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RIP non-Playoff Bowl Games

It's pretty clear that, outside of the playoff, players just don't get that excited about their bowl game any longer.

More than ever are skipping them, and the ones that do play, often seem less than motivated to do so (as witnessed by some of the bowl game blowouts we've seen in recent years, when one team obviously "just doesn't want to be there"). I still can't believe all the OSU starters who didn't even want to play in the Rose Bowl last season. THE ROSE BOWL. It just blows my mind

It's just as clear to me that once the 12 team playoff starts, that will signal the end of bowl season as we know it. A few may limp along for the 7-8 teams that couldn't make a playoff. But the days of the 6th B10 team playing the 5th Pac-12 team will be over. By 2030, It'll be the Playoff, and nothing else

Which I find rather sad
These little bowls have been garbage for years. You haven't noticed.
 
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Can't argue that these consolation bowls have gotten pretty lame with all the opt outs but with Gary and Kirk's chicken shit nonconference scheduling philosophy it's one of the only ways to have interesting match ups, even if it doesn't mean much.

Even with the benefit of playing very few good nonconference teams and being in the weaker division and missing out on OSU/Mich a lot the only team that would have qualified for the 12 team playoff these last 12 seasons was 2015. It took the fluke of having the 3 worst East programs on the schedule for that to happen. It's only going to get harder with the west going away and ucla and usc joining. For Iowa fans these non NY6 bowls are about all there is to look forward to so I'll watch. Could be worse
No kidding. At least schedule some big dogs, aside the ones coming in the new conference, which somehow Barta and KF will be allowed to dodge. Hawks will never make the playoffs, so why bother with the automatic wins. Suck it up and play somebody (no chance of that happening with this frauds).
 
NIL contracts may soon include bowl clauses
The schools that don’t put a bunch of strings into nil deal will get the players than.

Besides, if you as an individual are paying a bunch of money to a player that didn’t get you to playoff I doubt you will be heartbroken if he decides to transfer and end your financial contribution.

The ncaa isn’t going to step into this mess any more than they would look into a swimmer at a DIII school working at McDonald’s in the summer. Not their problem.
 
The bowl system will need a major overhaul. Some of these tie ins should be broken away and handed down to G5 conferences, and the minimum requirement for P5 bowl eligibility should be 7 wins. They also need to get back to legitimately assigning placements for these games.

Like the 4th place SEC team vs the 4th place B10 team in the Citrus Bowl or whatever. Get these matchups to mean something again, moreso for the P5 programs, than the G5 teams.

Possible solution.

Expand CFP to 16 teams. First 8 games are hosted by the higher seeded team in their home stadium. You will then have 7 more games (4-2-1). Select 7 bowls to host the first six games. Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, Peach and Gator. Rotate them if so inclined. All games played on Saturday with exception of national championship game. That game remains on a Monday night.

Create a tournament that parallels what the NIT is to college basketball. Take another 16 teams. Same structure. Instead of Saturday, the games are played on Friday night. First 8 games are hosted by higher seeded team. You then need 7 "bowl locations." First four off-site games: Quick Lane (Detroit), Music City (Nashville), Duke's Mayo (Charlotte) and Guaranteed Rate (Phoenix). Second set of off-site games: Citrus (Orlando) and Whatever-the Outback-is-named-now (Tampa), Hold the championship game every year at Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.

College football is wildly popular. I can see TV networks competing for viewerships on Friday nights. TV money shouldn't be any worse than now. I'd think that it would only get better.

Biggest problems that I see:

Do you still see significant attrition among the draft prospects? Probably. For example, Kaevon Merriweather isn't going to keep playing simply for the chance to hoist the championship trophy of the "other" CFP.

Is there a concern about adding 2, 3 or 4 games on top of a 12 game season? Sure, but that concern exists with expanding to 12 teams for CFP.

Will people give a damn? Not sure but I'm having a hard time believing that interest level would be less than current interest in "lower tier" bowls. Would Iowa fans have more interest in watching the Citrus Bowl against Mississippi State if it is "as is" or if there may be the chance to advance to the Alamo Bowl to play Utah for the "other" CFP championship?

Travel to bowls? Friday night games are a problem. Fans would have to give up at least a full Friday to go. Only the true die-hards would be willing to make back-to-back trips. You'd essentially need significant "local" interest to put butts in stand for the first four "off site" games. That's why I picked larger metro areas (Detroit, Charlotte, Phoenix and Nashville) for the first round games. There's a decent chance that you could get corporate sponsorships and OK local attendance in addition to whatever participating school fan interest may exist. All of those cities have major airports and getting in/out is easy as compared to El Paso (Sun) and Memphis (Liberty) and larger population centers.

NFL conflicts? Another problem. Under the proposal, you'd have to coordinate with Lions, Panthers and Titans. Is it feasible for there to be a Friday night game if one of those teams is hosting a game on Sunday? I'd think it would be feasible but definitely creates some scheduling havoc.

Certainly nowhere near a perfect suggestion but something that I've played around with in my head for a bit now.
 
The schools that don’t put a bunch of strings into nil deal will get the players than.

Besides, if you as an individual are paying a bunch of money to a player that didn’t get you to playoff I doubt you will be heartbroken if he decides to transfer and end your financial contribution.

The ncaa isn’t going to step into this mess any more than they would look into a swimmer at a DIII school working at McDonald’s in the summer. Not their problem.
UM just had a kid who was looking at leaving. His “agent” announced he was staying by announcing a deal he signed on sports talk radio. The kids coaches and I both found out he was returning the same way.
 
Most of them are, but there’s a market for them and people will watch them( especially the ones between Christmas and New years)

I'm looking at the ratings from last Friday. Both games were played during the day and both had G5 teams in them. Yet, they were among the top 10 most viewed in all of cable television for the day in the key 18-49 age demo.

In addition, 5 of Saturday's bowl games had at least 250-thousand more viewers than the most-viewed NBA game of the week. The 5th most-viewed bowl game had 1.961 million viewers. The most-viewed NBA game of the week had 1.704 million.
 
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