There used to be a time when going to and watching a bowl game in college football actually meant something. You actually had to be good to be invited to one. When I was a child and young adult we looked forward to bowl season because the best teams in college football would get a chance to square off against each other.
Don’t get me wrong, the College Football Playoff has been a great addition to the sport. However, it’s made all of the other bowl games absolutely meaningless to the rest of the world and sometimes even the players that are participating in them.
When I was coming up there was the Rose Bowl, the Granddaddy of them all. It featured the Big Ten Champ (Michigan or Ohio State usually) against the Pac 10 Champ (USC or UCLA usually). The Cotton Bowl gave you the Southwestern Conference champ and an invite. The Orange was the Big Eight Champ (OU or Nebraska usually). The Sugar was the Southeastern Conference champ and an invite! Huge games!!! All with national championship implications. Then there were two or three more like the Liberty, Independence and Peach etc.
However, at the end of the bowl season we would all say the same thing. “Man I wish that No.1 could have played No.2.” Why? Because for example No.1 Michigan would be playing in the Rose and No.2 Oklahoma would be playing in the Orange because of contractual obligations. They both would win their bowl games and either the media would vote on who was the champ or split it. That sucked because now we’re spending the next year arguing about who really was the best team.
It sucked but EVERYBODY was interested in the bowls because there was always national championship ramifications. Now that we’re trying to keep EVERYBODY happy by letting everybody with 6 wins come to the party. Now NOBODY cares about the party.
It’s called supply and demand. If everybody can go to a bowl game then nobody cares about the product because you can get it on every corner. Who’s actually going to travel during their holiday season across the country to watch a team play that only has 6 wins? Momma and Daddy and maybe uncle Willie if he can get off.
That’s why you’re turning on games with 7,000 fans in the stands. Most of the kids playing in the stupid games are opting out to “prepare for the NFL draft.” Well…those that are good enough. The others are simply going through the motions because nobody is in the stands to watch them play.
Let’s at least go back to only having bowl games that have good teams in them. Let’s say only the teams with 9 or 10 wins should qualify for a bowl. Having a game with two 6-6 teams or some guys with 7-5 records is not of interest to anyone but those teams, kinda.
Those types of games are only bleeding money and everyone knows it, including the company that put their name on it. Stop wasting time and money by trying to give everyone a participation trophy. When we start having the Jimmy Kimmel Bowl we’ve gone too far. Stop me when I start lyin’!