Representatives from a number of major bowl games and conferences are close to forming an alliance that would almost guarantee an annual college football championship game.

The alliance would not, however, have a detrimental effect upon the ability of Big Ten teams other than the conference champion to secure a spot in a prestigious bowl game, said Big Ten assistant commissioner Mark Rudner.

Rudner said the Big Ten was looking to make a deal independent of the proposed bowl alliance, one that would guarantee automatic bids for the Big Ten second and third-place finishers.

"It's not a secret that we are trying to do something," Rudner said. "The presidents of the (Big Ten) universities have asked that we try to seek additional tie-ins."

The bowl alliance proposal involves the Orange, Sugar and Cotton bowls, the Atlantic Coast and Big East conferences and the University of Notre Dame. The proposal also calls for another bowl --most likely the Fiesta or Citrus -- to be included.

Under the proposed alliance, the Cotton Bowl, for example, would host a national championship game if the Southwest Conference champion, which gets an automatic bid to the Cotton, was ranked No. 1 and the Big East champ, ACC champ or Notre Dame was ranked No. 2.

The plan would work the same way for the Orange Bowl, which gives an automatic bid to the Big Eight champion, and the Sugar Bowl, which gives an automatic bid to the SEC champ.

Mickey Holmes, executive director of the Sugar Bowl, said it is time for a bowl alliance due to public desire for a national collegiate playoff and because the once dominant pool of independents has been reduced.

"This represents an opportunity to involve all the available champions and add to that the two best at-large teams," Holmes added.

The inclusion of a fourth bowl in the alliance -- one without any conference ties -- would give the alliance flexibility when setting up a national championship game. The bowl alliance would be able to, for example, set up a title game between two independents.

If the alliance had been in effect last season, the Orange Bowl would have had a national title game between No. 1 Colorado and No. 2 Georgia Tech. Under the current system, bowl directors have to scramble and sign contracts with teams before the regular season is over, which left the Orange Bowl with a less attractive matchup last year when Notre Dame was upset late in the season by Penn State.

The major stumbling block for the alliance at this point is the identity of the fourth bowl. Before last year, the lucrative Fiesta Bowl would have been a virtual lock to be in any New Year's Day bowl alliance, but the Fiesta is currently without a major sponsor. The Fiesta Bowl is also suffering image problems over the Martin Luther King holiday fiasco in Arizona.

That could open the door for the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. The main advantage of the the Citrus is that it is closer to most of the schools in the proposed alliance.

Once the fourth bowl is decided upon, it may only be a matter of weeks before the alliance becomes official. The alliance would likely begin in the 1992 season.

It has been speculated that if the Fiesta Bowl is not included in the alliance, that game could be a matchup between the Big Ten and Pacific Ten conference runners-up.