Just cheapens the significance of getting a bowl bid. If you have two 6-6 teams -- or even a 5-7 team -- playing, who's going to watch and who's going to pay $40 or more per seat to be there? It's also an example of AAC's over-valuing of its product. Counting Navy, which comes in this year, only seven AAC teams were bowl eligible last year, and that's probably the best they could hope for in a given year. And Navy has its own bowl tie-ins, so they'll need at least ten bowl-eligible teams per year. Ain't gonna happen; SEC barely has enough to fill its ten slots with 14 teams. We can't blame this on ESPN for a change; they say they're not interested. It'll be Fox, NBCSN and CBSSN. It does give the MAC some opportunities for at least secondary tie-ins. The NCAA might be looking at the probability that some current bowls will fail, but it's still pretty much a joke.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12600613/a...

#moreirrelevantwhatever

WIN A MAC CHAMPIONSHIP.

Some folks appreciate posters who post what many of us are thinking but are reluctant to post. By and large, other than a very few bowls, the rest are irrelevant and nothing more than programming to fill a time slot to sell advertising.

I had the chance to attend the Independence Bowl. We, wife and I, scheduled time for about 3/4 of the events and I had the time of my life. I saw the Ohio players/band/family members thoroughly enjoying themselves. I met the Thompson and the Branz families who were very high on Ohio. I saw the 110 and finally understood what all the fuss was about. The Independence Bowl was worth every penny for me and I saw Ohio at it's best. I hope the players get back to bowling for them and how some fans might feel is "irrelevant" to me.

The proliferation of bowls is problematic in my opinion. I just don't see how we can keep justifying this.

Since at the time Monroe posted, it was just friendly chatter about current events (new bowls), I took his post to mean "friendly chatter will not be allowed anymore about anything until such time as Ohio wins a Mac championship". Did you take it differently?


Problematic for whom? Who benefits? Who loses? The people involved:
1. Cities - I don't see that these cities for marginal bowls attract a lot of visitors to their cities, and they certainly incur an expense in hosting them. To me, they are the losers. Yet, for some reason, from the news in the first post, it is these types of cities that are pushing for these new bowls? Why?
2. Schools - They incur a small loss from going to the bowl, but get a lot of publicity in the process. They would seem to be winners.
3. Player/Coaches - This gives them extra practices, and some fun. If they didn't enjoy the bowls, they wouldn't go, so I would say they must think it is a good thing.
4. Programs - It helps a programs reputation and recruiting, so its a benefit. How big, I don't know, but certainly a benefit.
5. Families of players - They certainly enjoy the trips
6. Fans - They have no obligation to tune in, or go, or pay any attention to these games. If they do, I presume it is because they enjoy them.
7. Networks - They games fill holiday air time, but the fact that ESPN wasn't interested in these games shows that they are reaching the point of diminishing returns. Thus, they may be losers if they take more games.

In the end, I don't see much benefit to more bowl games, but conversely I don't see any losers that are being harmed. Therefore it doesn't surprise me that the number of bowls continues to expand. We are now reaching the point at which all bowl eligible teams will have a bowl, so, can it expand any more? I think the trend to more bowls has gone as far as it can go.

ESPN is staying away not because of interest but they've got a limited number of broadcast windows to put all of their bowls on. I mean you can't have a bowl at 10 EST on December 15th and make it work. So conferences have to turn to other broadcast networks and it may also explain why the MAC is not involved as a host since the MAC is married to ESPN. Personally I hope some of the games don't get improved and other weak games go under to roll back the number of games and require 7 wins. Doubt it will happen.

I imagine I may live to see the day that the NCAA Hoops tournament goes to 128 teams.

That's why I'm so complimentary of your poignant, unique, always on-topic insights. They're not repetitive at all and its not the least bit annoying. By all means, keep sharing!

What's more interesting is the names of these four new bowls:

The Rolling Stone Journalistic Integrity Bowl -- Virginia

The Port-a-John Bowl -- Wrigley Field

The Roscoe P. Coltrane Memorial Bowl -- Hazzard County

The BobcatAttack.com Bowl -- Athens, Ohio

The season has basically just become 13 games instead of 12. What's the big deal. Most of the bowls have had decreasing attendence for years. It's all about TV anyway, so just enjoy the ride from your couch if you're interested, if not, watch the Home and Garden channel or whatever you usually watch.

The big deal is the money that G5 schools will spend on travel and unsold tickets that eats into budgets. Even some of the bigger schools don't break even on bowl games.

Since we're headed toward 64 bowls where all 1A teams get a bid, why not just add a week to the regular season instead. (I presume at some point we'll get back up to 128 1A teams.) Cuts down on travel, gives 64 teams another home game to make some cash and maybe there'll be more slots open for G5 schools to beat "P"5 schools.