well, you remember wrong, Alabama was #13 and Texas Tech was #18. alabama was a good choice for them, they traveled extremely well for their first significant bowl in a while
You are right, but 6-8 last cotton bowls had a SEC west team in it. Tennessee is the only East team to play in it since 1999. I don't think there was an SEC contract with the cotton bowl pre 99 though. And technically Alabama and Auburn played in the Outback bowl in 96 and 97, within your 10 year time frame:thumb: .
OUTBACK BOWL HISTORY 2006 Florida 2005 Georgia 2004 Florida 2003 Florida 2002 South Carolina 2001 South Carolina 2000 Georgia 1999 Kentucky 1998 Georgia 1997 Alabama (January 1, 1997...seven weeks away from 10 years) As you can see, the last nine teams were from the East and we're only a few weeks away from the 10-year mark since a team from the West was selected.