It should be no secret around these parts that I do not like the excessive number of college football bowl games. I really like college football but more is not better in this circumstance. Good college football involves rivalry games and/or games that have meaning with regard to conference standings or poll placement and/or an intersectional game with two good teams. Note the emphasis on the word “good” in that last sentence.
This year, there will be 40 bowl games; 80 teams – from a field of 128 Division 1-A teams – will play in bowl games. Five out of every eight college teams will be in a bowl game. Those numbers do not add up to “interesting” or “important” or “attractive”. Most of the games are meaningless wastes of time and energy. Their role in the grand scheme of things is that they will contribute ever so minutely to the entropy death of the universe.
I have surveyed the field of 40 bowl games. There are about a half-dozen that meet my criterion of “intersectional game with two good teams” and those games may attract my attention even though they really do not mean a blessed thing. Penn State versus USC in the Rose Bowl is an example of such a game. However, there are a bunch of bowl games that just make me shake my head in disbelief such as:
Heart of Dallas Bowl: Army versus North Texas. OK, it is good to see Army in a bowl game again; it has been a while since that happened. However, this game is a repeat; these teams already played once in October. No one – and I mean NO ONE – was clamoring to see an encore when the final whistle blew. Nonetheless …
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Idaho versus Colorado State. Here is the only interesting fact related to this game. Idaho is going to a bowl game for the third time in school history – – and all three of those bowl games have been played in Boise. Lots of teams get invitations to bowl games that are far from campus in places where the weather is balmy in December. Idaho gets invited to take a bus ride about 200 miles north to play in Idaho in the winter…
New Mexico Bowl: New Mexico versus Texas-San Antonio. New Mexico is playing a home game; the bowl game is played on their home field. These guys don’t even get to take a 200-mile bus ride to go to this “special event” … [For the record, this is the third time New Mexico has played a “home game” in the New Mexico Bowl which only came into existence in 2006.]
Quick Lane Bowl: Maryland versus BC. [Aside: I dare you to name the venue for this game without peeking.] Both teams are 6-6; neither team is even marginally interesting to watch. The organizers of this game could not have a full stadium if they gave out free tickets along with a voucher that the fan could turn in for a $100 bill at stadium concession stands after the final whistle…
St. Petersburg Bowl: Miami (OH) versus Mississippi St. Miami is 6-6 and Mississippi St. is 5-7; they needed more teams to fill bowl slots than there were teams with 6 wins this year. The upshot of this is to root for Mississippi St. in this game so that after this bowl game, both teams will end the season with losing records. Such fun …
There are 3 games that might be interesting enough to go and check out the scores and stats because of the teams involved but I doubt that I will watch more than a couple of minutes of any of them:
Military Bowl: Temple versus Wake Forest. Wake Forest does not score a lot; their 6-6 record was built on giving up only about 20 points per game. Temple’s defense has allowed a total of 33 points in its last 5 games and two of those games were shutouts (against UConn and Tulane). Lots of punting here…
Outback Bowl: Florida versus Iowa. If you do not like defense, do not watch this game or pay any attention to it at all. It would not be a shock to see the final score be 10-9 with the TD coming on a fumble recovery in the end zone…
Holiday Bowl: Minnesota versus Washington St. The interest here comes from the diametrically opposite ways these teams approach offensive football. Minnesota throws the ball only under duress; they have only recorded 8 TD passes in the entire season. Washington St. on the other hand threw the ball more than 50 times per game on average this year. It is the “air force” versus the “infantry” here…
I will try to watch the Cotton Bowl to see W. Michigan play Wisconsin. It will be interesting to see how a 13-0 MAC Champion who beat two Big 10 teams this year fares against one of the top teams in the Big 10. I will watch the Orange Bowl to see Michigan and Florida State slug it out with one another; and as I said above, I will watch Penn St. and USC in the Rose Bowl.
Obviously, I look forward to the two CFP semi-final games on Dec 31. However, one or both may need to be seen after-the-fact depending on social arrangements made by my long-suffering wife for New Year’s Eve. That is one of the main reasons that I gave thanks about 2 weeks ago, for the invention of the DVR.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
I love the Rose Bowl. I pick University of Washington over Alabama with unsound belief in the hitting of the PAC-12. The Holiday Bowl is historically a pretty good game to watch.
Tenacious P:
I think Washington has its work cut out for itself against Alabama. I think the Huskies are going to have to create several turnovers to win that game.
If you do not have to win your conference to make the CFP final four, why are the conference championships games important? Oh yeah, it’s the money.
I do not contend that Penn State is a better team than Ohio State, but they beat Ohio State this year. As a result, they earned the right to play for the Big Ten championship. Ohio State lost that game. It ought to matter.
Doug:
Not only did Ohio state lose that game, Ohio St. did not have to play in the Big 10 Championship Game and win that game to maintain their lofty stature…