Too many college bowl games
Michigan
Posts: 4,942 ✭
in Sports Talk
An NCAA teleconference on Wednesday to discuss changes in college football this season instead reminded me of the same-old problem:
The bowl system has become a joke.
Like we really needed more bowl games that will generate little interest, played in places that are hard to justify.
I mean, Toronto? In the middle of hockey season?
Will the game be played on a 110-yard field with Doug Flutie handling the coin toss?
Look, I love Albuquerque; just ask anyone whose eyes have glazed over as I’ve regaled them with tales of green chile, desert sunsets and The Pit.
I lived in Abq more than 15 years, so trust me: that is one city that doesn’t deserve and can’t support a bowl game. In the early ’90s, I used to show up to Lobo football games five or 10 minutes into the first quarter and get a seat at the 40-yard line, 15 rows from the field.
Things have gotten better in the past 10 years, but Albuquerque still isn’t a football town - especially during basketball season. It’s in the middle of nowhere in a state some players, coaches and fans will struggle to point out on a map.
I guess the Indian casinos are a selling point, but that’s a stretch think many fans will come 1,500 miles to play Hold ‘Em and watch a poorly attended game in the middle of winter. This isn’t Cancun. Albuquerque is in the mountains and is cold in December.
Birmingham, a football town and home to the SEC, shouldn’t get a bowl for other reasons. For one, the city already had one and lost it - Auburn-Alabama in The Iron Bowl.
I guess the NCAA realizes what a travel destination north Alabama is in December.
All told there are now 32 bowl games, when you include the BCS Championship that will be played in Tempe Jan. 8 - a week after the Fiesta Bowl. That’s five more bowls than last year when people were complaining there were too many bowl games.
This over-saturation of post-season games will one day reach an embarrassing breaking point. With a permanent 12-game schedule in place, the NCAA passed legislation in April to allow 6-6 teams to play in bowl games, if necessary.
But imagine a scenario where there are not 64 teams with six wins available. The SEC’s Mark Womack said history doesn’t indicate that will happen.
I’m glad Womack didn’t teach about The Civil War, or I might think the South won.
Wasn’t it only 2004 when only one bowl-eligible team, Akron, didn’t get an invite. That year, there were 28 bowls.
Believe me, a team with a losing record will be invited to a game.
Womack may be right that it won’t occur with 32 bowls. But Atlanta and Denver are hankering for games and surely will have enough money to turn heads at the NCAA.
The day will come when a couple of 5-7 teams are being “rewarded” with a bowl appearance. At that point, even the holdouts - like me - will finally support a playoff.
Nothing against Albuquerque, but if losing teams enter the bowl picture I hope every five-win program out there turns down the invitation and the bowls in questions fold that day.
The bowl system has become a joke.
Like we really needed more bowl games that will generate little interest, played in places that are hard to justify.
I mean, Toronto? In the middle of hockey season?
Will the game be played on a 110-yard field with Doug Flutie handling the coin toss?
Look, I love Albuquerque; just ask anyone whose eyes have glazed over as I’ve regaled them with tales of green chile, desert sunsets and The Pit.
I lived in Abq more than 15 years, so trust me: that is one city that doesn’t deserve and can’t support a bowl game. In the early ’90s, I used to show up to Lobo football games five or 10 minutes into the first quarter and get a seat at the 40-yard line, 15 rows from the field.
Things have gotten better in the past 10 years, but Albuquerque still isn’t a football town - especially during basketball season. It’s in the middle of nowhere in a state some players, coaches and fans will struggle to point out on a map.
I guess the Indian casinos are a selling point, but that’s a stretch think many fans will come 1,500 miles to play Hold ‘Em and watch a poorly attended game in the middle of winter. This isn’t Cancun. Albuquerque is in the mountains and is cold in December.
Birmingham, a football town and home to the SEC, shouldn’t get a bowl for other reasons. For one, the city already had one and lost it - Auburn-Alabama in The Iron Bowl.
I guess the NCAA realizes what a travel destination north Alabama is in December.
All told there are now 32 bowl games, when you include the BCS Championship that will be played in Tempe Jan. 8 - a week after the Fiesta Bowl. That’s five more bowls than last year when people were complaining there were too many bowl games.
This over-saturation of post-season games will one day reach an embarrassing breaking point. With a permanent 12-game schedule in place, the NCAA passed legislation in April to allow 6-6 teams to play in bowl games, if necessary.
But imagine a scenario where there are not 64 teams with six wins available. The SEC’s Mark Womack said history doesn’t indicate that will happen.
I’m glad Womack didn’t teach about The Civil War, or I might think the South won.
Wasn’t it only 2004 when only one bowl-eligible team, Akron, didn’t get an invite. That year, there were 28 bowls.
Believe me, a team with a losing record will be invited to a game.
Womack may be right that it won’t occur with 32 bowls. But Atlanta and Denver are hankering for games and surely will have enough money to turn heads at the NCAA.
The day will come when a couple of 5-7 teams are being “rewarded” with a bowl appearance. At that point, even the holdouts - like me - will finally support a playoff.
Nothing against Albuquerque, but if losing teams enter the bowl picture I hope every five-win program out there turns down the invitation and the bowls in questions fold that day.
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Comments
<< <i>College football needs a playoff. >>
ditto
<< <i>
<< <i>College football needs a playoff. >>
ditto >>
Some kind of system is doable but the powers that be continue to resist the idea.
Look for the Rose Bowl to fight the idea all the way.
<< <i>I don't know. Sure, there are a ton of bowl games, but what harm really comes from them? The guys on the team get to travel, and the fans of the teams playing get one more game to watch. The trick is just not to watch any games you're not interested in. >>
If the point of playing is to determine a true national champion, then the current system is a total wreck.
Even though the Gators are national basketball champions, had they used some dopey computer system and bowls, they never would have been there. Thankfully, they used a real playoff.
<< <i>I don't know. Sure, there are a ton of bowl games, but what harm really comes from them? The guys on the team get to travel, and the fans of the teams playing get one more game to watch. The trick is just not to watch any games you're not interested in. >>
Would anyone admit that they went to the Poulin Weedeater Bowl or whatever it was called?
I used to be a proponent of a playoff system.
But the more I think about it, the more I am in favor of the current bowl system, but with limits on number of bowls.
The bowl system adds charm to the college game. These aren't pro players yet. Let the writers and other pundits "determine" the National Champ.
But yes I do think the number of bowl games needs to be trimmed down, and there should be no bowl game that extends to Jan 8!!!