I was reading the Notre Dame post about Irish players voting on whether or not to accept a bowl bid (Notre Dame's record is 6-6).

When Ohio State finished 6-6 in 1999, why didn't they get a similar shot at a bowl?

For one, there were about ten less bowls back then.

The next part I could be wrong about - I think the wording of bowl eligibility at the time was that a team had to have a winning record. Since there were 11 games at the time, normally six games would do it. But since Ohio State was 6-6 with an extra game, they weren't eligible. I know there were some changes implemented when 12-game seasons became the norm (for example, one win over an FCS school can be counted toward bowl eligibility EVERY year instead of every three or four years) and I think one of those was specifically wording it so that 6 wins is a minimum.

Again, I'm a little foggy on those details. I do know there were 6-5 teams that also did not make bowl games that year.

There were fewer bowl games in 1999 than there are in 2009. There were 21 in 1999 there are 33 this year.