NCAA panel changes rule for football bowl game selection process

INDIANAPOLIS, June 29 (UPI) -- A National Collegiate Athletics Association panel voted Wednesday to make a slight change in the procedure used to select and assign college football teams to bowl games.

The body's Division I Council, the panel that oversees all of the NCAA's top-level athletics programs, required that all bowl-eligible teams must be taken off the board and put in a bowl game before any alternates are chosen.

To become bowl-eligible, a team must win a minimum of six games. However, last season three teams with records of 5-7 earned a postseason game because there weren't enough six-win teams that qualified for the heavy bowl slate.

Under the new rule, all teams with six or more wins must be slotted before the sub-six-win teams are. NCAA officials said the move is intended to protect the integrity of the teams that won more games.

"The Division I Football Oversight Committee studied the issue and made the recommendation to the Council," the NCAA said in a news release Wednesday.

Wednesday's rule change makes it impossible for bowl committees to pass up better qualified teams for an alternate based on other reasons -- such as perceived market superiority, name recognition or other non-performance factors.

"It's impossible to project how many eligible bowl teams we will have," Big XII Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. "We think we have a selection process in the postseason that makes sense and is fair to the schools and the bowls."

Bowlsby added that the panel briefly considered upping bowl-eligibility to seven wins but decided that would likely put several bowls out of business -- as there would not be enough teams that qualify for the present postseason structure.

The new rule will be implemented for the upcoming 2016 season.