Clearing up the bowl selection process (Pay close attention to Cotton/Outback)

With several threads about bowl speculation and what bowl we want to go to, this is to clear up confusion on exactly how bowls are selected. This is not to say how much prestige any bowl has or any of that.

All bowls (with the exception of Cap 1) can pick any bowl eligible SEC team regardless of final rank or standings finish.

All of the SEC rankings are based on 1 team getting into the BCS.

1: Sugar bowl (SEC Champion) vs. BCS At-Large
If the SEC champion is selected for the national championship game, the Sugar bowl can pick a replacement team from ANY conference.

No more then 1 SEC team can be selected for a BCS at large bid. (2 total teams with the SEC champion). Not going to go into the whole 3 team scenario because it's not practical to do that right now.

2: Capitol One bowl (SEC#2) vs. B1G #2. The Capitol One bowl is contractually obligated to pick the non-BCS SEC team with the most wins, or a team within 1 win. As far as I know, this is the only bowl with this obligation.

3a: Cotton bowl (SEC #3a) vs. Big 12 #2
3b: Outback (SEC #3b) vs. B1G #3
Cotton Bowl gets first pick of a team from the west while Outback gets first pick of a team from the east. If either of these bowls decide to pick from a cross division, it must wait until the other bowl makes their pick. If both bowls agree (mostly done in years where a team would have a repeat bowl from the prior year), these bowls can swap their east/west ties.

Note for 2013/14: This year the Cotton is obligated to take the SECCG loser if it is not selected by the BCS.

From the article in the post below this one:
"This year, the potential road block is the fact that the Cotton is contractually obligated to take the loser of the SEC Championship Game if it’s passed over as a BCS at-large team or the Capital One. Once every four years, the Cap One, Outback, Chick-fil-A and Cotton have to take turns as the “Safety Net Bowl.” And this year, it’s the Cotton’s turn, according to SEC and former LSU spokesman Herb Vincent."

5: Chick-fil-a bowl (SEC #5) vs ACC #2

6: Gator Bowl (SEC #6) vs B1G #5

7: Music City bowl (SEC #7) vs ACC #6

8: Liberty bowl (SEC #8) vs C-USA #1

9: BBVA Compass bowl (SEC #9) vs ACC #5

10: AdvoCare V100 bowl (SEC #10) vs #7

If the SEC has more then 10 bowl eligible teams, they can play in other bowls where the normal tie in would not have enough eligible teams.