http://collegefootballnews.com/2016/two-...-cavalcade
Sorry if this column sucks, it’s not my fault …
I’m stealing the unemployed ! from Jeb! and adding it on to my Bowl Games For Everyone!!! war cry. Modeling my plan after the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign – what could possibly go wrong?
YOU get a bowl … and YOU get a bowl … and YOU get a bowl …everybody gets a bowl … EVERYBODY GETS A BOWL!!!
So you want to fix the bowl system? I’ve got your solution, and I’m not joking with my slogan.
Bowl Games For Everyone!!!
Austin, Texas and Charleston, South Carolina are both looking to add on to the already saturated bowl schedule by trying to add two more bowl games to the calendar. And the predictable backlash is coming soon.
The NCAA doesn’t really want more bowl games, considering conference commissioners are complaining as is about the system being a total mess.
The sports media types don’t really want more bowl games, considering its an annual rite of passage early every December to trot out the tired old whine about there being too many. And the bean counters at the schools certainly don’t want any more, because it’s a break-even proposition at absolute best when a team takes the players, coaches, trainers, band, secretaries, and everyone associated with the program along for the ride.
Fans want more bowls in theory, because they watch them just enough to generate lots and lots of revenue. There’s TV money to be made because 1) they’re easy to gamble on, 2) it’s football, and 3) see parts 1 and 2.
But something really does have to change after last year’s complete and utter joke of a process.
All of a sudden, a few 5-7 teams got to go to a bowl – and they all rocked, by the way – because players a few years earlier went to class, while some teams missed out on the free trip and swag because their predecessors couldn’t roll out of bed for whatever Geology 101 Rocks For Jocks class they blew off.
There’s a very, very simple way to make this all better. Again, say it with me …
Bowl Games For Everyone!!!
One of the big problems in the debate is the conflation of the post-seasons of different sports, with many forgetting that non-playoff bowl games are just exhibitions, not playoff games. If you’re arguing about too many teams getting into the NCAA basketball tournament, you have a point. But if some old rich Jim Bobs want to bring a college football game to their town in December, so what?
Here’s how this works.
Step One: The current top-end bowl system doesn’t change.
The College Football Playoff world stays the same with the Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose and Sugar the playoff bowls and with the national championship being played at a Super Bowl-like site. The Bowl Games For Everyone!!! format doesn’t affect what matters in determining a national champion, and it solves the problem of the lack of gravitas for the formerly-known-as-BCS-bowls over the first two years of the CFP system.
Step Two: If you have a bowl, keep it. If you want a bowl, get one.
Most bowls don’t give that big a hoot if the stadiums are full of friends, family, and lots of empty seats. If you have a bowl game, and you like it, fine. Keep on doing what you’re doing. If you want to create a bowl game, fine. Go for it. Whether it’s for community pride, or for possible TV money, or because it might be fun, okay. Knock yourself out. But that means …
Step Three: Records no longer matter to become bowl eligible.
That way, conferences can really and truly know what their tie-ins are in advance. There’s no more guesswork about whether or not a league might be able to fill all its slots. Do this, and the conferences can do the prep work and promotion in advance.
If the Big Ten knows for 100% certain that one of its teams – regardless of record – is going to end up in Detroit for the Quick Lane Bowl, then it can set up the infrastructure to make sure it becomes a bigger thing.
This also means that it’s fine for a 4-8 team to get a 13th game, or an 0-12 team to play more college football, too. And before you scoff, there is one important reason for this – practice time. Stable coaching staffs all say every spring what a huge bonus it is to be able to spend an extra month testing things out and seeing what they have for the following year. The bad teams could use that, too.
Step Four: No, really, Bowl Games For Everyone!!!, even if that means it’s at home on your campus.
There are 128 FCS teams, and let’s say when the fun stops there are 50 bowls. That means 100 teams are taken care of with an extra post-season game. For the other 28, all you need are 14 extra games, and they can be played at the home stadiums of one of the bad teams.
At least this way there’s a chance for some of the fans to show up, and in terms of revenue, it gets split evenly between the two programs. But who’d care about 0-12 UCF facing 0-12 Kansas in Orlando? You help solve this problem by …
Step Five: Spread … out … the … bowls.
This has to be changed no matter what. There’s too much overlap, and there are too many bowls starting too late for half the country to see. The Cactus Bowl between Arizona State and West Virginia, and the Holiday Bowl between USC and Wisconsin were two of the best games of the 2015 college football season, and they each ended around 2 a.m. EST. Worse yet, 1) the playoffs were played at a disastrous time and 2) there were too many games coming too fast in too many homogenous stadiums. Good luck telling the Peach from the Fiesta from the Cotton if you’re not a die-hard sports fan.
Here’s how you solve this.
If there are 64 games in the Bowl Games For Everyone!!! format, it all gets started a week after the conference championships – in this year’s case, on Saturday, December 10th.
The New Year’s Six Bowls are played when everyone – especially ESPN – wants them, with the Orange played on December 31st, the Cotton, Rose and Sugar New Year’s Day, and then come the playoffs in primetime with the Peach on the 2nd, the Fiesta on the 3rd, and the sports world all being about college football for a phenomenal three days. That solves the “people are at work” problem for the playoffs, and you build up momentum to the two big games.
The other 58 Bowl Games For Everyone!!! games get spread out over the 22 days from December 10th to the 31st, but without conflicting with Sundays and the NFL. It’s not that hard – play seven games on the four Saturdays, and then play one or two games each weeknight.
If you don’t want wall-to-wall college football throughout December – taking over like college basketball takes over mid-March to early-April – then I can’t help you
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CFN: How to fix the bowl system? Bowl Games for Everyone!
