Michael Wilbon: bowl games don't matter

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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It's hard to argue with this column...this is something that I've felt for some time. About the only bowl games that seem to matter are the games in which your favorite team plays and the National Championship game...and maybe a couple of the BCS games. Other than that, they are pretty much just exhibition games in front of half full stadiums and sponsored by corporate America.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010200840.html?nav=emailpage

Does anyone remember when New Years Day used to be a big deal in the college football world? Now we have Tulsa playing in a bowl game on Jan. 6. I imagine that game will garner as much interest in Minneapolis as the Insight Bowl did in Tulsa.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
It's hard to argue with this column...this is something that I've felt for some time. About the only bowl games that seem to matter are the games in which your favorite team plays and the National Championship game...and maybe a couple of the BCS games. Other than that, they are pretty much just exhibition games in front of half full stadiums and sponsored by corporate America.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010200840.html?nav=emailpage

Does anyone remember when New Years Day used to be a big deal in the college football world? Now we have Tulsa playing in a bowl game on Jan. 6. I imagine that game will garner as much interest in Minneapolis as the Insight Bowl did in Tulsa.

Go Gophers!!
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Yes - and it was fun. Personally, I miss it, as do many others.

The bowls are pretty meaningless, save the NC game. Although it was fun to watch Utah dismantle Nick and the tide ........

How many 4 and 5 * players are on the Utes roster?
 

NC game isn't all that important either

Given what's happened with the BCS process for picking the teams for the NC game, I don't think it's any more important than the other bowls. Despite all the efforts, you still can't crown an undisputed national champion. USC and Utah have legitimate points in their favor.

I really used to enjoy New Year's Day. I'd get multiple TVs set up and we'd watch all the games between good teams. I enjoy watching a good football game and the "national championship" really means nothing to me, because I don't think you can come up with a practical system to determine one. So why bother... I also can't give up all these evenings to watching games, so the new system has cost them at least one fan.
 

The game itself may not be interesting to fans, but the conferences enjoy the payouts, and the teams enjoy the extra 15 practices.
 

Since I'm a product of the 1950s & 60s,I Remember . . .

what the bowl season used to look like.

In the mid 1950s, January 1st bowl games and alignments were:

Orange Bowl (played first in the day) Big 8 Champ versus At-Large (usually SEC runnerup)

Sugar Bowl was next, SEC Champ and an At-Large team.

Cotton Bowl started next (Southwest Conference Champ versus an at large team)

Rose Bowl was the last game of the day, PAC 8 versus Big 10.

Prior to New Years Day, bowls played were the Sun Bowl and Gator Bowl plus two college all-star games - East-West Shrine Game and the Blue-Gray game. In 1959, the Liberty Bowl and the now defunct Bluebonnet Bowl games commenced. Over the years there's been a plethora of bowl games started and continued.

One must not forget the original reason for the bowl games. They were started as features of community celebrations and the money they could bring in to the local economy. It's still the main purpose. I read somewhere that this year's Insight Bowl pumped in approximately 21 million dollars to the local economy. Since I enjoy the college game, I enjoy the bowl season. And, no, I don't watch all the bowl games, but I'll tune in for most of them for at least a little while.

Wilbom has a point, but, of course, I have the same feelings about the NFL playoffs. Years ago, the Eastern and Western Conference champs played in the championship game. Then in the early 1960s the NFL started the "Runner-Up Bowl" which featured the second place finishers of each conference. Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers played in one of the games. He called it, "A game for losers." Now, if you don't win your division, even though you're mediocre, you can still possibly qualilfy as a Wild Card. Of course, that program carries over to the NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball. Almost makes the regular season meaningless. It's all about stretching out the season. You might call the playoff games "exhibitions," too. To be fair, I must disclose, I don't waste my time watching the pros. I got a lot done this weekend, and I enjoyed reading a couple books that I received for Christmas.

My point, rarely do you find the sports columnists writing that there are too many playoff teams or games. Pro sports are a "sacred cow." Just call them (pro playoffs) what they are: money makers and exhibitions. In all likelihood the teams with the two best season records will be in the Super Bowl. I know, there have been exceptions. And that's what they are exceptions. Maybe I'd be interested again, if the NFC had the winner from two divisions (EAST and WEST Conferences) play their counterpart from the AFC (EAST and West Conferences) in the Super Bowl. Nah, too simple. It'd definitely shorten the season.

Go Gophers!!
 


They really need an 8 team playoff. The interest in that would be phenominal and it would let teams like Utah compete for the championship.

Keep all the lesser bowls for the other teams to go to and build the playoffs using the current biggest bowl games as the locations.
 

I disagree 100% with the belief that bowl games are nothing but "exhibitions". In exhibition games, teams are more interested in getting practice time. In the bowl games, all teams are going out 100% to try and win the game. That's why you don't see teams put in their 3rd string QB like you do in NFL exhibitions.

If people don't like the quality of the bowl game, then don't watch.

I personally love the bowl season. You get to see a ton of matchups that you don't normally get to see in the regular season. Plus you get to see a lot of the smaller conference teams that don't normally get much national airtime on a normal Saturday. Call me silly, but I'm looking forward to Ball State vs Tulsa tomorrow.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
I disagree 100% with the belief that bowl games are nothing but "exhibitions". In exhibition games, teams are more interested in getting practice time. In the bowl games, all teams are going out 100% to try and win the game. That's why you don't see teams put in their 3rd string QB like you do in NFL exhibitions.

If people don't like the quality of the bowl game, then don't watch.

I personally love the bowl season. You get to see a ton of matchups that you don't normally get to see in the regular season. Plus you get to see a lot of the smaller conference teams that don't normally get much national airtime on a normal Saturday. Call me silly, but I'm looking forward to Ball State vs Tulsa tomorrow.
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You're silly.

Bowl games are meaningless.
 

BleedGopher said:
It's hard to argue with this column...this is something that I've felt for some time. About the only bowl games that seem to matter are the games in which your favorite team plays and the National Championship game...and maybe a couple of the BCS games. Other than that, they are pretty much just exhibition games in front of half full stadiums and sponsored by corporate America.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010200840.html?nav=emailpage

Does anyone remember when New Years Day used to be a big deal in the college football world? Now we have Tulsa playing in a bowl game on Jan. 6. I imagine that game will garner as much interest in Minneapolis as the Insight Bowl did in Tulsa.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

this sounds like something that people who lose their bowl games say to make themselves feel better (wilbon-northwestern grad, us-minnesota fans).
bowl wins mean a lot for recruiting, public relations and the next year's rankings.
 



The guy admitted he started out by watching NHL. Yikes. I think I would have to get out of the house if I was forced to watch that also.
 

bigtenchamps1899 said:
this sounds like something that people who lose their bowl games say to make themselves feel better (wilbon-northwestern grad, us-minnesota fans).
bowl wins mean a lot for recruiting, public relations and the next year's rankings.
Click to expand...

Florida and Oklahoma sure suffered for last year's bowl losses...so meaningless.
 


Waaaaaaaaay too many games.

Both in the regular season and the bowl season.

It's ridonkulous!
 



Maximus said:
Florida and Oklahoma sure suffered for last year's bowl losses...so meaningless.
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who knows how much publicity, recruiting they had lost from losing.

it is always better to win than lose, particularly for programs like ours that have a reputation for being a bad football school.

i am not saying that winning the insight bowl is as good or better than going to the rose bowl and losing, just that there is always more up side to winning.
 

My favorite part is as the end where Wilbon says: "Arguing it out isn't good enough anymore in sports. We don't want to be told Florida and/or Oklahoma are better than USC; we expect the Gators and/or Sooners to prove it. "

Isn't he the co-host of a show that is famous for arguing about opinions on whats going on in sports and who is better than who? He makes his living doing exactly what he says people don't want to hear.

As much as I think that 34 bowl games is a bit too many, I also had fun (again) this bowl season. Lots of good match-ups and well played games. Great upsets from top to bottom. Also, since some teams won't schedule enough quality non-conference opponents each year (so us fans can see how the different conferences stack up), it forces many teams to play a game against a somewhat equally matched team from another conference. By the way - ask the kids playing in the games if they are meaningless. I guarantee they won't agree (maybe the players in the Motor City Bowl if you play for a Big ten team might agree).
 

The point is you can do it both ways.

Create a 8 team playoff that crowns a true champion like EVERY other sport and football division. Do it within the structure of the current bowls.

And, play 20+ other bowl games for those that finish outside the top 8.
 

An 8 team playoff would leave out two top ten teams and potentially an undefeated team from a lesser conference like Utah this year or Hawaii in 2007. While there is always going to be a cut off number which causes controversy, a 16 team tourney should minimalize any legitimate arguments that the best team may have been left out of the tourney.

There are currently 34 bowl games (gasp!). http://football.about.com/od/officialbowlsites/Official_College_Bowl_Websites.htm A 16 team tourney would supply 15 games (8 in round 1, 4 in round 2, 2 in round 3, and a championship) and be completed in four weeks (with only four teams playing more than 2 weeks). If everyone else is still hard-up for bowl games, the corporate powers that be can sprinkle another 15 crap-bowl contests in during the holiday weeknights to supplement the weekend tournament.

Or, I suggest that they schedule day/night games where a "crap-bowl" is played in the morning, prior to a tournament game that night in the same stadium. It would be fun to watch the Gophers play Missouri in the Insight Bowl and then hang around town to watch #16 Boise State take on #1 USC in the first round of the 16 team playoffs.
 

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