A riff on the adage, “Nothing succeeds like success” might well be:
“Nothing exceeds like excess.”
We are coming upon a spot in the sports calendar where exceeding and excess are front-and-center so that no one can miss their presence. I refer of course to the season chock full of college football bowl games that have no connection to the College Football Playoff. Seriously, unless you are an alum of one of the participating schools, do you really and truly give a fig who will win the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl Game this year?
There was a time when college bowl games were worthy entertainment events because there were not 41 of them (that is the number for 2025) meaning that only good teams would be on display. This year, just to fill out the sidelines in all those games, the NCAA had to allow teams with a 5-7 regular season record to participate. Think about it; if Whatsamatta U (with a 5-7 record) took on Mediocrity A&M (with a 6-6 record), one outcome could be that both teams might leave the stadium with losing records for 2025. Set an alarm so I don’t miss that game …
Several teams eligible for bowl games have chosen not to participate. Notre Dame has its nose out of joint asserting that it was snubbed by the Selection Committee for the CFP, and it is not worth Notre Dame’s time and energy to go and play a meaningless game somewhere against a meaningless opponent. Call that arrogance if you prefer – – OR – – maybe Notre Dame and those other schools have figured something out:
- Maybe the existence of the CFP will bring on the demise of the weaklings in the minor bowl games universe?
There is historical precedence here. In college basketball, the premier post-season event used to be the NIT; it existed before there was an NCAA College Basketball Tournament; it was more prestigious than the NCAA tournament in the early days of their co-existence. However, as the NCAA Tournament grew in popularity and garnered more attention, the NIT had to take a back seat. That period of co-existence still had the NIT in a position where enough people cared about the outcomes that people paid attention. Now, with a 68-team NCAA Tournament field, the NIT is less than an afterthought. Not to pick on the NIT, how many of you recall that in the Spring of 2025, there was a third postseason college basketball tournament in existence:
- Q: What was the name of the tournament? A: The College Basketball Crown
- Q: How many teams? A: Sixteen
- Q: Who won the Crown? A: Nebraska
- Q: How many teams in the field had double-digit losses? A: All of them
I knew the answers to the first two questions and was pretty sure of the answer to the fourth question above, but I had to go and look up who won the tournament. It is quite possible that the same thing will befall the minor college football bowl games down the line. Here is how it might go:
- Interest is focused on the CFP – – maybe expanded to 16 teams soon?
- Interest in minor games wanes and TV ratings drop
- Sponsors do not pony up big money for naming rights
- Sponsors do not buy ad time for the games except at rock-bottom rates
- The networks – – who own many of the minor bowl games – – look to “consolidate”.
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- Translation: They are trying to cut their losses.
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- More schools choose not to accept invites and games go out of existence.
That scenario is not good news for networks nor for that segment of the TV audience that would choose to watch any football game between any two teams at any level of competence. But it could happen …
And, as usual, I have an off-the-wall idea for the networks and for college football fans to feed their habit:
- In the Spring – – after March Madness concludes – – pick 8 college football teams from around the country. Do it by a lottery if you want to; just be sure that all 8 teams had a winning record the year before.
- Put them in brackets and play it down as a “Spring Football Tournament”
Teams are going to have “Spring Practice” anyway; teams will play an intra-squad game anyway; why not have 8 of them play a Spring Practice Game against another school instead of against itself?
You know who would absolutely HATE that idea? That would be the owners of the UFL because I am confident that given a choice of watching a football game in April between two college teams or a game between two UFL teams, more people would watch the college games.
Finally, I’ll close with these words of wisdom from P.J. O’Rourke:
“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………