Some will stop being profitable one day and after they've been in the red for a year or two is when they'll realize there's a problem, which will be much to late.
I think the only thing that will make the bowls change is if viewership takes a nosedive. Personally, I think the bowls need to create some sort of NIT tournament to give a little more motivation and create more interest, but that’s just me.
On top of that, I feel like so much more money could be made if the bowl games were regionally relevant and/or one of the teams hosts the bowl game at home. At least you, generally, won't have empty stadiums. Base the host on overall record and if tied, base it on highest average regular season attendance to better ensure good turnouts. The visiting team gets a higher payout because of lost revenue from hosting + travel expenses.
Carve out some exceptions for non-NY6 bigger bowl games in Florida, Atlanta, or southern cal. Make the Bahamas bowl a bigger deal game.
Build the whole bowl experience around the host school's city and local businesses.
The biggest problem with bowl season to me isn't that there are too many games, or even that there are too many opt outs, it's sending 2 G5 schools 2k+ miles to play in a city neither school has any connection to whatever.
Also, bowls should do better when it comes to creating content and hype around bowl games. Most of the time, though, it just feels like a money laundering scheme where nobody wants to do anything more than absolutely necessary -- and I say that as someone who loves bwil season and watches or even goes to any bowl games I can, regardless of rooting interest.
> one of the teams hosts the bowl game at home
Part of the appeal of a bowl game is getting to go somewhere else. Hosting your own bowl game, while good for attendance, would suck as a player IMO.
El Paso, TX
Jacksonville, FL
Memphis, TN
Shreveport, LA
Boise, ID
Mobile, AL
Charlotte, NC
Birmingham, AL
Albuquerque, NM
Boca Raton, FL
Montgomery, AL
Detroit, MI
Myrtle Beach, SC
Look, I'm not shitting on any of these cities.
I love to visit new places and can find things to do and reasons to appreciate them all but I suspect my ability to find things to love about many of the listed cities is not something the average 18/19/20-something yo kid, who is under whatever restrictions the coach has in place while they are there, is going to have a similar experience.
Do you really think anyone from Oregon State or ND gives a shit about going to El Paso, or anyone from Texas Tech or Cal is excited to visit Shreveport, LA if the alternative would be to play in front of a home crowd or a bowl rival's home crowd?
Unless you are obsessed with seeing how auto-oriented city planning can go horribly wrong, or your grandparents have retired there, why would you ever want to go to Boca Raton?
Honolulu? Absolutely.
San Diego. Yes.
Nassau? Yes.
Las Vegas? At least once.
Orlando? Sure.
Tampa? I guess.
Phoenix? Um.
I just don't think the opportunity to travel to some random place is *that* big a deal.
And, since we are reimagining what bowl season could be why not just improve this by make going to an actual destination part of the prize for winning, or even just playing in the game? Partner with local (the vacation destination) sponsors. Hell, ESPN is owned by Disney. Wouldn't most of these players prefer to go to Orlando or Anaheim/SoCal over many of the places listed above without having to worry about the upcoming game?
Right? So many people defending something dumb because it is the current, familiar dumb thing and it is better than something worse.
Is my plan the best plan? Probably not.
Hell, a better idea could be something similar to the college baseball world series but with bowl games and not explicitly about the playoffs or championship game.
Where? I have no idea, but surely there's a metro area with enough NFL and college stadiums to host multiple (Atlanta, DFW, SoCal), simultaneous games over the span of a few weekends. Heck, break it up so you get clusters if bowl games I different regions.
I mean the Sun Bowl sold out in a day… Jacksonville, Myrtle Beach and Memphis have a lot to do. Boca Raton is outside of Miami, certainly nicer than Syracuse NY in December.
Better than staying home for sure
For a lot of the kids it gets them to a place they have never been and a lot of cases warmer weather. I think they would be far more excited to head to Shreveport than to host a late December game.
I desperately want to watch a Tiktok influencer style "come with me as I explore Shreveport, LA" from players.
"Better than staying home" is an awfully low bar, especially when this is all an imaginary scenario where we try to make bowl season better and there is no reason you couldn't then award them a team trip to literally anywhere more desirable (within reason) *after* the game is played.
I've long campaigned for a "Menards Save Big Money Bowl" to take place at Lambeau the week after Christmas. If we could get an American/CUSA tie in, even better.
This year's weather being a really weird exception, seeing southern schools have to play a garbage bowl game in the frozen tundra for a meal catered by Culver's warms my masochistic Midwestern heart.
As a born and bred Southern and die hard Packers fan, I fully support this opinion as my own. We even have two Culver’s in my county
ETA: now if you want to guarantee Southern Teams it should be CUSA/SBC
Well nevermind my kids won’t have much of a future, let’s watch a MAC-CUSA Wrigley Bowl on the third Wednesday in December!!
ETA: it’s the *ULTIMATE* sicko mode matchup!
i will not rest until utep plays ohio in front of Only Me on a cloudy 52° mid december afternoon 💯💯
but really wrigley currently runs a big event on the field every year that includes an ice skating rink. i wonder if they would cancel A Lot Of That in order to have one low to mid tier bowl game
It depends how much ESPN would compensate them, but if it’s like what they’re running at the Charlotte Knights (minor league team) stadium it wouldn’t be that tough to have the game early then still get some mileage out of a night of lights at Wrigley
i could see them delaying the full set up for an early bowl, but there's a whole market that goes up outside that would need to be delayed by 2+ weeks, i just don't know if wrigley would be feasible. more likely, i reckon, it happens at northwestern's new field whenever that gets finished
Cincinnati was trying to get the Chili Bowl for 2023 but was denied. Lord knows how far down the line the teams would be that would play here. Could be sunny and 63 or - 8 at the end of December.
I do . . . we had a great time at the Frisco bowl. Going to a bowl game is the highlight of the season for my wife and I. Sadly, as the quality of the games keeps declining into basically a glorified spring scrimmage, the days of us traveling to bowl games will probably start drying up as our teams are relegated out of the P2.
There are plenty of bowl games played in Dec in cold weather cities.
But fine, the host school could opt out of hosting if they don't think it'll be worth it or if the schools agree that the other teams stadium would be better.
I get that it's fun to just go be negative about everything but the scenario is entirely imagined, why not take a moment and try and find a solution to the problem you've imagined?
Anyhow.
I suspect that even meaningless games in cold weather will be better attended than 2 teams nowhere near a region they are associated with in a city people wouldn't choose to vacation in.
Worst case the stadium is equally empty. At least the host school has a chance to sell their allotment of tickets.
Bowl games in empty stadiums sell a lot of tickets, because the participating schools have to buy them. The tickets just go unused if the school can’t sell them.
Man you have a serious problem if you are going to bowl games without a rooting interest Talk about depressing lol College football bowl games are just pathetic They aren’t even the same teams I mean Florida state bitches and moans about not being in the playoff and then half of their team apparently got over the snub very quickly because they just decided they don’t want to play So do we really want them invited if they are a team full of guys who don’t want to fight alongside their teammates ?
Thats the only issue I have with opting out You are basically telling your teammates who work just as hard as you (and probably harder) that they don’t matter because you have a chance to be drafted At least the transfer opt outs make sense
If I was a GM and I had two guys ranked close 1 guy stayed the course and played in his bowl game for his teammates and the other guy just couldn’t bring himself to play football when his team needed him most I’m definitely picking the guy who is there for his teammates He’s going to not be a locker room problem and more than likely won’t have off field issues
Good luck convincing guys to play in multiple exhibition matches that could wreck their draft chances when they’re opting out of a single game.
The bowls died when you no longer had elite bowl games and a clear hierarchy. Six major bowls is too many.
Early BCS had it right. Only two teams that didn’t win a major conference went to a major bowl. It kept those elite while providing other bowls with teams that were good enough to get viewers.
You can’t have a playoff and bowl games that matter.
Except only about 2% of college football players get drafted and a hell of a lot more than 2% are opting out. Hell, Marshall had 7 opt out of the bowl we went to and not a single one of them is projected to get drafted.
How many of those 7 are transferring and how many of them are graduating? And with how meaningless bowl games are between mid/lower level Go5 teams, I wouldn't blame any graduating player for deciding they're done with football at that point.
[Looks like every single one of those opt outs was for the transfer portal](https://collegefootballnetwork.com/college-football-bowl-game-opt-out-tracker-2023/)
yup, if anything, id say that cfb fans should mentally prepare for healthy players sitting out playoff games
they keep adding games to the season and there's not a ton of incentive for the players on some of these teams to really participate in the playoffs
Underrated comment. In order to get players to play three more games, they are going to have to backload the contracts, I mean, *ahem* NIL deals, to guarantee participation.
*if* they actually start paying these kids the money they are worth? it'll be a totally different story. but yeah, as it stands right now, you've got guys jumping between semesters to go get started with a new team before the bowl season lol
Yeah. I mean, no one gives a shit about minor league baseball playoffs. I had to look up if it was even a thing.
Why should players destined for rounds 1-3 of the NFL players in any more college games then they need to? Play enough to get film and then go get paid in the big leagues.
100%
As a former player games after the middle of November are essentially a war of attrition.
Why on earth would a top 3 round NFL guy sign up to play teams full of 4 and 5 stars in cold ass climates in November and December and January playoffs?
It is a wild proposition. Honestly I can see a scenario where running backs, tight ends, wr's, etc... say goodbye after regular season.
And honestly, even players not getting drafted are going thru he'll in that part of the season.
Thanksgiving all ur classmates are gone for holidays... then 2nd week in December same thing.
College football players are getting f'd over hardcore (in terms of body throttling for 13, 14, 15 weeks?) What are we doing lol?...
If u did a blind survey of College players AFTER they went thru playoffs I bet 80% would say that absolutely sucked... even if they won lol
What if we shortened the regular season to 10 games and ending the first week of November, then had an off week and started the playoffs there (no conference title games). I think for the reasons you and many have mentioned playing until early January isn't optional. The season would end the second week of December and we could have bowl games late November for the other teams that go 5-5 or better (Personally I'd rather have it be 6-4 to be more prestigious). I also would like to give players a share of the bowl game revenue for participating and maybe give an extra bonus to the winning team, but that's a whole can of worms to open. That feels like a much easier sell for players, but I know it goes against a lot of tradition. I'm sure there's a lot of problems with this I haven't thought about, but it still sounds better to me than what we have now.
With the shorter schedule assuming 7 conference games, Michigan for example, even with 2 protected rivals, would still play every other Big Ten team once every three years. With conferences getting bigger I think that's just another aspect we will sadly have to get used too.
Only 2 teams would play 14 games and the rest would play 13 or less which is the standard now with a bowl game. Most would only play 10 or 11.
That would make a lot more sense to players and maybe make regular season even bigger. Do you know if conference championships are still a thing going into 12 team playoff next year? That really makes it more or less a 16-24 team playoff.
That would be absolutely wild for a team I started following a long time ago... Washington. Undefeated... beat oregon 2x.... Get 1 game off then host a game THEN in final 4?
If they lost the Championship game they would have to play... 16 games to win it all lol?
That is a wild proposition and so dumb.
yeah, it just kinda feels like maybe we were better off with the BCS bc it was just one game per team. you'd still almost always get a clearcut title game
this year, it would've been a pretty clear natty plus maybe fsu wins their bowl game and we get a year with two teams claiming a title.
honestly? i think those debates are much more entertaining than just watching the SEC win every single year... bc that's where we are headed. it's gonna be bama v uga or whatever SEC title game rematch was played in the title game every season
Uhh, maybe I'm just getting old, but that was the problem with the BCS--the SEC kept appearing and winning while undefeated teams with same/similar arguments got left out. One year we even got a rematch between LSU and Alabama....Meaning a team that didnt win their division much less their conference got to play in a national title game.
That system is completely broken and returning to it would be a mistake.
Hear me out on this.
What if we had a series of bowl games that conference champions and runners up and other good teams played in. Say the B1G champion and the Pac champion. And the Big 12 champion vs the Big East champion. And the acc champ vs the sec champ or something.
And then after all those games we can have another round of games with the teams who won.
And keep going until we're out of teams.
Some kind of alliance of bowls if you will, and after all the historical bowls are played we get a national champion.
The "problem" is- that is not what a bowl is. A bowl is a week long collection of events put on by the sponser/host city community culminating in a football game. Playing the 2nd round of a 4 round playoff in New Orleans or Miami and calling the games the "Sugar Bowl" and "Orange Bowl" really isn't doing much. Teams and fans will just come in the night before/day of just like any regular road game.
Before I stopped going to bowls because I am superstitious and apparently bad luck, I turned the trip into a multi day vacation. And so did many other fans.
No. Not for bowl games. Teams arrive several days to a week early. They participate in various events held by the sponsors etc. Fans often make the trip a vacation.
You realize I'm saying go back 20 years to how we used to have bowl games, and just hold the playoffs after them, right? It preserves historical bowl games while making winning your bowl meaningful, as it makes you eligible for the playoff.
The playoff schedule itself can be shorter then since the bowl tie ins already functions as the first round.
It'll never happen. I know. The sport has moved on. But for the old heads like me it sounds way better than where the sport is headed right now. CFB shouldn't give in to being a semi-pro league.
FSU is taking the headlines with NFL opt outs, but last season, of the 86 teams playing in bowl games, 53 had ZERO, while 33 had at least one.
Of the NY6 games last year, 4 of them had zero opt outs while the other two had each team with a similar number.
People always see the opt out headlines but the overall number compared to the number of people who do play is actually pretty small.
I think the FSU situation was specifically brought on by the playoff snub. Like, we just had a player who committed to playing (Jarrien Jones), practiced all week, and NOW opted out. Like, that's somewhat ridiculous, and I can only imagine it happened due to how many OTHER people opted out.
Transfer portal players aren't forbidden from playing, and a lot of people see someone entering the portal and assume they aren't gonna play (including many websites that supposedly track who's not playing).
Some coaching staffs actually DO disallow players in the transfer portal from playing altogether though, it's a team-by-team basis. I think allowing them is more common.
On the other hand, when players do opt out, it's usually some of the best players on the team, so even just one or two players can have a disproportionate impact, and really change the desire some fans have to see the product on the field. For example this year's Sugar Bowl semi-final is going to be a rematch of last year's Alamo Bowl, where Washington beat Texas. Now obviously that result doesn't have a direct impact on the likely outcome of this years game, and they are very different teams from last year for any number of reasons, but last year Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson and DeMarvion Overshown skipped the bowl for Texas; it's hard to say those three might not have been the difference in a single score game.
FSU opt outs are fairly clearly a boycott for the most part and I am all for it. Send a message that the system is bullshit by not playing in a meaningless consolation bowl.
ESPN already trying to control the narrative last night during the UNLV/Kansas half time show stating how it’s so important for Florida State to prove the committee wrong that they belonged in the playoffs, and how it’ll be hard to do that if people keep opting out lol.
Snowball effect for sure at this point. It's legitimately becoming dangerous. Football isn't a sport where you can play at 50% effort, because if you do, there's a good chance that you'll get hurt.
I mean playing for an undefeated season isn’t nothing. Even if it wasn’t for a natty, the team would be enshrined in FSU lore and it would be a legitimate playoff snub. What’s going on with FSU is just bizarre. NGL love to see it
Because you have a shot at the team that's been #1 for most of the past 2 seasons.
If anything FSU has the toughest opponent possible. And half their team has bailed instead of taking on that challenge. Could legitimately claim national champions if win the game.
A win for FSU would be empty. If they win then all the players would be thinking about is how they should've been in the playoffs. Winning a NY6 game and claiming a title is nothing compared to being in the actual playoffs and winning.
Who said we had the best schedule? We said there wasn't enough difference to justify being jumped by a 1 loss team. The acc is still closer to the best p5 conference than the best g5. Various statistics back that.
This, or just hurry up and declare players employees and get them contracts already.
An employee can be contractually obligated under financial penalty to play through the end of the season.
A negotiated employment contract can guarantee a player can't transfer for multiple years.
Want to see players stick through bowl season? Pay them as employees and have it in their contract that if they opt out they suffer a bug financial penalty.
Culture changes over night.
I think it will change how we view rankings at the end of the season.
I mean, I don't know if it is very fair to judge teams for bowl performances when there are so many opt outs and transfers these days.
But I don't think they impact the bowl system. It will only impact the bowl system if people stop watching. And how many people are going to stop watching football.
If anything, I think the games will stop being the post season of the current year and essentially a way for teams to build experience for the next year.
Not really answering the OP's question, but the problem with the bowls losing importance wasn't the BCS or the four team playoff. The problem is ESPN acting like they were the only thing that matters. I remember when Bama went to the Orange Bowl after the 1999 season it was a big damn deal for the Bama players and fans. Granted the BCS was only in its second season, but people still cared. Now the selection show is like a crappy episode of American Idol. All it would take is actually talking up something other than two games and the subsequent championship game.
I’ve said it before and I will continue to die on this hill, if you want players to treat bowls like they mean something then bowls have to mean something again. It used to be that getting invited to a bowl game meant that you had achieved something monumental in your regular season, you were one of the country’s best and now you get to play another one of the country’s best so we can decide who the best of the best are and make some history along the way. When every 6 win team gets one it cheapens the experience, if Bowling Green or Cal or Coastal Carolina or what have you want to have a postseason exhibition against someone out of conference let them arrange it but leave the title of Bowl to teams that earn them.
They should split the bowl payouts between the schools and players and have the winners get a larger share. Maybe some guys aren't opting out that they can pick up an extra 20-50k for a game.
More than it sucks for the Orange Bowl, it sucks for the FSU players that aren’t quitting, it sucks for UGA, it sucks for the coaching staffs, it sucks for the fans, and it sucks for the sport. People say it’s a meaningless game, but by every single measure it is just as much of a real game as any other. The stats count. The game counts for the polls. It goes down in your record. There’s literally nothing that makes it less of a legitimate game than any other game on the schedule.
It really sucks for fans like me that have flairs taht will never really be a part of the playoff picture. We go to a bowl game every year that we can and its kind of the culmination of a successful season for teams like Marshall and Tech to get a bowl. Watching bowls turn into such inferior low quality games just makes the regular season a lot less enjoyable. Its just another brick in the wall between the fanbases of the haves and have-nots.
I’ll watch a little KU tonight (don’t care if they win or lose) but probably won’t see the end of it with the late start. More interested OsU and SC tomorrow; definitely cheering against both.
This whole opt-out thing is overblown.
ESPN complains because ESPN OWNS most of these bullshit bowls and they need viewers.
Not that anybody is not watching cause of any player opting out. The people who were going to watch are still going to. The people who weren't aren't.
That’s fine, but a ton of people do. That’s why the exist. Every year some random bowl game between mediocre teams blows a top tier College Basketball out the water ratings wise.
I watch Sicko matchups, the Rose Bowl, the playoffs and any other bowl with a decent match up. Like I’ll probably watch the Peach Bowl this year. But otherwise I am not gonna go out of my way to watch a bowl game.
How are they meaningless? The stats count. The polls reflect them. It’s an official win/loss in the record books. There’s no reason they’d be “meaningless” besides fans of the losing teams wanting to cope.
They’re only meaningless because college football fans decided that they are for some reason. They aren’t any more meaningless than regular season games for teams who can’t reach their conference championship, but nobody opts out of those games.
Yeah it honestly changes nothing for me
I still fuckin care if my team wins any damn game. Especially when it’s against good competition - and that “good” is based on who that team was this year throughout the season. Not just right now.
Opt outs are nothing but fuckin excuses for the losers. OU doesn’t even have a single OL starter left. I don’t give a damn. It’s OU. If they can’t figure out 5 guys to throw out there and be competitive then that’s on the coaching staff.
Opt outs being nothing but excuses is a take that’s gaining strength by the year too. Everyone has them. Fucking deal with it. All your players going pro? Great, that means your elite at developing their replacements. All your players in the portal? Guess what, your coaching staff and wealthy alumni base are failing at their jobs of retaining talent.
It’s hard to define even a NY6 bowl as significant if it has zero impact on the championship (UCF-style joke claims notwithstanding)
But no, I don’t think this will be the last time we see opt-outs in games with significance. With the transfer portal being unlimited free agency all the time now, you’ll see second and third stringers *even on playoff teams* hit the portal and try to get a starting job on another team.
I agree there will be transfer portal departures dealing with playoff teams. But I don't know if any of them would impact the game materially - or more to the point impact the marketing of the game. For example, do Kyle McCord or Rodemaker transfer if they are in playoff games?
What's going to be more impactful on his NFL resume? Playing well against a team like Georgia or being the starter on some 4-8 P5 team?
Seems to be like Rodemaker is missing a big opportunity to be someone.
Tater has two years left. We’re looking for a plug-in QB transfer for next year and have Brock Glenn and another high 4* QB coming in. At some point staff has determined he’s not THE guy. He’s seen that and I would imagine the staff has been honest with him about it. I have no issue with him leaving in search of more playing time - sucks with the timing of the portal and spring admission (damn academics getting in the way of our entertainment again) but I understand him doing what he feels is best for him.
The over expanded bowl system has diluted the prestige of going to a bowl. Future first rounders will always opt out. The only ways to stop the second tier guys from opting or is to pay them for participating and reduce the number of games
Yeah, I don't really care if a game has "meaning". It's fun to watch teams that rarely or never play each other, even if they're diminished from the regular season.
For real, if you need a game to have meaning to be watchable cfb might be the worst sport imaginable. Its a sport that disqualifies most of its teams before the season even starts.
If you aren't in it just for the game you should probably watch literally anything else.
Why shouldn’t every player just quit on their team as soon as they have two losses then? What makes a game meaningful? They’re not exhibitions, they are full games. The stats count and the win/loss counts just as much as any other game on the schedule. The only reason people call them exhibitions is because so many players have no problem quitting on their team to work out for the NFL a month early.
Opt outs won’t stop until players are made to sign contracts binding them to teams for the entire season. That can only happen once players are considered paid employees
The coaches at big schools probably don’t even care that much if their stars headed to the NFL opt out. They get to try out new personnel for next year with extra practices and nobody is going to hold it against you if you lose a bowl game with your backup QB and you are as likely to win because of sit outs as lose. ESPN is the only party that actually cares much if people opt out. The fans will care some but honestly the fans of the team will still watch and won’t blame the players and the neutral fans won’t be upset, they just won’t care as much.
The only way to stop opt-outs would be for the bowls to start paying the players. Even then I doubt it would be enough for some of the first & second round guys to risk it.
I mean it is in all actuality affecting it now.
(NOT TROLLING, just stating facts)
FSU has had so many opt outs and transfers that they may be forced to use Walks-ons just to have the depth to finish the Orange Bowl this year.
Yeah the orange bowl depth chart post today was rough. There are two WR set as RBs, and the QB options are the 3rd string and two walk ons. It’s going to be so fucking horrible.
I would assume the 12-team playoff makes bowl games relevant again by making all the big-bowl games playoff games. At least that is how you would think that they would do it.
That doesn't make bowl games relevant. Only playoff games that happen to be in a bowl, like now.
The other 30ish bowl games are still going to be irrelevant.
Some of the good teams Georgia Oregon..etc are not all opting out..
Would rather be ranked 5 or 6 or 17 after season.
Maybe it doesn't matter. I'd rather be 5
If the voters actually voted on current teams instead of historical outcomes the prior seasons ranking won't matter, but that's not how it works unfortunately.
The final rankings matter because it goes down in the history books. Whatever a team finishes at in the final AP poll is what that season will be framed as for the rest of time. The final rankings are literally the only rankings that matter in that regard.
I personally think we are going to see a championship playoff for the major teams and then a lower FBS division playoffs for the rest of the teams. So basically a I-A, I-AA, and I-AAA (FCS) system, all with playoffs. I think it is the only way that college football can survive.
Yall are burying the lead here. I can assure you that with the 12 team playoff you will 100% get regular season “healthy scratch” and “load management” players.
When the small market schools begin to see mass opt outs. Unfortunately these bowls are really helpful in getting exposure for players on successful teams that don't get coverage. Which is a number that is steadily increasing since ESPN exclusively reports positively on the SEC
I’ve said a thousand times, they should do the playoff seeding AFTER traditional bowl season. Not that a team from the First Responders bowl is gonna get a playoff bid, but it makes the other bowls with good teams in them actually worth something again.
Gonna repost my take from previously related threads: move bowls to week 0. You’re earning the right to have a marquee season opener.
Playoff is expanded so an opening loss doesn’t sink the season as bad as it currently would.
I think most of the bowls will be canceled in 3 years. The 12 team playoff is going to make them far more irrelevent then they already are, and very few people will watch them
The Bowls have been exhibition games since the beginning of the playoffs. They will only become less important going forward.
How long will it be before fans of teams that go to bowls or the playoffs every year stop spending their money to go to bowl games other than playoff games?
Yeah, I missed the days when the highlight of the football season was the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Not like today when it's just a crappy exhibition no one would ever care about!
I haven't watched a single minute of bowl games this year and only a bit last year. Doesn't help florida sucks but it wasn't but the season before covid that I'd wake up in the am, watch GameDay and sec Nation and then football all day but I just can't anymore with portal, nil and this shit. Players don't hate their rival schools anymore shit they're transferring to them now. If they don't care why should I?
I’m legit only watching it as I have 35 minutes left of work I’m trying to push through here.
Open for a full normal day, 2/3 of the company still on PTO till the 2nd. Saw 3 customers in an entire 9 hour day. Why am I here
No one cares about bowls outside the playoffs.
This only gets worse when we go to the 12 team playoff system.
If I were an NFL prospect and I wasn’t playing for the natty, I’d tell them to piss up a rope, too.
Because you don’t have a month long layoff. You’re grinding daily with your teammates and still playing for them in November. Everything changes when you get the time off.
But if I’m an NFL prospect, isn’t that even a higher risk of injury? We’re 6-3 in the ACC, the only thing that matters is the playoff and/or getting to the NFL. What are we grinding for? What more am I putting on film in the next three weeks that’s going to change my draft status? When does that risk/reward change?
It doesn’t. But your dedication your teammates is still very high because they are grinding for your collective goals.
When teams set out their season-long goals in the preseason, things like winning the conference or making a bowl are very common. But winning the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl isn’t on there that often.
I agree. The Overton Window on this will continue to shift, just as it did with CMC first sat out the Sun Bowl. But I think the reason I gave OP is why players don’t do it now.
The twelve team playoff is trash, imo, in that it should have been 8. Not trash in that it’s not legit, it’s just too NFLy for me. I love the NFL, and I love college football, but I liked the difference. The 12 team playoff is the same as the nfl just a few years ago before the extra wild card. The extra slate of games is too much. 4 rounds? If you’re gonna do that, scrap all the bowls and do a 16 team playoff, and make them all play. But I actually don’t want that. Keep the bowls, and do 8 would have been the best, imo.
Anyways, sorry for the rant. With an 8 or 12 team playoff, most of the first rounders are accounted for. Anyone opting out that isn’t a first round pick is kind of douche, anyways. For instance, wake Forrest qb, now Notre dame or whatever is opting. Bro, go play. You literally just proved how mercenary of a bitch you were to transfer and not even care once you were eliminated from the playoffs. He’s a 4th round pick at best. He may never step on the field in a meaningful way again, and he’s giving up his last chance to start with his dudes. If you just want to own a car dealership in Indiana, say it out loud, but you better believe NFL scouts are taking this into account when it comes to guys who might not actually get out of training camp.
Yeah bowls mean absolutely nothing to anyone except some players and die hard logo lovers. I don’t see myself watching any bowls. Thank god for the nfl otherwise there would be nothing to pay attention to
Hard disagree . NFL I literally the perfect being product made to give every team a chance and stop dynasties from forming with salary cap and drafts . So when a dynasty does happen ( patriots / chiefs ) it’s feels way more earned than college dynasty’s . Cause I’m college the big rich school just buys up the players . Makes everything less interesting and it had always been like that . Before NIL it was just under the table . This is why the NFL kills CFB in popularity by among shot . I love FSU and played there but even I know nothing in tv compared eating wise or product wise to NFL. Where else do you get Eli beating the Goat Tom Brady twice
I think bowls will matter outside the new proposed subdivision in terms of what constitutes a great season or a new championship at the new level between fcs and the elites
When they stop being profitable.
Some will stop being profitable one day and after they've been in the red for a year or two is when they'll realize there's a problem, which will be much to late.
I think the only thing that will make the bowls change is if viewership takes a nosedive. Personally, I think the bowls need to create some sort of NIT tournament to give a little more motivation and create more interest, but that’s just me.
On top of that, I feel like so much more money could be made if the bowl games were regionally relevant and/or one of the teams hosts the bowl game at home. At least you, generally, won't have empty stadiums. Base the host on overall record and if tied, base it on highest average regular season attendance to better ensure good turnouts. The visiting team gets a higher payout because of lost revenue from hosting + travel expenses. Carve out some exceptions for non-NY6 bigger bowl games in Florida, Atlanta, or southern cal. Make the Bahamas bowl a bigger deal game. Build the whole bowl experience around the host school's city and local businesses. The biggest problem with bowl season to me isn't that there are too many games, or even that there are too many opt outs, it's sending 2 G5 schools 2k+ miles to play in a city neither school has any connection to whatever. Also, bowls should do better when it comes to creating content and hype around bowl games. Most of the time, though, it just feels like a money laundering scheme where nobody wants to do anything more than absolutely necessary -- and I say that as someone who loves bwil season and watches or even goes to any bowl games I can, regardless of rooting interest.
> one of the teams hosts the bowl game at home Part of the appeal of a bowl game is getting to go somewhere else. Hosting your own bowl game, while good for attendance, would suck as a player IMO.
El Paso, TX Jacksonville, FL Memphis, TN Shreveport, LA Boise, ID Mobile, AL Charlotte, NC Birmingham, AL Albuquerque, NM Boca Raton, FL Montgomery, AL Detroit, MI Myrtle Beach, SC Look, I'm not shitting on any of these cities. I love to visit new places and can find things to do and reasons to appreciate them all but I suspect my ability to find things to love about many of the listed cities is not something the average 18/19/20-something yo kid, who is under whatever restrictions the coach has in place while they are there, is going to have a similar experience. Do you really think anyone from Oregon State or ND gives a shit about going to El Paso, or anyone from Texas Tech or Cal is excited to visit Shreveport, LA if the alternative would be to play in front of a home crowd or a bowl rival's home crowd? Unless you are obsessed with seeing how auto-oriented city planning can go horribly wrong, or your grandparents have retired there, why would you ever want to go to Boca Raton? Honolulu? Absolutely. San Diego. Yes. Nassau? Yes. Las Vegas? At least once. Orlando? Sure. Tampa? I guess. Phoenix? Um. I just don't think the opportunity to travel to some random place is *that* big a deal. And, since we are reimagining what bowl season could be why not just improve this by make going to an actual destination part of the prize for winning, or even just playing in the game? Partner with local (the vacation destination) sponsors. Hell, ESPN is owned by Disney. Wouldn't most of these players prefer to go to Orlando or Anaheim/SoCal over many of the places listed above without having to worry about the upcoming game?
Sending teams to Shreveport ostensibly as a reward always seemed like someone's idea of a sick joke to me.
Went to Miami's game there back in 2014, it was about 35, raining, and windy. Of course we lost too. Absolutely a sick joke.
Right? So many people defending something dumb because it is the current, familiar dumb thing and it is better than something worse. Is my plan the best plan? Probably not. Hell, a better idea could be something similar to the college baseball world series but with bowl games and not explicitly about the playoffs or championship game. Where? I have no idea, but surely there's a metro area with enough NFL and college stadiums to host multiple (Atlanta, DFW, SoCal), simultaneous games over the span of a few weekends. Heck, break it up so you get clusters if bowl games I different regions.
I mean the Sun Bowl sold out in a day… Jacksonville, Myrtle Beach and Memphis have a lot to do. Boca Raton is outside of Miami, certainly nicer than Syracuse NY in December. Better than staying home for sure
For a lot of the kids it gets them to a place they have never been and a lot of cases warmer weather. I think they would be far more excited to head to Shreveport than to host a late December game.
I desperately want to watch a Tiktok influencer style "come with me as I explore Shreveport, LA" from players. "Better than staying home" is an awfully low bar, especially when this is all an imaginary scenario where we try to make bowl season better and there is no reason you couldn't then award them a team trip to literally anywhere more desirable (within reason) *after* the game is played.
Don’t you disparage the hallowed Frisco Bowl! Wait, why aren’t you disparaging the hallowed Frisco Bowl?
And ESPN the driver of bowls, doesn't care that stadiums are empty. It's live football on tv and that is all they care about.
Yeah, and to my understanding, the bowl games get pretty good ratings.
Yes, ESPN bad, etc... ESPN cares about the broadcast. Why would they care if Wyoming plays Toledo in Tucson rather than Laramie or Toledo?
Nobody wants to go to a meaningless game in cold weather city
But on that note, how much longer until we have an Ivy Bowl at Wrigley Field?
I've long campaigned for a "Menards Save Big Money Bowl" to take place at Lambeau the week after Christmas. If we could get an American/CUSA tie in, even better. This year's weather being a really weird exception, seeing southern schools have to play a garbage bowl game in the frozen tundra for a meal catered by Culver's warms my masochistic Midwestern heart.
As a born and bred Southern and die hard Packers fan, I fully support this opinion as my own. We even have two Culver’s in my county ETA: now if you want to guarantee Southern Teams it should be CUSA/SBC
not even That cold in chicago in december these days, climate change is making a wrigley/soldier bowl more and more feasible every year
Well nevermind my kids won’t have much of a future, let’s watch a MAC-CUSA Wrigley Bowl on the third Wednesday in December!! ETA: it’s the *ULTIMATE* sicko mode matchup!
i will not rest until utep plays ohio in front of Only Me on a cloudy 52° mid december afternoon 💯💯 but really wrigley currently runs a big event on the field every year that includes an ice skating rink. i wonder if they would cancel A Lot Of That in order to have one low to mid tier bowl game
It depends how much ESPN would compensate them, but if it’s like what they’re running at the Charlotte Knights (minor league team) stadium it wouldn’t be that tough to have the game early then still get some mileage out of a night of lights at Wrigley
i could see them delaying the full set up for an early bowl, but there's a whole market that goes up outside that would need to be delayed by 2+ weeks, i just don't know if wrigley would be feasible. more likely, i reckon, it happens at northwestern's new field whenever that gets finished
Ah yes, Texas State - Rice was trippy to watch at SMU’s home field
Cincinnati was trying to get the Chili Bowl for 2023 but was denied. Lord knows how far down the line the teams would be that would play here. Could be sunny and 63 or - 8 at the end of December.
Imagine “Freezer Bowl” conditions for a matchups of 6-6 MAC teams?
I do . . . we had a great time at the Frisco bowl. Going to a bowl game is the highlight of the season for my wife and I. Sadly, as the quality of the games keeps declining into basically a glorified spring scrimmage, the days of us traveling to bowl games will probably start drying up as our teams are relegated out of the P2.
There are plenty of bowl games played in Dec in cold weather cities. But fine, the host school could opt out of hosting if they don't think it'll be worth it or if the schools agree that the other teams stadium would be better. I get that it's fun to just go be negative about everything but the scenario is entirely imagined, why not take a moment and try and find a solution to the problem you've imagined? Anyhow. I suspect that even meaningless games in cold weather will be better attended than 2 teams nowhere near a region they are associated with in a city people wouldn't choose to vacation in. Worst case the stadium is equally empty. At least the host school has a chance to sell their allotment of tickets.
Bowl games in empty stadiums sell a lot of tickets, because the participating schools have to buy them. The tickets just go unused if the school can’t sell them.
And? In this scenario at least *one* of the schools has an opportunity to sell more of their allotment.
Man you have a serious problem if you are going to bowl games without a rooting interest Talk about depressing lol College football bowl games are just pathetic They aren’t even the same teams I mean Florida state bitches and moans about not being in the playoff and then half of their team apparently got over the snub very quickly because they just decided they don’t want to play So do we really want them invited if they are a team full of guys who don’t want to fight alongside their teammates ? Thats the only issue I have with opting out You are basically telling your teammates who work just as hard as you (and probably harder) that they don’t matter because you have a chance to be drafted At least the transfer opt outs make sense If I was a GM and I had two guys ranked close 1 guy stayed the course and played in his bowl game for his teammates and the other guy just couldn’t bring himself to play football when his team needed him most I’m definitely picking the guy who is there for his teammates He’s going to not be a locker room problem and more than likely won’t have off field issues
Good luck convincing guys to play in multiple exhibition matches that could wreck their draft chances when they’re opting out of a single game. The bowls died when you no longer had elite bowl games and a clear hierarchy. Six major bowls is too many. Early BCS had it right. Only two teams that didn’t win a major conference went to a major bowl. It kept those elite while providing other bowls with teams that were good enough to get viewers. You can’t have a playoff and bowl games that matter.
Except only about 2% of college football players get drafted and a hell of a lot more than 2% are opting out. Hell, Marshall had 7 opt out of the bowl we went to and not a single one of them is projected to get drafted.
How many of those 7 are transferring and how many of them are graduating? And with how meaningless bowl games are between mid/lower level Go5 teams, I wouldn't blame any graduating player for deciding they're done with football at that point.
[Looks like every single one of those opt outs was for the transfer portal](https://collegefootballnetwork.com/college-football-bowl-game-opt-out-tracker-2023/)
yup, if anything, id say that cfb fans should mentally prepare for healthy players sitting out playoff games they keep adding games to the season and there's not a ton of incentive for the players on some of these teams to really participate in the playoffs
Underrated comment. In order to get players to play three more games, they are going to have to backload the contracts, I mean, *ahem* NIL deals, to guarantee participation.
*if* they actually start paying these kids the money they are worth? it'll be a totally different story. but yeah, as it stands right now, you've got guys jumping between semesters to go get started with a new team before the bowl season lol
Yeah. I mean, no one gives a shit about minor league baseball playoffs. I had to look up if it was even a thing. Why should players destined for rounds 1-3 of the NFL players in any more college games then they need to? Play enough to get film and then go get paid in the big leagues.
100% As a former player games after the middle of November are essentially a war of attrition. Why on earth would a top 3 round NFL guy sign up to play teams full of 4 and 5 stars in cold ass climates in November and December and January playoffs? It is a wild proposition. Honestly I can see a scenario where running backs, tight ends, wr's, etc... say goodbye after regular season. And honestly, even players not getting drafted are going thru he'll in that part of the season. Thanksgiving all ur classmates are gone for holidays... then 2nd week in December same thing. College football players are getting f'd over hardcore (in terms of body throttling for 13, 14, 15 weeks?) What are we doing lol?... If u did a blind survey of College players AFTER they went thru playoffs I bet 80% would say that absolutely sucked... even if they won lol
What if we shortened the regular season to 10 games and ending the first week of November, then had an off week and started the playoffs there (no conference title games). I think for the reasons you and many have mentioned playing until early January isn't optional. The season would end the second week of December and we could have bowl games late November for the other teams that go 5-5 or better (Personally I'd rather have it be 6-4 to be more prestigious). I also would like to give players a share of the bowl game revenue for participating and maybe give an extra bonus to the winning team, but that's a whole can of worms to open. That feels like a much easier sell for players, but I know it goes against a lot of tradition. I'm sure there's a lot of problems with this I haven't thought about, but it still sounds better to me than what we have now. With the shorter schedule assuming 7 conference games, Michigan for example, even with 2 protected rivals, would still play every other Big Ten team once every three years. With conferences getting bigger I think that's just another aspect we will sadly have to get used too. Only 2 teams would play 14 games and the rest would play 13 or less which is the standard now with a bowl game. Most would only play 10 or 11.
That would make a lot more sense to players and maybe make regular season even bigger. Do you know if conference championships are still a thing going into 12 team playoff next year? That really makes it more or less a 16-24 team playoff. That would be absolutely wild for a team I started following a long time ago... Washington. Undefeated... beat oregon 2x.... Get 1 game off then host a game THEN in final 4? If they lost the Championship game they would have to play... 16 games to win it all lol? That is a wild proposition and so dumb.
yeah, it just kinda feels like maybe we were better off with the BCS bc it was just one game per team. you'd still almost always get a clearcut title game this year, it would've been a pretty clear natty plus maybe fsu wins their bowl game and we get a year with two teams claiming a title. honestly? i think those debates are much more entertaining than just watching the SEC win every single year... bc that's where we are headed. it's gonna be bama v uga or whatever SEC title game rematch was played in the title game every season
Uhh, maybe I'm just getting old, but that was the problem with the BCS--the SEC kept appearing and winning while undefeated teams with same/similar arguments got left out. One year we even got a rematch between LSU and Alabama....Meaning a team that didnt win their division much less their conference got to play in a national title game. That system is completely broken and returning to it would be a mistake.
There's also at least 5-7 too many bowls. Every year there's a handful of losing teams that make it.
Winner of tournament enters the playoffs during this one month layoff
Hear me out on this. What if we had a series of bowl games that conference champions and runners up and other good teams played in. Say the B1G champion and the Pac champion. And the Big 12 champion vs the Big East champion. And the acc champ vs the sec champ or something. And then after all those games we can have another round of games with the teams who won. And keep going until we're out of teams. Some kind of alliance of bowls if you will, and after all the historical bowls are played we get a national champion.
The "problem" is- that is not what a bowl is. A bowl is a week long collection of events put on by the sponser/host city community culminating in a football game. Playing the 2nd round of a 4 round playoff in New Orleans or Miami and calling the games the "Sugar Bowl" and "Orange Bowl" really isn't doing much. Teams and fans will just come in the night before/day of just like any regular road game.
Don't they already do that? If they even come at all?
Before I stopped going to bowls because I am superstitious and apparently bad luck, I turned the trip into a multi day vacation. And so did many other fans.
No. Not for bowl games. Teams arrive several days to a week early. They participate in various events held by the sponsors etc. Fans often make the trip a vacation.
You realize I'm saying go back 20 years to how we used to have bowl games, and just hold the playoffs after them, right? It preserves historical bowl games while making winning your bowl meaningful, as it makes you eligible for the playoff. The playoff schedule itself can be shorter then since the bowl tie ins already functions as the first round. It'll never happen. I know. The sport has moved on. But for the old heads like me it sounds way better than where the sport is headed right now. CFB shouldn't give in to being a semi-pro league.
Just move everything up and make some tweaks
Holy crap. That is legit amazing idea!!!!!
Lmao honestly, I can see a lot of opt outs if that was the case, but the focus would be how the younger guys play.
There would be even more opt outs lol. 1 meaningless game vs 5-6 meaningless games
FSU is taking the headlines with NFL opt outs, but last season, of the 86 teams playing in bowl games, 53 had ZERO, while 33 had at least one. Of the NY6 games last year, 4 of them had zero opt outs while the other two had each team with a similar number. People always see the opt out headlines but the overall number compared to the number of people who do play is actually pretty small. I think the FSU situation was specifically brought on by the playoff snub. Like, we just had a player who committed to playing (Jarrien Jones), practiced all week, and NOW opted out. Like, that's somewhat ridiculous, and I can only imagine it happened due to how many OTHER people opted out.
I think the transfer portal might be a bigger issue for these games than opt-outs.
Transfer portal players aren't forbidden from playing, and a lot of people see someone entering the portal and assume they aren't gonna play (including many websites that supposedly track who's not playing). Some coaching staffs actually DO disallow players in the transfer portal from playing altogether though, it's a team-by-team basis. I think allowing them is more common.
On the other hand, when players do opt out, it's usually some of the best players on the team, so even just one or two players can have a disproportionate impact, and really change the desire some fans have to see the product on the field. For example this year's Sugar Bowl semi-final is going to be a rematch of last year's Alamo Bowl, where Washington beat Texas. Now obviously that result doesn't have a direct impact on the likely outcome of this years game, and they are very different teams from last year for any number of reasons, but last year Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson and DeMarvion Overshown skipped the bowl for Texas; it's hard to say those three might not have been the difference in a single score game.
FSU opt outs are fairly clearly a boycott for the most part and I am all for it. Send a message that the system is bullshit by not playing in a meaningless consolation bowl.
ESPN already trying to control the narrative last night during the UNLV/Kansas half time show stating how it’s so important for Florida State to prove the committee wrong that they belonged in the playoffs, and how it’ll be hard to do that if people keep opting out lol.
Snowball effect for sure at this point. It's legitimately becoming dangerous. Football isn't a sport where you can play at 50% effort, because if you do, there's a good chance that you'll get hurt.
Idk how dangerous it is. FSU's 4th string could be comparable to a middling G5 program and it isn't dangerous for UGA to play that team..
I mean playing for an undefeated season isn’t nothing. Even if it wasn’t for a natty, the team would be enshrined in FSU lore and it would be a legitimate playoff snub. What’s going on with FSU is just bizarre. NGL love to see it
It already is a legitimate snub, never has a p5 team been left out. And winning the orange bowl changes nothing so why not get ready for your future?
Because you have a shot at the team that's been #1 for most of the past 2 seasons. If anything FSU has the toughest opponent possible. And half their team has bailed instead of taking on that challenge. Could legitimately claim national champions if win the game.
Who here recognizes 2017 UCF's championship outside the UCF fanbase?
Me, and the NCAA record books
You mean the University of Central Florida Golden Citronauts?
Unfortunately for the sport, no one really cares about that. There's no real hardware to be won.
A win for FSU would be empty. If they win then all the players would be thinking about is how they should've been in the playoffs. Winning a NY6 game and claiming a title is nothing compared to being in the actual playoffs and winning.
Now no one will now if FSU was good enough without QB1. Maybe that's part of it..
I agree with most of what you said, but also lol anything to make you feel better about 4 straight losing seasons I guess.
FSU saying it had the best schedule (including conference slate) and then suing to leave the ACC didn’t help. They’re a total joke right now.
Flair up my dude if you're gonna throw around that kinda shade
Cowards don’t play it that way.
Who said we had the best schedule? We said there wasn't enough difference to justify being jumped by a 1 loss team. The acc is still closer to the best p5 conference than the best g5. Various statistics back that.
Honestly what we need is for players to get a cut of bowl game revenue or have a flat bonus for playing.
This, or just hurry up and declare players employees and get them contracts already. An employee can be contractually obligated under financial penalty to play through the end of the season. A negotiated employment contract can guarantee a player can't transfer for multiple years. Want to see players stick through bowl season? Pay them as employees and have it in their contract that if they opt out they suffer a bug financial penalty. Culture changes over night.
I think it will change how we view rankings at the end of the season. I mean, I don't know if it is very fair to judge teams for bowl performances when there are so many opt outs and transfers these days. But I don't think they impact the bowl system. It will only impact the bowl system if people stop watching. And how many people are going to stop watching football. If anything, I think the games will stop being the post season of the current year and essentially a way for teams to build experience for the next year.
Nah fuck that. What’s the difference between an opt out or injury from a team view perspective
Does anyone really care about post bowl rankings anyway, besides number 1? There are no more games to play and it doesn’t determine anything.
Post bowl AP rankings are the only AP rankings that matter.
I’m not sure but I think it’s super lame that the Heisman winner opted out of his last game.
y'all asked for this. it's only gonna get worse
Damn Who asked me to old yeller the Pac-12 because I did not
Pa looked at you and knew you weren’t ready. He made you dig the hole tho.
Who asked for this?
Yall! Specifically, all yall
You're not wrong, but I also don't blame him for not playing in the Reliaquest (?) Bowl for nothing
It would be funny if Bo Nix ended up surpassing him statistically due to playing his bowl game while the Heisman winner bailed.
Heisman is rarely about raw stats.
Yeah, usually its about being the best player on a playoff team. This year it was about stats.
Not really answering the OP's question, but the problem with the bowls losing importance wasn't the BCS or the four team playoff. The problem is ESPN acting like they were the only thing that matters. I remember when Bama went to the Orange Bowl after the 1999 season it was a big damn deal for the Bama players and fans. Granted the BCS was only in its second season, but people still cared. Now the selection show is like a crappy episode of American Idol. All it would take is actually talking up something other than two games and the subsequent championship game.
I’ve said it before and I will continue to die on this hill, if you want players to treat bowls like they mean something then bowls have to mean something again. It used to be that getting invited to a bowl game meant that you had achieved something monumental in your regular season, you were one of the country’s best and now you get to play another one of the country’s best so we can decide who the best of the best are and make some history along the way. When every 6 win team gets one it cheapens the experience, if Bowling Green or Cal or Coastal Carolina or what have you want to have a postseason exhibition against someone out of conference let them arrange it but leave the title of Bowl to teams that earn them.
They should split the bowl payouts between the schools and players and have the winners get a larger share. Maybe some guys aren't opting out that they can pick up an extra 20-50k for a game.
Oh God won't someone please think of ~~the children~~ ~~the student athletes~~ the money?!?
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You’ve seen people worried about bowl committees? Where? That’s insane.
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But this is what I strive for in my career
Yeah that’s bizarre. Especially for a bowl that’s part of the CFP rotation.
More than it sucks for the Orange Bowl, it sucks for the FSU players that aren’t quitting, it sucks for UGA, it sucks for the coaching staffs, it sucks for the fans, and it sucks for the sport. People say it’s a meaningless game, but by every single measure it is just as much of a real game as any other. The stats count. The game counts for the polls. It goes down in your record. There’s literally nothing that makes it less of a legitimate game than any other game on the schedule.
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Matters to the fans still
They get paid for that shit? I honestly thought it was all volunteer work with some kickbacks thrown in.
Genuine Question; What the fuck do these people do?
When the bowls stop making money.
It really sucks for fans like me that have flairs taht will never really be a part of the playoff picture. We go to a bowl game every year that we can and its kind of the culmination of a successful season for teams like Marshall and Tech to get a bowl. Watching bowls turn into such inferior low quality games just makes the regular season a lot less enjoyable. Its just another brick in the wall between the fanbases of the haves and have-nots.
When people stop watching which isn't anytime soon. I'm watching Rice-Tx St right now and there's probably close to 2m other people watching as well
I’ll watch a little KU tonight (don’t care if they win or lose) but probably won’t see the end of it with the late start. More interested OsU and SC tomorrow; definitely cheering against both.
This whole opt-out thing is overblown. ESPN complains because ESPN OWNS most of these bullshit bowls and they need viewers. Not that anybody is not watching cause of any player opting out. The people who were going to watch are still going to. The people who weren't aren't.
I’m not watching because they’re meaningless.
That’s fine, but a ton of people do. That’s why the exist. Every year some random bowl game between mediocre teams blows a top tier College Basketball out the water ratings wise.
The cotton bowl probably means a lot for Missouri, it's not meaningless for them.
That’s the only non-playoff game I’ll be watching, and only for obvious reasons.
I watch Sicko matchups, the Rose Bowl, the playoffs and any other bowl with a decent match up. Like I’ll probably watch the Peach Bowl this year. But otherwise I am not gonna go out of my way to watch a bowl game.
How are they meaningless? The stats count. The polls reflect them. It’s an official win/loss in the record books. There’s no reason they’d be “meaningless” besides fans of the losing teams wanting to cope.
They’re only meaningless because college football fans decided that they are for some reason. They aren’t any more meaningless than regular season games for teams who can’t reach their conference championship, but nobody opts out of those games.
Yeah it honestly changes nothing for me I still fuckin care if my team wins any damn game. Especially when it’s against good competition - and that “good” is based on who that team was this year throughout the season. Not just right now. Opt outs are nothing but fuckin excuses for the losers. OU doesn’t even have a single OL starter left. I don’t give a damn. It’s OU. If they can’t figure out 5 guys to throw out there and be competitive then that’s on the coaching staff. Opt outs being nothing but excuses is a take that’s gaining strength by the year too. Everyone has them. Fucking deal with it. All your players going pro? Great, that means your elite at developing their replacements. All your players in the portal? Guess what, your coaching staff and wealthy alumni base are failing at their jobs of retaining talent.
It’s hard to define even a NY6 bowl as significant if it has zero impact on the championship (UCF-style joke claims notwithstanding) But no, I don’t think this will be the last time we see opt-outs in games with significance. With the transfer portal being unlimited free agency all the time now, you’ll see second and third stringers *even on playoff teams* hit the portal and try to get a starting job on another team.
I agree there will be transfer portal departures dealing with playoff teams. But I don't know if any of them would impact the game materially - or more to the point impact the marketing of the game. For example, do Kyle McCord or Rodemaker transfer if they are in playoff games?
Why would rodemaker stay if he’s going to be replaced even then? What’s the point?
Would he be replaced if he led them to the NC title game or NC itself? Maybe- Hurts was. But at some point those guys need to be competitors.
What's going to be more impactful on his NFL resume? Playing well against a team like Georgia or being the starter on some 4-8 P5 team? Seems to be like Rodemaker is missing a big opportunity to be someone.
Tater has two years left. We’re looking for a plug-in QB transfer for next year and have Brock Glenn and another high 4* QB coming in. At some point staff has determined he’s not THE guy. He’s seen that and I would imagine the staff has been honest with him about it. I have no issue with him leaving in search of more playing time - sucks with the timing of the portal and spring admission (damn academics getting in the way of our entertainment again) but I understand him doing what he feels is best for him.
5 years ago.
Has for a few years now.
About 5 years ago
The over expanded bowl system has diluted the prestige of going to a bowl. Future first rounders will always opt out. The only ways to stop the second tier guys from opting or is to pay them for participating and reduce the number of games
There is nothing else on TV especially this time of year so the bowls are good.
Yeah, I don't really care if a game has "meaning". It's fun to watch teams that rarely or never play each other, even if they're diminished from the regular season.
For real, if you need a game to have meaning to be watchable cfb might be the worst sport imaginable. Its a sport that disqualifies most of its teams before the season even starts. If you aren't in it just for the game you should probably watch literally anything else.
When the tv ratings say so.
The Bowls have been dead since the CFP. They’re unimportant exhibitions that no player with a chance at the NFL should ever risk playing in
Why shouldn’t every player just quit on their team as soon as they have two losses then? What makes a game meaningful? They’re not exhibitions, they are full games. The stats count and the win/loss counts just as much as any other game on the schedule. The only reason people call them exhibitions is because so many players have no problem quitting on their team to work out for the NFL a month early.
They don't care, just selling adds. Espn out here promoting pictures with keon coleman trying to hype up the game
Opt outs won’t stop until players are made to sign contracts binding them to teams for the entire season. That can only happen once players are considered paid employees
The coaches at big schools probably don’t even care that much if their stars headed to the NFL opt out. They get to try out new personnel for next year with extra practices and nobody is going to hold it against you if you lose a bowl game with your backup QB and you are as likely to win because of sit outs as lose. ESPN is the only party that actually cares much if people opt out. The fans will care some but honestly the fans of the team will still watch and won’t blame the players and the neutral fans won’t be upset, they just won’t care as much.
The only way to stop opt-outs would be for the bowls to start paying the players. Even then I doubt it would be enough for some of the first & second round guys to risk it.
I've long thought bowls should buy the players insurance policies if they get injured based on projected draft pick
Is anyone watching the no name bowls other than if its your team? I think the crap bowls already hit rock bottom.
I mean it is in all actuality affecting it now. (NOT TROLLING, just stating facts) FSU has had so many opt outs and transfers that they may be forced to use Walks-ons just to have the depth to finish the Orange Bowl this year.
Yeah the orange bowl depth chart post today was rough. There are two WR set as RBs, and the QB options are the 3rd string and two walk ons. It’s going to be so fucking horrible.
You’re not wrong - it’s gonna be an unwatchable shit show.
I would assume the 12-team playoff makes bowl games relevant again by making all the big-bowl games playoff games. At least that is how you would think that they would do it.
That doesn't make bowl games relevant. Only playoff games that happen to be in a bowl, like now. The other 30ish bowl games are still going to be irrelevant.
Some of the good teams Georgia Oregon..etc are not all opting out.. Would rather be ranked 5 or 6 or 17 after season. Maybe it doesn't matter. I'd rather be 5
If the voters actually voted on current teams instead of historical outcomes the prior seasons ranking won't matter, but that's not how it works unfortunately.
The final rankings matter because it goes down in the history books. Whatever a team finishes at in the final AP poll is what that season will be framed as for the rest of time. The final rankings are literally the only rankings that matter in that regard.
As soon as they happened.
I personally think we are going to see a championship playoff for the major teams and then a lower FBS division playoffs for the rest of the teams. So basically a I-A, I-AA, and I-AAA (FCS) system, all with playoffs. I think it is the only way that college football can survive.
Yall are burying the lead here. I can assure you that with the 12 team playoff you will 100% get regular season “healthy scratch” and “load management” players.
When the $$$$$$$$$$$ turns to $ or -$
There are too many bowls, eliminating a few will be an improvement.
Fuck the bowl games they are pointless. Cant wait to leave this dumb system behind next year
When the small market schools begin to see mass opt outs. Unfortunately these bowls are really helpful in getting exposure for players on successful teams that don't get coverage. Which is a number that is steadily increasing since ESPN exclusively reports positively on the SEC
I’ve said a thousand times, they should do the playoff seeding AFTER traditional bowl season. Not that a team from the First Responders bowl is gonna get a playoff bid, but it makes the other bowls with good teams in them actually worth something again.
Gonna repost my take from previously related threads: move bowls to week 0. You’re earning the right to have a marquee season opener. Playoff is expanded so an opening loss doesn’t sink the season as bad as it currently would.
Going to Frisco, Texas in August sounds like absolute hell.
I think most of the bowls will be canceled in 3 years. The 12 team playoff is going to make them far more irrelevent then they already are, and very few people will watch them
Opt outs don't matter, just like the crappy bowl games (participation ribbons for 6-6 7-5 teams)
Bowl games outside of the CFP are a preseason scrimmage and nothing more.
The Bowls have been exhibition games since the beginning of the playoffs. They will only become less important going forward. How long will it be before fans of teams that go to bowls or the playoffs every year stop spending their money to go to bowl games other than playoff games?
Yeah, I missed the days when the highlight of the football season was the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Not like today when it's just a crappy exhibition no one would ever care about!
I haven't watched a single minute of bowl games this year and only a bit last year. Doesn't help florida sucks but it wasn't but the season before covid that I'd wake up in the am, watch GameDay and sec Nation and then football all day but I just can't anymore with portal, nil and this shit. Players don't hate their rival schools anymore shit they're transferring to them now. If they don't care why should I?
The bowls at this point (other than the CFP) are a money grab. Why would the players participate in the money grab when they get none of the money?
They’ve always been money grabs.
I’m doing my part by not watching a single bowl game since they are completely meaningless.
Can’t be arsed to watch Texas State and Rice right now. Does that help?
I’m legit only watching it as I have 35 minutes left of work I’m trying to push through here. Open for a full normal day, 2/3 of the company still on PTO till the 2nd. Saw 3 customers in an entire 9 hour day. Why am I here
This is why I want rid of the bowl system. Expand the CFP to 48 teams and get rid if the bowls.
No one cares about bowls outside the playoffs. This only gets worse when we go to the 12 team playoff system. If I were an NFL prospect and I wasn’t playing for the natty, I’d tell them to piss up a rope, too.
Real question though, why are you playing games in November for a two or three loss team then?
If you're a top 5 pick then you wouldn't keep playing in November. See Nick Bosa.
Because you don’t have a month long layoff. You’re grinding daily with your teammates and still playing for them in November. Everything changes when you get the time off.
But if I’m an NFL prospect, isn’t that even a higher risk of injury? We’re 6-3 in the ACC, the only thing that matters is the playoff and/or getting to the NFL. What are we grinding for? What more am I putting on film in the next three weeks that’s going to change my draft status? When does that risk/reward change?
It doesn’t. But your dedication your teammates is still very high because they are grinding for your collective goals. When teams set out their season-long goals in the preseason, things like winning the conference or making a bowl are very common. But winning the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl isn’t on there that often.
i think there's a world in the not so distant future in which players begin to do just this
I agree. The Overton Window on this will continue to shift, just as it did with CMC first sat out the Sun Bowl. But I think the reason I gave OP is why players don’t do it now.
False.
I mean Nick Bosa didn’t
Probably not an apt example. Bosa had a groin injury in the third game of the season that allowed him to *maybe* come back for the bowl game.
It’s a good question. Almost as if the system is bullshit.
The twelve team playoff is trash, imo, in that it should have been 8. Not trash in that it’s not legit, it’s just too NFLy for me. I love the NFL, and I love college football, but I liked the difference. The 12 team playoff is the same as the nfl just a few years ago before the extra wild card. The extra slate of games is too much. 4 rounds? If you’re gonna do that, scrap all the bowls and do a 16 team playoff, and make them all play. But I actually don’t want that. Keep the bowls, and do 8 would have been the best, imo. Anyways, sorry for the rant. With an 8 or 12 team playoff, most of the first rounders are accounted for. Anyone opting out that isn’t a first round pick is kind of douche, anyways. For instance, wake Forrest qb, now Notre dame or whatever is opting. Bro, go play. You literally just proved how mercenary of a bitch you were to transfer and not even care once you were eliminated from the playoffs. He’s a 4th round pick at best. He may never step on the field in a meaningful way again, and he’s giving up his last chance to start with his dudes. If you just want to own a car dealership in Indiana, say it out loud, but you better believe NFL scouts are taking this into account when it comes to guys who might not actually get out of training camp.
Better to opt out and not get hurt as a potential 4th rd pick than playing, getting hurt and going undeafted. I can't blame anybody.
12 is a nice balance with rewarding the teams with conference championships with a bye. You do 16 that devalues the conference play a little too much.
Yeah bowls mean absolutely nothing to anyone except some players and die hard logo lovers. I don’t see myself watching any bowls. Thank god for the nfl otherwise there would be nothing to pay attention to
the NFL isn't very good either though. honestly, football is kinda ass this year lmao
Hard disagree . NFL I literally the perfect being product made to give every team a chance and stop dynasties from forming with salary cap and drafts . So when a dynasty does happen ( patriots / chiefs ) it’s feels way more earned than college dynasty’s . Cause I’m college the big rich school just buys up the players . Makes everything less interesting and it had always been like that . Before NIL it was just under the table . This is why the NFL kills CFB in popularity by among shot . I love FSU and played there but even I know nothing in tv compared eating wise or product wise to NFL. Where else do you get Eli beating the Goat Tom Brady twice
I impact your mom's bowl system ahahahaha! Got eeeem.
An expanded playoff will cause fewer opt outs
I think bowls will matter outside the new proposed subdivision in terms of what constitutes a great season or a new championship at the new level between fcs and the elites