College Football and its Bowls of Crap!

There are 35 bowl games in Division 1 NCAA College Football this year. That means that out of 119 Div. 1 teams, 70 teams get to play in a bowl game. It all starts off with the New Mexico bowl on December 19th, ending on January 7th with the BCS National title game.

I love college football as much as the pro version of football, but it’s this time of year that I really get that bad taste in my mouth for it. I guess when it comes down to it, who the hell really cares about bowl games like the Hawaii Bowl (Dec 24th between Nevada and MSN), or the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl (Dec 22nd between Oregon St and BYU)? Is anyone on the edge of their seat to see the outcome of the Holiday Bowl (Dec 30th, Nebraska vs. Arizona) or the Liberty Bowl (Jan 2nd, East Carolina vs. Arkansas)?

There are just too many bowl games to really give a crap about. The only interest in these bowl games are from the fan base of the teams involved and the sponsors (which include Little Caesars, Maaco, Meineke, Gaylord Hotels, Capital One, Papa John's, Beef 'O' Brady's, AdvoCare V100, and my favorite, SD County Credit Union.) When does this stop? When are we actually going to just have 60 bowl games so that all 119 teams can play in a bowl game? I guess the last place team in Div. 1 can play the High School National Champ?

I believe this is the part of the article that I should mention how badly Div. 1 football needs a playoff format. This is a subject that has been written on by writers much better than me, and everyone from Grandma to the Dali Lama has chimed in on. In a recent Sports Illustrated poll, 90% of the fans surveyed did NOT approve of the BCS System and said they would prefer a playoff system in place. Yet the powers that be in the NCAA remain determined to keep the BCS chugging along, due to the old ways of colleges and the money the BCS system makes them. It truly is an archaic system they are holding on to.

My solution for this issue is a simple one. Designate two BCS games as semi finals and have them played at the beginning of Bowl Week (read on). The week would then be capped off with the final, which would be the winners of the two semi final games. For example, this season you would have:

Semi-final #1 (Dec 29th) Sugar Bowl - Alabama vs. TCU

Semi-final #2 (Dec 29th) Fiesta Bowl - Texas vs. Cincinnati

Final (Jan 4th) - BCS Championship Game - TCU vs. Cincinnati (this doesn't necessarily reflect who I THINK would win, but who I would want to see! It also shows why a playoff is needed!)

Also, can you imagine the windfall of cash the NCAA would fall into with a playoff? Insane that this old group of baby boomers won’t even LOOK at such an option!

This madness has got to stop! And I am here to make a drastic suggest on a solution to this ever-growing problem. Are you ready for it? LESS BOWL GAMES! I will also give some rules that I believe should be placed on bowl season. (This is NOT talking about a playoff, even though I wish there was one.)

Bowl Game Rule #1: You must be a ranked team to play in a bowl game. This means we cut the number of bowls down to 13 (and the number of ranked teams up to 26).

Bowl Game Rule #2: After the BCS bowls are chosen, teams are taken in order to play each other. i.e./ #11 Vs. #12, #13 Vs. #14, etc. right down to #25 Vs. #26

Bowl Game Rule #3: Bowl names CANNOT include sponsor names. If you are the Liberty Bowl, you ARE THE LIBERTY BOWL, not the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

Bowl Game Rule #4: Companies can sponsor individual quarters. After all, if we are talking about a game between #17 and #18, it will be given more TV time than the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl, therefore sponsoring 1Q is better for your company.

Bowl Game Rule #5: All bowl games must be played between Dec 29 and Jan 4th. There should be NOTHING before Christmas day and only BCS Bowl games after New Year’s Day. This would now be called 'Bowl Week' and would only take one day off, and that would be the Sunday for NFL Football to be played.

Bowl Game Rule #6: Games will be played according to their level of importance. Dec 28th will be #25 vs. #26. Jan 4th will be #1 vs. #2

With my 6 rules of bowl games, this is how the schedule would look:

Dec 29th Music City Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Houston

Dec 29th Las Vegas Bowl: Utah vs. Southern California

Dec 29th Holiday Bowl: Nebraska vs. Stanford

Dec 30th Sun Bowl: Arizona vs. Oklahoma St.

Dec 31th Outback Bowl: Oregon St vs. Pittsburgh

Jan 1st Gator Bowl: Miami (Fl) vs. West Virginia

Jan 1st Liberty Bowl: Penn St. vs. Brigham Young

Jan 1st Cotton Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Louisiana State

Jan 1st Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Iowa

Jan 1st Rose Bowl: Oregon vs. Ohio St.

Jan 2nd Fiesta Bowl: TCU vs. Boise St.

Jan 3rd Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Florida

Jan 4th BCS Championship: Alabama vs. Texas

Now THAT is a pretty good line-up of Bowl Week! Instead, we are left with five BCS games, and 30 bowls full of steaming dung. Let's all just hope and pray that the NCAA puts me in charge of its post season in the next few years so we can all be saved from this misery.