2010–11 NCAA football bowl games | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bowl sites by state
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Season | 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Regular season | September 2, 2010 – December 11, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of bowls | 35 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All-star games | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowl games | December 18, 2010 – January 10, 2011 (team-competitive) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National Championship | 2011 BCS National Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location of Championship |
University of Phoenix Stadium Glendale, Arizona |
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Champions | Auburn Tigers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowl Challenge Cup winner | Mountain West Conference | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bowl Record by Conference | |||
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Conference | Bowls | Record | Final AP Poll |
SEC | 10 | 5–5 (0.500) | 6 |
ACC | 9 | 4–5 (0.444) | 4 |
Big 12 | 8 | 3–5 (0.375) | 5 |
Big Ten | 8 | 3–5 (0.375) | 4 |
Big East | 6 | 4–2 (0.667) | 2 |
Conference USA | 6 | 2–4 (0.333) | 0 |
Mountain West | 5 | 4–1 (0.800) | 2 |
Pac-10 | 4 | 2–2 (0.500) | 2 |
MAC | 4 | 2–2 (0.500) | 0 |
WAC | 4 | 2–2 (0.500) | 3 |
Sun Belt | 3 | 2–1 (0.667) | 0 |
Independents | 3 | 2–1 (0.667) | 0 |
The 2010–11 NCAA football bowl games concluded the 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season and included 35 team-competitive bowl games and four all-star games. The games began play with three bowls on December 18, 2010 and included the 2011 BCS National Championship Game in Glendale, Arizona played on January 10 at the University of Phoenix Stadium. The bowl season concluded with the East-West Shrine Game, the Eastham Energy All-Star Game, the Senior Bowl, the Dixie Gridiron Classic, and the NFLPA Game. One bowl, the Toronto-based International Bowl, has ceased operations.
A record 35 postseason games were played. To fill the 70 available bowl slots, a total of 14 teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games—all 14 had a .500 (6-6) season, and no sub-.500 teams were required for the first time in three years.
In a significant change from the 2009–10 bowl cycle, the NCAA scrapped a bylaw which mandated that a school with a record of 6–6 in regular season play was eligible only if conferences could not fill out available positions for bowl games with teams possessing seven (or more) wins (excluding games played in Hawaii and conference championship games in the ACC, Big 12, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference and the SEC). An example was in 2008 when the Big Ten, the Big 12 and SEC each had two teams selected for the Bowl Championship Series games – Ohio State and Penn State from the Big Ten, Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 and Alabama and Florida from the SEC. With each conference sending two teams to the BCS, these three conferences forfeited several bowl game slots due to a lack of teams with a winning record.