Pardon us for our bowl boredom
Had there been a college football playoff system in place this year, television analyst Desmond Howard would have known that Texas A&M — not Texas — is playing California in the Holiday Bowl. Fans across the country would have cared. Fans would have watched every game, because every game would have mattered. Bears vs. Aggies would have been every bit as important as every other bowl. Instead, America is in the midst of another group shrug over bowl season.
Time was when Division I bowl games mattered. There weren’t many of them, so getting into a postseason game was a big thing. Now there are 32 bowl games, and since to qualify a school only has to win 6 games against Division I opposition, there are several 6-6 teams blessed with bowl appearances this season. This includes the (and no, I’m NOT making this up), in which two 6-6 teams (Oklahoma State and Alabama) will square off (In the Sominex Hopeless Mediocrity Bowl). Yes, Virginia, at least one bowl team, and likely more, will be heading back home with a losing record.
Yawn….
I mean, did ANYONE oustide of Oregon and Utah care that BYU plastered Oregon in the Las Vegas Bowl the other night? Or did anyone outside of Houston and Alabama notice that Troy annihilated Rice in the New Orleans Bowl Friday night? Outside of the schools and their alumni, who really cares about any of this? There was a time when I legitimately enjoyed college bowl games. They were exciting, they meant something, and the teams involved were good. Now there are so many bowl games, and so many of them are so completely devoid of meaning, that I no longer find much enjoyment in them. Oh, there’s the national championship game on January 8th between Ohio State and Florida, but the other 31 games have devolved into largely meaningless chases for the Almighty Dollar and self-aggrandizement for alumni of the schools involved.
This, of course, inevitably brings me to the next logical portion of my disillusionment and my argument for why things must change. Every other college football division- I-AA, II, III…even the NAIA- has a playoff system in place to determine a national championship. These division determine champions where they should be determined- ON THE FIELD, not in the minds of faceless voters with separate agendas and computers with no flair for the dramatic. Yet, because of the obscene amounts of money in play, Division I college presidents have determined that the status quo ante is a necessary and sufficient solution. Almost every year, then, we’re left with arguments like this year. Ohio State is arguably the best team in the nation, but the debate over #2 was somewhat more muddied. Florida, with its 11-1 record? Or Michigan, with it’s 11-1 record? Michigan’s only loss was to Ohio State, 42-39 in its last regular season game. Because Florida lost earlier in the season (and no one remembers to whom), and because voters remembered that Michigan’s loss was in it’s last game, Florida got the nod for #2 and a spot opposite Ohio State in the national title game.
How many voters picked Florida because they didn’t want to see another OSU-Michigan game? And what relevance does that attitude have in determine who belongs in a national championship game? Most of all, why are these arguments not settled on the playing field as they are in every other NCAA sport in every other division?
Why (as if you really have to ask)? Why, indeed…it’s all about the Benjamins. With sponsorship and TV contract money having reached truly obscene levels, Division I college presidents don’t want to kill the golden goose. On the one hand, I can’t blame them for chasing the money, but doing so only dilutes and diminishes the product on the field.
Surely, a playoff system could be cobbled together using the current bowl system? Even ESPN has gotten into the act, creating a hypothetical 10-team playoff system for Division I. If you consider the possibilities, I really think that a playoff would be a lot more exciting that a lot of meaningless bowl games (The Preparation H Painful Rectal Itch Bowl??). Sure, those lesser games could continue. After all, they do gives teams with less successful seasons something to look forward to (And who WOULDN’T want to play a football game in Boise…in December??). A playoff system like the one put forward by ESPN would quite likely generate a tremendous amount of excitement. After all, look what “March Madness” has done for Division I basketball. Surely, the NCAA could figure out a way to capture at least a little bit of that magic?
In the meantime, we’re stuck with East Bumfuck State (6-6) playing the University of Southwest North Dakota (6-6) in the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce Corn Liquor Bowl. And I couldn’t care less.
