).
Secondly, the ACC went 2-0 in their BCS games including Clemson’s win in the Sugar Orange Bowl and the aforementioned National Championship.
Despite their unblemished BCS record this year (which arguably matters the most), the ACC did not fare as well in the rest of their bowl games, finishing a respectable 4-6. The league had nice wins by newcomers, Syracuse and Pitt, but had a tough loss by outgoing Maryland (in their own backyard for that matter), and a loss by Miami to incoming Louisville.
SEC: The next biggest winner of the Bowl Season is the SEC. Although the conference failed to win a BCS game, they did post a remarkable 7-3 record overall. The SEC may not be the elite conference that they once were, however they clearly are still the most dominant conference.
PAC-12: The Pac-12 could be considered a winner or loser, depending on your point of view. They did post a very impressive 6-3 bowl game record, however like the SEC, they failed to win in a BCS game.
Sun Belt Conference: The final Big Winner of the Bowl Season goes to the Sun Belt Conference. That’s right, the Sun Belt Conference. They only had 2 bowl games, but they made the most out of their opportunities and they won them both.
Biggest Losers:
B1G – The saving grace to the B1G’s Bowl season was Michigan State’s win over Stanford in the Rose Bowl; otherwise there wasn’t much to get excited about. Ohio State lost to a very good Clemson team, en route to the B1G posting a 2-5 record overall. To top it all off, their two additions (Maryland and Rutgers) will both be heading into their new conference following bowl games losses to Marshall and Notre Dame, respectively. So, good luck with all of that, B1G…
MAC – Poor Little MAC. A loss by Northern Illinois in the Conference Championship Game cost them a shot at a 2nd consecutive BCS berth. On top of that, the conference failed to win a single game in the postseason, going 0-5.
Honorable Mention:
MWC – The post season for the Mountain West Conference was like the MTV generation, feeling neither highs-nor-lows, posting a .500 record (3-3). The Conference failed to get a team in the BCS, but had more bowl eligible teams than slots to place them.
American – In their inaugural season, the American Athletic Conference nabbed an impressive BCS win, but posted a 2-3 overall record. The only other win was from ACC-bound Louisville. The conference failed to have enough bowl eligible teams to meet their bowl slots.
Big XII – The Big XII went 1-1 in BCS games, including a signature win for Bob Stoops’ Oklahoma Sooners, and was even-steven in their bowl games posting a 3-3 overall record. The Conference was thisclose to being listed as a Big Loser for their inability to meet their conference
C-USA: The ever-changing Conference USA won as many bowl games as they lost (3-3). For a league that seems to be in a perpetual state of flux replacing teams that have left for the Big East American Athletic Conference, it’s not a bad postseason.
| Conference | Wins | Losses | Winning % |
| ACC | 5 | 6 | 45% |
| SEC | 7 | 3 | 70% |
| B1G | 2 | 5 | 29% |
| BigXII | 3 | 3 | 50% |
| Pac12 | 6 | 3 | 67% |
| MWC | 3 | 3 | 50% |
| MAC | 0 | 5 | 0% |
| American | 2 | 3 | 40% |
| C-USA | 3 | 3 | 50% |
| Sunbelt | 2 | 0 | 100% |
| Independent | 2 | 1 | 67% |
The Confidential 
Clemson played in the Orange Bowl, not Sugar.
thanks. Silly details…
If you count ND the ACC went .500 and L’ville will be ACC next year so you could say that they went 6-5 with ‘ville – Miami not counted at all.
Based on next year’s alignment (ACC + L’Ville + ND – Maryland) then the ACC went 7-5. The B1G went 2-7…Womp womp.
Dumb Big 12 went 3-3 with the biggest upset of the year 1-1 BCS and that’s 50% wins and beat the B1G in a bowl game. yet somehow the B1G is rank higher with a 2-5 bowl record less then 30 win ratio. this website is a joke to sports lol. B1G should be just below MWC because they suck that bad.
the table is in no particular order; ACC is listed first (since this is an ACC-centric blog).
The key for the ACC was to win the two BCS bowls… which of course it did! Too bad Duke and at least one other ACC team did win its bowl.
I disagree. The key for the ACC this year was to win the National Championship game. Getting a team in a 2nd BCS bowl game, let alone winning it, was pure frosting.
I agree with Bostonway. A 2nd BCS win is huge. All those losses over the years hurt the prestige of the conference. Beating a Big 10 team helps too. Not just beating Northern Illinois or Cincinnati. Wins over SEC/Big 10 teams are the important thing in bowl season. Those two were big.
Any conference can have one good team (Miami in the Big East, Boise State in the MWC), having a second team is important. Next up is getting 3 or 4 MORE teams to be consistently ranked. Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Va Tech. Syracuse????
Getting a 2nd BCS win was huge, but it wasn’t “key”. The Big XII needed to win both of its BCS games, and it didn’t. The SEC needed to win at least one of their BCS games, and they didn’t. The ACC needed to win the National Championship, first and foremost, and they did. The fact that Clemson was in the Orange Bowl (as a 2nd team from the ACC) was enough to convincingly place the ACC in the “Power 5” (its something that the Pac12 couldn’t do).
A Clemson win and a Florida State loss would not have helped elevate the conference’s prestige, whereas a FSU win and a Clemson loss would have.
Agreed that the ACC cannot be a one-trick pony; moving forward they need to have more football kings (FSU, Clemson, Miami) and more princes that can step-up regularly (VaTech, UNC, GaTech, L’Ville, “ND”).
An FSU win and Clemson loss would have been an anomaly. You underestimate the impact of the ACC’s terrible record in BCS games. Every win is important.
I’d rather the ACC have two BCS wins (and no Champ), then win the Nat’l Champ (and have no other BCS win). As we can infer from acaffrey’s point, the ACC bashers just love to say… ‘FSU is the ONLY strong ACC FB team, the rest of the conference sucks.’ Fortunately, the ACC got both this year!
“An FSU win and Clemson loss would have been an anomaly. You underestimate the impact of the ACC’s terrible record in BCS games. Every win is important.”
Why would it have been an anomaly? I think you underestimate the impact of winning a National Championship. Every win is important, but some wins are more important than others.
“I’d rather the ACC have two BCS wins (and no Champ), then win the Nat’l Champ (and have no other BCS win).”
That’s just nonsense. A championship is much better than the other BCS bowl games.
If FSU and Clemson won the Sugar and Orange bowls, respectively, while Auburn and Alabama squared-off for the National Championship, it wouldn’t improve the prestige of the conference. The ACC-haters will still be haters.
The ACC was 3-13 going into the 2013-2014 bowl season.
http://mrsec.com/2013/01/conference-bowl-records-this-year-and-last-15-years/
And those three wins were over Virginia Tech (Big East), Cincinnati (Big East), and Northern Illinois (MAC). Think about that, this year was the first year the ACC won BCS games against a team from the SEC or Big 10 (or Pac-12/Big XII for that matter). Year 16.
If Gonzaga wins the hoops national title some year, will that make the whatever conference they are in top notch? No. But if St. Mary’s is in the Final Four that year, now we are talking a surge.
Anyway, next year, if Florida State beats Clemson, there will be the carryover from Clemson not only winning a BCS game, but beating Ohio State. The win will look more legitimate because Clemson is a team that can and did beat Ohio State.
Oh, if Florida State had beaten Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl… that would be a win over a Big XII team. First time for that too.
“The ACC was 3-13 going into the 2013-2014 bowl season.”
Even with wins over Auburn and Ohio State, the ACC is still only 5-13 in BCS bowls. That’s still not anything to brag about.
If FSU wins and Clemson loses, the ACC is 4-14 overall, but they have a National Championship – which goes a hell of a lot further than 5-13.
The Clemson win was important, but the FSU win was essential.
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