Bowl Challenge Cup

The Bowl Challenge Cup was created by ESPN in 2001 as a competition among the conferences in the NCAA's Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) to see which one was the best in the college football bowl games that take place. The eleven conferences are:
*Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)
*Big East Conference (Big East)
*Big Ten Conference (Big Ten)
*Big Twelve Conference (Big 12)
*Conference USA (C-USA)
*Mid-American Conference (MAC)
*Mountain West Conference (MWC)
*Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10)
*Southeastern Conference (SEC)
*Sun Belt Conference
*Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

Originally sponsored by Cooper Tire [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_July_26/ai_n6124980 Cooper Tire press release, 2004] ] , ESPN no longer has a sponsor for the Bowl Challenge Cup. However, the network has continued to post the standings during college bowl games on ESPN and the Cup makes regular appearances during the Bowl Season.

In order to qualify to win the trophy, a conference has to have the highest winning percentage with a minimum of three teams from that conference. As the only bowl tie-in for the Sun Belt champions is the New Orleans Bowl, they have not had enough teams to be participate and are unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future. The MAC has participated on occasion, when major conferences failed to have enough eligible teams to fulfill their required commitments and, as of 2006, the MAC now has the minimum three automatic invitations to regularly participate in the Bowl Challenge Cup.

Bowl Challenge Cup Champions

*2002-03 Big Ten (5-2) .714 [ [http://espn.go.com/ncf/bowls02/s/2002/1231/1485027.html Bowl Challenge Cup 2002-03] ]
*2003-04 ACC (5-1) .833
*2004-05 Mountain West (2-1) .667
*2005-06 "(tie)" Big 12 and ACC (5-3) .625
*2006-07 Big East (5-0) 1.000
*2007-08 Mountain West (4-1) .800 [ [http://themwc.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/011008aab.html Mountain West Posts Top Bowl Win Percentage Among FBS Subdivision Conferences] ]

References

ources

* [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls07/news/story?id=3169117 2007 Bowl Challenge Cup standings]