The Answer To Fixing College Football Bowl Season Is In Vegas
Dec 20, 2019, 3:27 PM | Updated: 3:27 pm
Members of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrate after winning the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T against the Georgia Bulldogs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
(Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The NCAA struggles in more ways than one. However, one area the NCAA has an issue with, in my opinion, is their bowl game scheduling.
Firstly, the vast majority of bowl games are a mere distraction on the television while you spend time with your family at home over the holiday season.
There are 130 NCAA college football teams in the country. There are six meaningful bowl games. So, 12 of the 130 teams will have something to look forward to every year. It also turns out that college football is the only sport in the world where fans and its followers do not like the ”Cinderella Story”.
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On the heels of the release of #StarWarsTheRiseofSkywalker hosts @HemaHeimuliJr and @zakhicken make their 2019 Utah sports comps to the #StarWars universe…⤵️
LISTEN 🎧:https://t.co/AmVOYU3cMS pic.twitter.com/rZLPmxg58u— SBAH 2.0 (@SBAfterhours) December 20, 2019
Seriously, if you speak to anyone that follows college football closely, they will tell you that they want to see the best teams every year compete against each other. The best teams are the same teams, every year or something like that.
Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Oklahoma, LSU, Texas (not as of late), USC (same as Texas), Wisconsin – you see what I mean.
It is a never-ending rotation of powerhouses that take turns winning National Championships.
The #CFBPlayoff takes all of us.@CFAPeachBowl. @Fiesta_Bowl.
Playoff Semifinals on Saturday, December 28.Who’s in? 🏈🏆#GeauxTigers#BoomerSooner#GoBucks#AllIn pic.twitter.com/bhgsb1Ouig
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 20, 2019
Twelve divided by 130 times 100 will give you the percentage your team has to make a college football New Year 6 game. Which we all know is not accurate, but for argument’s sake, every Division 1 college football team has a 9.3 percent chance of making a New Year’s Six bowl game.
However, as discussed above and 2019 being a perfect example, your top four college football teams ranked by the college football playoff committee are Ohio State, LSU, Clemson, and Oklahoma – to nobody’s surprise.
Why can’t we figure out a way to make the college football post-season more exciting?
An eight-team playoff would help, although, would not solve everything.
What if you created an eight-team playoff but make the Las Vegas bookies do the rankings.
I am skeptical when it comes to the college football playoff committee, everyone on the committee is associated with an institution. Whether they are an Athletic Director, alumni, professor, it does not matter. They all have alliances with certain programs whether they are willing to admit it or not and would love nothing more than their team or a team from the same conference to make big bowl games, because, money runs the sport.
Let’s take any and all skepticism out of the picture and put the rankings in the hands of those that we trust, Vegas. The bookies in Nevada could not care whether a big named school or a smaller school makes the big dance, it does not matter to them.
They know something nobody else does as well, week in and week out, with some rare exceptions, the vegas lines are spot on.
Quick Fix
The quick fix for bowl games it to keep the current system, no matter how much distress it may bring me, but change the scheduling format. Every bowl game that is not a New Year’s Six bowl game should be played before Christmas.
Let the players and coaches relax for a few weeks with their families before school starts up in January.
The only person who has any interest in a bowl game that is not a New Year’s Six games is the head coach as they generally have bonus money scripted in their contract based on whether their team wins in the postseason.
Which college football bowl games offer the best gift packages? https://t.co/9VWXmUQJqQ
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) December 18, 2019
The players could care less. Especially for an insignificant game that generally takes time and energy away from their families during the Christmas season.
My only concern regarding whether or not this could potentially become a reality would be if football got in the way of final exams.
If final exams are not an issue, then it seems like a no brainer.
