Last night, the matchups for this season’s college football bowl games were announced. The schedule includes 35 games, culminating with the national championship game between Auburn and Oregon. Like every other year, much hue and cry has developed over the number of games and the quality of teams playing.
Over at the popular sports blog Deadspin, Barry Pechesky decried the current system in a piece where he pointed out that his alma mater, Temple, finished just out of the bowl picture. He doesn’t rip the way things are too much. He just seems to think it’s overkill.
I vaguely remember a Bowl Game, capital B capital G, meaning something, though it might just be a legend passed down by my grandfather. These days it takes just six wins to become bowl eligible, and only five against FBS schools. There are 35 bowls, with openings for 70 teams — well over half the number of schools playing football at that level. That makes the NBA look stingy in the number of teams it lets make the playoffs.
The last word jumped out at me and made me realize I had to write about this topic. How can he compare the number of teams in the playoffs, a system which determines a champion, with how many teams get the chance to play in a bowl? The whole reason we have so many bowls is because the NCAA has implicitly made them irrelevant by refusing to consider a playoff.
Think about it. If teams had to fight and claw to get into an eight or 16-team tournament bracket, do you think the ones who failed would want to pack up to play in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg Bowl as a consolation? Yep, you read that right. The word bowl is in the title twice. The bowls have no relevance if the NCAA allows a true champion, even though I do think the games could serve as a consolation prize outside of a playoff. I don’t think that will happen if there is a playoff, which isn’t coming anytime soon so, until then, who really cares if 70 teams go to bowls?
The current system doesn’t hurt anyone, outside of the deserving schools kept from getting a primo spot in the BCS because of it unfair rules, but that’s another story. Most of the bowls simply exist for the players, the rabid fans and the egos of the organizations which run them. Why take away that fun just because some guy who writes for a newspaper or blog thinks it’s silly to have 7-5 South Florida play 6-6 Clemson in Charlotte at noon on New Year’s Eve?
In the rush to declare what is right and what must be and how the perfect sports world exist, we often forget that sports are fun. So why take away the opportunity for some college players to travel somewhere nice after exams, get some free stuff and have fun playing one more game? Just because it won’t determine the national champion doesn’t mean people can’t enjoy the game for what it is.
Besides, if you seriously have a beef with anyone because Kentucky and East Carolina and Middle Tennessee and Illinois get to play one more game after going 6-6, you might want to consider stepping back from the TV. It’s just a game.
I’ve been to a few bowl games over the years as Texas alum and lifelong fan. I’ve seen them in the Cotton Bowl a couple times, including Ricky Williams’ last game in burnt orange, where he ran around, over, and through the Mississippi State defense. I’ve seen them play in the Rose Bowl, where Vince Young gave a preview of his last-minute heroics in a comeback victory over Michigan the year before he carried the Horns to a national championship in the same stadium.
I’ve had great fun at the bowl games in person and I love, love, LOVE watching them on TV, even the really crappy ones before Christmas. I really don’t see how people can say that there are too many. Maybe it’s because I’m a football fan, but I’d rather watch a 6-6 team play a 7-5 team in some third-rate bowl game than whatever else ESPN is showing this time of year.
My biggest lament is that since Texas sucked so mightily this year, we won’t be bowling. However, my other alma mater, South Carolina, will be playing in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve. And coincidentally, I’ll be spending the holidays with my lovely wife in Georgia. Hmmmm…
The kids get a free trip, all kinds of special events at the bowl and a goody bag which can range up over a grand. I’m usually one for giving the kids more of the pie, but they’re gonna get a free trip to Florida, a digital camera, a Wii and some clothes.
Now that they have the championship game on the 10th, I don’t care about the New year’s Day thing anymore. I just like more football!
They could have 100 Bowls if they just;
1) gave some of the $$ to the kids, and,
b) FINISHED with them by Jan 1st
Remember when going to a NY or NYE Bowl was an honor? Now the good ones aren’t til the 8th or something. Heck, they’d all be better if they were less than a month from the end of the season. Why do they take December off again?
But then I liked March Madness when it happened in March too, so what do I know when it comes to NCAA 😉