There's seemingly huge news afoot that the SEC and Big 12 have joined forces for a New Year's Day game (with no official bowl tie-in named) that will pit the conference's champions against each other, unless either are picked to compete in the very TBD four-team national playoff / plus-one / whatever.
It sounds like a big deal, but it's really just the illegitimate love child of the Cotton and Sugar Bowls, and just as cursory. Take a look at the list below, which applies the rules of the new agreement to the Big 12 (created in '96, so we'll start there) and SEC. Keep in mind that the Big 12 did away with divisions, ostensibly because they didn't have 12 teams, but more likely because Colorado kept winning the North Division, and that's just really embarrassing.
- 1996: Texas (Big 12 Champion) vs. Alabama (runner-up, Florida to national title game)
- 1997: Texas A&M (runner-up, Nebraska to national title game) vs. Tennessee (SEC Champion)
- 1998: Texas A&M (Big 12 Champion) vs. Mississippi State (runner-up, Tennessee to national title game)
- 1999: Nebraska (Big 12 Champion) vs. Alabama (SEC Champion)
- 2000: Kansas State (runner-up, Oklahoma to national title game) vs. Florida (SEC Champion)
- 2001: Colorado (Big 12 Champion) vs. LSU (SEC Champion)
- 2002: Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion) vs. Georgia (SEC Champion)
- 2003: Kansas State* (Big 12 Champion) vs. Georgia (runner-up, LSU to national title game)
- 2004: Colorado (runner-up, Oklahoma to national title game) vs. Auburn (SEC Champion)
- 2005: Colorado (runner-up, Texas to national title game) vs. Georgia (SEC Champion)
- 2006: Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion) vs. Arkansas (runner-up, Florida to national title game)
- 2007: Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion) vs. Tennessee (runner-up, LSU to national title game)
- 2008: Missouri (runner-up, Oklahoma to national title game) vs. Alabama (runner-up, Florida to national title game)
- 2009: Nebraska (runner-up, Texas to national title game) vs. Florida (runner-up, Alabama to national title game)
- 2010: Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion) vs. South Carolina (runner-up, Auburn to national title game)
- 2011: Oklahoma State (Big 12 Champion) vs. Georgia (second runner-up at 7-1, LSU and Alabama to national title game)
Seem less interesting? Considering the two conferences' dominance (and Oklahoma's brutal cuckold fetish every January), the only time the two conference champions would've actually met and played each other was three out of the 16 possible times.
It's the new Cotton Bowl, basically. It's not likely a viable competitor to the Rose Bowl (although what could be, and why bother?) So yeah, whatever. Bowl games.
For more on the never ending spiral of college football's postseason structure, check out SB Nation's college football page.