The Future of Bowl Games

[Meangreen Fight]

Looking at some of these stale uninteresting bowl games this year I want gauge what everyone thinks should or will happen with bowl games going forward.

As for my thoughts I think a lot of bowls should go away.  I don’t many of them being revenue generators for the schools involved.  When the bowls are so low revenue and unattractive that the bands don’t want to or can’t come I don’t see the point.  Then you have way too many 6-6 and 7-5 teams in bowls.  Outside of the playoff I think 12-14 bowls are enough.  And things like bowls in New York & Boston or any venue north of Mason Dixon Line without a roof just don't make sense to me.  

[MeanGreen22]

Bowl games should be part of larger tournament/playoff system. Have the main CFP then an NIT equivalent. You'd slightly decrease the pool of teams (maybe 7 wins becomes the floor) but keep the same amount bowls. Sponsors would be happy because the games would have more relevance. 

[NT80]

I notice more lower Bowls this year picking local or at least regional teams to try and draw some fans.  Boston College in the Fenway Bowl (lol), NMSU in the New Mexico Bowl, UNLV in Tucson, Rice & TX State at Smut Bowl, UTSA in Frisco, etc.  The Frisco Bowl was nice weather and attendance still only looked like maybe 4,000 or so. 

7-5 record should be the minimum for a Bowl.  Next year when the CFP increases to 12 teams these minor Bowls will be even further diminished in value.  

[El Paso Eagle]

45 minutes ago, NT80 said:

7-5 record should be the minimum for a Bowl.

I would also add that a team must be at least .500 in conference play. 

[MeanGreenZen]

I love the idea of an NIT playoff in football. Some real $$$ could be made with that. And we would actually have a chance to make it. 

[NM Green]

The most baffling post of this time of year to me are people complaining we have too much college football on a college football board. Maybe I just hang with too many SEC fans and people who have spent time in the south, but this take is always strange to me. 

The Western Kentucky bs Old Dominion game was one of the best games of the year! These stats/

ODU winning 28-0 and lose. 
WKU with 5 turnovers and win.

ODU stopped at the 1 then a missed FG

WKU quarterback a Bowling Green native with strange mechanics leads the team on an unprecedented comeback. 

WKU kicks FG in OT and kicker gets carried off the field.

Teary eyed quarterback swarmed by cheerleaders after win. 

One of the MAC matchups was awesome. The Montana Griz’ show stopping win over the Dynasty Bison of NDSU was an incredible watch. 

Yes Incorporate the bowls into the playoff format to increase attendance. Keep the bowls for those who aren’t in the 12. 

The one thing I have been pleasantly surprised by is that with so many holdouts it’s a freaking free for all out there. Better give your backups some reps in season because you will use them in the bowls. We also got a glimpse of the future in McCown and Pennington. Cole looks exactly like Chad to me - blew me away. 

Sign me up for too much football and let’s go bowling next year! 

GMG

[meaniegreenie]

Now that players have become essentially paid employees, it's time to start penalizing them for not playing in bowl games.

 

[NT93]

I agree with @NM Green. I love watching the G5’s in the bowl games.  It doesn’t have to be two marquee teams to be a great game.  My only complaint this year is that the games, so far anyway, don’t seem to be as accessible to watch…or maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough.

[UNTLifer]

Games on Tuesdays, etc. and not close to the weekend are tough for people to attend especially around the holidays, so attendance will suffer unless it is in their hometown. They are scheduled to fill ESPN’s schedule not to accommodate the fans. 

[VideoEagle]

8 hours ago, El Paso Eagle said:

I would also add that a team must be at least .500 in conference play. 

The SEC and B1G would never let that pass. Too many of their teams depend on non conference wins to get to 6 or 7. 

[untbowler]

The Transfer Portal and NIL greed will kill all the Bowl Games except for the ones involved in the CFB Playoffs, because selfish players do not want to play. Look at LSU, Ohio St etc... where their star players have left or opted out. NIL is killing bowl games just like it has with College Football in general.

[MAX KOCH]

ADD A COUPLE MORE BOWL GAMES

[CMJ]

I'd drop a bowl game a year for the next five or so years and see if we miss any of them.  I'm not someone who thinks we only need the top ten teams in Bowl games or anything, but when over half the teams that play college football end up in one, including teams with losing records sometimes (including us just a handful of years ago, yes I know), it's really too much.

Edited December 26, 2023 by CMJ

[TreeFiddy]

Leverage the existing G5 bowl system and implement a playoff of conference champions plus at large bids.  Sound familiar? 

FCS is able to include 20 teams, which would be about 1/3 of the 65'ish G5 schools.  It takes 23 games to complete the bracket, which is about the current number of G5 bowl games.  

This would likely require all of G5 to negotiate collectively for football tv rights.  The problem is, even at the G5 level, not all conference distributions are equal so greed will likely kill any attempt to do logical things.

 

[MeanGreen_MBA]

11 hours ago, NT80 said:

I notice more lower Bowls this year picking local or at least regional teams to try and draw some fans.  Boston College in the Fenway Bowl (lol), NMSU in the New Mexico Bowl, UNLV in Tucson, Rice & TX State at Smut Bowl, UTSA in Frisco, etc.  The Frisco Bowl was nice weather and attendance still only looked like maybe 4,000 or so. 

7-5 record should be the minimum for a Bowl.  Next year when the CFP increases to 12 teams these minor Bowls will be even further diminished in value.  

I was at the Frisco Bowl, the was probably 13-15k. UTSA has a nice crowd.  Marshall had  a small following.  A lot of people like me were locals. I buy tkts every year without knowing who is playing.  I just like going and live close by.  It is good for the regions economy

[RBP79]

I like bowl games.

 I could care less if there are 10 or 100000 in attendance. 

 

[MrAlien]

Bowl season seems less interesting every year... there are to many... week nights during prime time they are going head to head with NBA (as well as CBB and NHL)... players are sitting out.  

[GoGreenBeans]

There definitely needs to be a little cutback on the sheer amount of games. I love CFB, but the bowl season just seems to be a little oversaturated at this point. The Boca Raton Bowl, which is tonight, is at 7...Thursday Night Football is at 7:15. That overlap is going to screw with viewership which stinks for Syracuse and USF. 

Make it 7 wins to be bowl-eligible and that should be a good first step

[VideoEagle]

Every year I read threads about there being too many bowl games. We have the number of bowl games because two groups want the - the University Presidents and ESPN and the other broadcasters. 

The Presidents like the games because they are a reward for the teams, the organizations that contribute, students and especially alumni. I bet every UTSA alumnus will be getting a letter talking about the Frisco Bowl and subtly asking for donations, not just to athletics but to every department. Rice periodically considers dropping football and so far each time they have had enough other areas of the university (and alumni) say having a team and going to the occasional bowl increasing overall donations. 

ESPN likes the games and generally is satisfied with the ratings. Yeah, there's always a low rated game or two, but generally, the ratings are still higher than the alternatives they have. ESPN Events now owns or at least manages at least 17 different bowl games. Locally, the same ESPN team runs the Frisco Bowl, the ServproBowl and the Armed Forces Bowl. 

I think raising the requirement to an "over .500 record" is likely a good idea, then the exceptions if needed would be .500 teams. I think using .500 is better than "7 wins" as a few teams play different numbers of games. 

[wardly]

Remember that UNT has played in 3 bowl games despite having a losing record.

[UNTLifer]

1 hour ago, MrAlien said:

Bowl season seems less interesting every year... there are to many... week nights during prime time they are going head to head with NBA (as well as CBB and NHL)... players are sitting out.  

People watch the NBA?

[tmjerm]

Man I cant believe yall complaining about more football.  Gimme more football.  Always.  

[NT80]

4 hours ago, MeanGreen_MBA said:

I was at the Frisco Bowl, the was probably 13-15k. UTSA has a nice crowd.  Marshall had  a small following.  A lot of people like me were locals. I buy tkts every year without knowing who is playing.  I just like going and live close by.  It is good for the regions economy

Official announced attendance was only 11K (tickets sold). 

I don't see 13-15K here....   

 

[Udomann]

17 hours ago, MeanGreen22 said:

Bowl games should be part of larger tournament/playoff system. Have the main CFP then an NIT equivalent. You'd slightly decrease the pool of teams (maybe 7 wins becomes the floor) but keep the same amount bowls. Sponsors would be happy because the games would have more relevance. 

I actually love this idea the more I think about it. It adds a lot of fun to the post season and probably more revenue overall. Still have the problem of players sitting out... but maybe if some of that revenue was shared?

Anything to make the bowl system more exciting and meaningful for sub-CFP teams. Yeah it's basically FCS 2.0 but the current system is too broken

Edited December 21, 2023 by Udomann

[MeanGreen_MBA]

36 minutes ago, NT80 said:

Official announced attendance was only 11K (tickets sold). 

I don't see 13-15K here....   

 

It was a guess. The post before said 4K. Lots of people killing around. That photo is a snap shot of an instant. The UTSA side was pretty full at one time