Once upon a time, I was a card carrying member of the “there are never too many bowl games” club. However, with the product on the field this year it might be time to rethink my position.
Look no further than the Capital One Orange Bowl matchup between the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida State Seminoles. The latter has been ravaged by opt-outs after an undefeated ACC champion was left out of the four-team invitational. The Seminoles have a total of 24 opt outs including quarterback Tate Rodemaker, who took over for the injured Jordan Travis.
Dan Wolken of USA TODAY Sports brought up an important question on Wednesday, “are bowl games worth the hassle?”
There are 41 bowl games, not including the national championship, played every year and it is something that I look forward to each and every season. However, as Wolken pointed out the product has been watered down by the transfer portal, opt-outs, the upcoming 12-team playoff, and asking if these games are worth it.
Perhaps there are several changes that need to be made. You can argue that the bowl committees need to make the games worth it for the players who decide to play in the game. You could encourage an NIL-like incentive for players who do participate. That is an argument for another day and one that is worth having.
For me, I look around FBS and think about the watered-down product. Outside of the AFC and NFC South divisions where a team could finish at .500 or worse shouldn’t be rewarded with the postseason. If you look at the NBA playoffs last season only the Atlanta Hawks were a .500 team that made the postseason. Taking a peek at last year’s MLB playoffs, not a single team had a record of .500 or worse while qualifying for the postseason.
So why are we rewarding college football teams in that manner? Below you will find a list of teams that made the bowl season with a record of 6-6.
- AAC (Rice Owls)
- ACC (Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse)
- Big 12 (Texas Tech, UCF)
- Big Ten (Rutgers, Minnesota)
- MAC (Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Eastern Michigan)
- Mountain West (San Jose State, Utah State)
- Pac-12 (California)
- SEC (Auburn)
- Sun Belt (Old Dominion, Georgia State, Marshall, Georgia Southern, Arkansas State, Louisiana, South Alabama)
A total of 23 teams that finished their 12-game schedule with 6-6 records were awarded with trips to the postseason. When your system calls for 82 teams and 28% of the field finished with a .500 record, it might be time to reevaluate the system.
Obviously there are benefits to the bowl games including the revenue generated for each conference and extra practices for teams, I am not sure where the line is for changing a system that has been in place for over 100 years.
But at this point it feels like there should be a change made. Perhaps that is another reason to have a college football commissioner.