According to a report from Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, the Alamo Bowl’s attempt to be allowed to choose SEC-bound Texas or Oklahoma for its bowl games in 2024 and 2025 has been denied.
Back in February, Action Network reported that the Pac-12 schools who are set to leave the conference next month—which encapsulates everyone save for Oregon State and Washington State—would still play in bowls with Pac-12 affiliations.
However, the Alamo Bowl desired to have the option of choosing either the Sooners or Longhorns, which would’ve made for some intriguing matchup options against the former Big 12 schools.
According to McMurphy, this was even a tentative plan a few weeks ago, but after pushback from OU and Texas, the current SEC bowl, and the SEC itself, those plans were dropped.
“Allowing the Alamo to take OU or Texas instead of a Pac-12 legacy team would have caused a lot of issues with the SEC bowls,” a source told McMurphy. “And we don’t like issues.”
The omission of either Texas or Oklahoma from the Alamo Bowl will be weird for folks in San Antonio, as either the Sooners or Longhorns have been the Big 12 representative there for each of the past five years.
Now, the Alamo Bowl’s solution will have to remain with the “Pac-12 legacy schools” or the remaining Pac-12 schools. So, after the College Football Playoff decides its 12-team field, the Alamo Bowl will get the top remaining Big 12 team and the first selection from a list of:
Big Ten
- Oregon
- UCLA
- USC
- Washington
Big 12
- Arizona
- Arizona State
- Colorado
- Utah
ACC + Remaining Pac-12
- California
- Stanford
- Oregon State
- Washington State
The Alamo Bowl has pitted a Big 12 school and Pac-12 school against one another in every season dating back to 2010, with the Big 12 owning a 9-5 record in the game over that span.
