Those that are talk of the town, raise your profile and put you in the lime light with your top management. Score it and you'll be guaranteed for success with your company. No wonder everyone is fighting to have a slice of the pie.
A supervisor was told by his manager to choose only those projects that will raise the profile of the team in the eyes of management. Small projects, though important as well, do not raise the team's profile. Other department heads are probably thinking about the same thing.
So what happens to the small projects? The losing parties will have to settle for them.
But big projects do not come so often. And big projects depend on all the small projects completed along the way to make it a success.
So instead of fighting for the big projects, go do the small ones well. The big ones will soon come your way.