Bowl System Needs Fixing

As we begin to wrap up the college football season and the BCS standings are a mess, I look towards the impending bowl season. It is such a mess in its current form. Now I’m not here to argue that we should have a playoff system, because everyone but the school presidents agrees on that. Instead I am here to discuss how many bowls have become pointless.

The simple fact is there are just too many bowls. As good as the folks over at GoDaddy.com are, simply no one outside of the school participating want to watch Middle Tennessee St. vs. Miami (OH). With the 35 current bowls, and it seems like a new one is added every year, it takes away the thrill and elite nature of making it to a bowl game. When the only stipulation to making a bowl game is being over .500 something is wrong. The American public simply doesn’t want to watch this garbage.

Now, some argue that the TV ratings are high enough to keep these bowls going. This can simply be argued that not much other TV programming is on over the holidays. Normal TV sitcoms and drama go to re-runs so disappointing bowl games are all that’s left. But as long as the bowl system, the TV networks, and the schools keep making money on the below par competition, the large number of bowl games will stay.

My biggest argument against the BCS is the national championship game itself. Waiting over 30 days from the final game they competed in is just too long. Now if there was a playoff system, then this amount of time would make sense. But the long layoff is just too much. The NFL only uses two weeks before the Super Bowl and that’s a much bigger game.

The first week of the year, kicking off with the Rose Bowl shouldn’t change. But the other bowls should be played in that successive order, finishing with the championship game within five to seven days. Now, of course, this will never happen because ESPN and the BCS want a long time to build up the “hype” for this game, even though it doesn’t need it. The national championship game can promote itself. It’s a battle of the two best college teams that season, that’s all that needs to be said.

The long layoff actually has begun to hurt the product on the field. The most simple way to fix this is to play the game a week or so earlier. This gives plenty of time for the team to travel and prepare, give the networks time to hype the game, and still put out the best competition possible. Until a playoff system is born, this is all college football fans ask.

- Jeff Melton KIN 577