To Money-Grubbing College Football Bowl Organizers: Call Off the Dogs Ahead of You Ruin the Game

Years ago going to a bowl game just after regular season play was a massive reward and a sign of excellence. Now it has grow to be an absolute joke.

What has triggered this sad state of affairs? I am glad you asked. The answer is money-grubbing bowl game organizers with dollar signs in their eyes. It is all about making funds at the expense of respect for the game, the players, and their quest for excellence.

You see there are only 120 major college football teams in Division 1-A, what the NCAA loves to call FBS (the Football Bowl Subdivision). The NCAA brain trust loves more and far more bowl games mainly because they believe it promotes the sport, and becomes a funds magnet.

It also is killing the sport like a wounded animal running for its life soon after becoming shot by a sportsman, not realizing that even if it escapes its hunter, it will bleed to death in the process.

The plethora of bowl games will at some point result in football to loose its appeal as the quantity 1 spectator sport in America. That may well sound unthinkable, but I have been covering or watching football for a half century, and can see history repeating itself.

I can recall when baseball was king in America, and the powers to be thought it would in no way quit getting THE sport of choice. Then basketball became true well-liked with rivalries at the pro level. Then football became all the rage. I can bear in mind when pro football games have been not even televised due to a lack of demand. When you reside long enough and spend interest, you see the cycles developing.

Pro baseball produced the error of expanding to far more and additional teams, and much more and much more playoff games. doofootball of play was diminished, as well significantly revenue was involved, and the game became driven more by funds than the quest for excellence.

Baseball club owners place crummy teams on the field and folks stopped coming. Some key cities would not even assistance a lousy team. Another sport then became extra well-known.

Right here is the rub: We have 120 key teams and now the bowl season has been expanded to 35 games. That indicates 70 of the 120 teams will play in a bowl game. The situation has become so dire that the NCAA is speaking about waivers since not enough teams at present qualify to play in a bowl game.

The regular today is six wins among 12 games - that is just a stinking .500 record which does not truly merit the reward of a bowl game. Heck, you employed to have to win 7 games to make it into a bowl game. Now there is speak of letting teams with a 5-7 record play in a bowl game simply because not adequate may qualify with six wins.

This is nonsense. One pernicious result of this is rewarding incompetency.

It reminds me of parents who all but force their kid to play small league baseball when the kid could care significantly less. He then plays 12 games on a group that loses every game and, as a reward, they give each kid on the group a trophy so their feelings are not hurt by their incompetence.

Parents also feel compelled to have pictures taken of their small "stars" and have them place on baseball cards like they are some kind of large league player. How stupid. The kid learns that being a zero counts for all the things. He feels like a nothing at all and is a nothing.

He is denied the blood, sweat and tears of functioning his butt off to in fact create capabilities, discover to become a team player, and enjoy some actual, real life success - a far extra useful lesson that will help him throughout his life.

Final year, 71 teams became bowl-eligible by winning at least 6 games, and 68 of them played in bowl games. This year, 64 teams are bowl eligible and 20 may be if they win once more. Bowl selections are to be announced on Sunday, Dec. five.

Unless a person with authority puts their foot down, we may well quickly see 60 bowl games with every single big school participating. That may perhaps make an individual a lot money, but the games will be terrible and the players will be cheated out of one thing extremely significant - the feeling of accomplishment that comes from tough perform and sacrifice, and can not be replaced.