2011–12 NCAA football bowl games
| 2011–12 NCAA football bowl games | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Season | 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Regular season | September 1, 2011 – December 10, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of bowls | 35 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All-star games | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowl games | December 17, 2011 – January 9, 2012 (team-competitive) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National Championship | 2012 BCS National Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location of Championship |
Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Champions | Alabama Crimson Tide | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowl Challenge Cup winner | (tie) C-USA and MAC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bowl Record by Conference | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Conference | Bowls | Record | Final AP Poll |
| Big Ten | 10 | 4–6 (0.400) | 4 |
| SEC | 9 | 6–3 (0.667) | 5 |
| ACC | 8 | 2–6 (0.250) | 3 |
| Big 12 | 8 | 6–2 (0.750) | 4 |
| Pac-12 | 7 | 2–5 (0.286) | 3 |
| Big East | 5 | 3–2 (0.600) | 2 |
| Conference USA | 5 | 4–1 (0.800) | 2 |
| MAC | 5 | 4–1 (0.800) | 0 |
| Mountain West | 5 | 2–3 (0.400) | 2 |
| Sun Belt | 3 | 1–2 (0.333) | 0 |
| WAC | 3 | 0–3 (0.000) | 0 |
| Independents | 2 | 1–1 (0.500) | 0 |
The 2011–12 NCAA football bowl games was 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.
A total of 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—13 had a .500 (6-6) season, and one had a sub-.500 (6-7) season.
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.
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.
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