The Gator Flip

So I’ve pushed this out there for a while when I found out earlier this year that the Gator Bowl and Insight Bowl share the third and fourth pick of the non-BCS Big Ten teams:

The Gator Bowl will share, with the Insight Bowl, the third and fourth pick in the Big Ten Conference after the BCS.

The Gator Bowl and the Insight Bowl will each submit, to the Big Ten Conference, their team selection…Should each Bowl desire the same team, the selection order will be decided by the flip of a coin..

[from the Gator Bowl press release distributed to U-M media]

You know I love to dig into certain things so it’s a thrill when you guys share stuff you’ve found, like this.  Reader Nick found this story by Garry Smits on jacksonville.com with some specifics about a September coin flip with the Gator and Insight that happened in December.  An excerpt:

The other bit of good news is that the Gator Bowl won a coin flip with the Insight Bowl in the Big Ten offices in Chicago (Catlett called heads). Therefore, the Gator Bowl will get the third Big Ten selection after the league champion goes to the Rose Bowl. Picking ahead of the Gator will be the Capital One Bowl in Orlando and the Outback Bowl in Tampa.

"We think we’re going to get a very attractive Big Ten team," Catlett said.

Next year, the Gator will slide behind the Insight Bowl. But next year, Nebraska begins playing in the Big Ten, adding to the possibilities.

Interesting, no?  I tried to contact the Gator to confirm but no one has returned my call.

Get your Gator Bowl Tickets or more likely, your Insight Bowl tickets