The SEC and the Big 12 are forming an alliance to create a major bowl match up, just in case neither is part of the new 4-team playoff beginning in 2014.

The two leagues have signed a five-year contract for the bowl and announced that the game will be played annually on New Years Day.

Currently the Fiesta Bowl hosts the Big 12 champion and the Sugar Bowl hosts the SEC winner -- if they are not in the BCS Championship game. The idea behind the move is to create a "BCS" style game just in case they are left out of the (assumed) 4-team play off that will be in place by 2014.

Supposedly this concept has been in the talking stages for a couple of years, as BCS conferences tried to work around the Pac12-Big10/Rose Bowl stumbling block to a +1 format.

The permanent hosting site for the proposed bowl will be up for bid, but the Sugar and Cotton Bowls are expected to be most interested in hosting the game. The Sugar Bowl has hosted the SEC champion since 1976 and would be expected to stay in the No. 1 slot when the conference signs its new bowl contracts, which begin after the 2014 regular season.

Should one of the two conferences champions make the play off it is expected that this new bowl would then select another team from that conference before any other bowl with conference tie-in.

It appears that the Sugar Bowl is the favorite to capture the new SEC/Big 12 Bowl, but Jerry Jones is certainly ready to throw lots of money at the project.