2006–07 NCAA football bowl games | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bowl sites by state
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Season | 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Regular season | August 31 – December 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of bowls | 32 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All-star games | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowl games | December 19, 2006 – January 8, 2007 |
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National Championship | 2007 BCS Championship Game | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location of Championship |
University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona |
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Champions | Florida Gators | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowl Challenge Cup winner | Big East | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bowl Record by Conference | |||
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Conference | Bowls | Record | Final AP Poll |
SEC | 9 | 6–3 (0.667) | 6 |
ACC | 8 | 4–4 (0.500) | 3 |
Big 12 | 8 | 3–5 (0.375) | 2 |
Big Ten | 7 | 2–5 (0.286) | 4 |
Pac-10 | 6 | 3–3 (0.500) | 3 |
Big East | 5 | 5–0 (1.000) | 3 |
Conference USA | 5 | 1–4 (0.200) | 0 |
Mountain West | 4 | 3–1 (0.750) | 2 |
WAC | 4 | 3–1 (0.750) | 1 |
MAC | 4 | 1–3 (0.250) | 0 |
Sun Belt | 2 | 1–1 (0.500) | 0 |
Independents | 2 | 0–2 (0.000) | 1 |
The 2006–07 NCAA football bowl games concluded the 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season in college football. The NCAA divided Division I into two divisions for football in 1978. The top level, originally known as "Division I-A" and officially changed to the "Football Bowl Subdivision" in 2006, includes teams that play in bowl games. The second level, originally known as "Division I-AA" and renamed the "Football Championship Subdivision" in 2006, consists of smaller schools and conferences, most of which play in a playoff system (although a few conferences, such as the Ivy League, choose not to participate in the playoff). The larger schools, who do not have a playoff system, concludes with a series of bowl games that have developed as a reward for teams that do well in the regular season.
A new record of 32 team-competitive plus five all-star postseason games were played, with the addition of the new stand-alone Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game, the International Bowl in Toronto, Ontario (which is the first postseason game to be played outside the USA since the last Bacardi Bowl was played in Havana, Cuba in 1937), the Papajohns.com Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl, and the post-season-ending all-star Texas vs. The Nation Game. To fill the 64 available bowl slots from the 119 schools in the Bowl Subdivision, a total of seven teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games—all seven had a .500 (6-6) season.
Along with the increase in bowl games, the NCAA ruled that teams could schedule twelve regular-season games (up from eleven) beginning in the 2006 season. NCAA teams in Alaska and Hawaii, and their home opponents, are allowed to schedule an extra game over and above this limit. Two teams in any conferences with a championship final could play a 13th game in that conference championship (the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big 12 Conference, Southeastern Conference (SEC), Mid-American Conference (MAC) and Conference USA). They increase in bowl games and season schedule resulted in the NCAA deciding to allow teams with a 6-6 record to be bowl eligible if either the team or their conference has negotiated a bowl contract.