DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
Sorting Through the Overflowing Bowl Season
December 17, 2016  | By Gerald Jordan  | 1 comment
 

Isn’t it about time that we throw in the towel on the college football bowl season? For crying out loud, 80 teams get to kick off in the “post-season.” The best of them, which by the way, formerly was the required ticket to a New Year’s Day bowl, will face in the sometimes strange, but so far wonderful, four-team playoff for the national championship. This season, though, the growing list of the left aside has engendered enough tavern arguments to raise the specter of an eight-team playoff. After all, Penn State (out) beat Ohio State (in). The Jan. 2 Rose Bowl isn’t exactly punishment, but it’s out of the national championship.

Before the prospect of a knockdown college football playoff shakes you out of a holiday meal stupor, consider this: Alabama might actually be competitive in the National Football League this year. It’s the Crimson Tide and all the remaining dwarfs in college football, although that clause might very well have been the jinx necessary to raise Clemson to a national title.

Beginning Saturday (12/17), the sports broadcasting world will belong to ESPN. Eighty – count ’em, eight zero – teams will knock heads over the next three weeks. ESPN will show us 34 of the 40 scheduled bowl games.

The demand for teams is so great that about 20 of them will enter the arena with dazzling 6-6 records; that’s six games won and six games lost. A handful will go bowling with their noses just below the water level, and it’s a weird blend of geography and academic achievement that allows sub-.500 teams to compete. Christmas Eve, for example, the Hawaii Bowl will see 8-4 Middle Tennessee against 6-7 Hawaii. The day after Christmas in St. Petersburg, Florida, 5-7 Mississippi State will play 6-6 Miami (Ohio).

Besides the New Year’s Eve bowls Peach and Fiesta, which will sort out who gets to play for the national championship [Alabama will beat Washington, but Clemson-Ohio State might turn out to be a contest], and the Jan. 9 championship game, there’s not a bunch of excitement on the bowl horizon.

Much like eating a 72-ounce steak – of course it’s done one bite at a time – digesting this bowl season will begin with the light fare of the New Mexico Bowl 2 p.m. (ET) Saturday on, what else, ESPN. Maybe Texas-San Antonio (6-6) against New Mexico (8-4), or the Las Vegas Bowl with San Diego State (10-3) against Houston (9-3) at 3:30 p.m. (ET), will sharpen your game scouting eyes. Certainly, by the time you surf the Camelia, Cure, and New Orleans bowls, you’ll be ready for the holiday blitz.

Maybe “bowl” is a misnomer. Sponsors might want to expand their horizons and think more in terms of more-than-you-can-eat buffets over this 80-team, 40-game post-season.

 
 
 
 
 
Leave a Comment: (No HTML, 1000 chars max)
 
 Name (required)
 
 Email (required) (will not be published)
 
PSYLY
Type in the verification word shown on the image.
 
 
 Page: 1 of 1  | Go to page: 
1 Comments
 
 
Mac
With ESPN facing economic woes,after years of being a Disney cashcow by capturing the most elusive group of viewers,males 18-54,maybe some of these games will be whittled down to The 12 Days of College Jocks Not In Class. Some of these match ups,the equivalent of the NFL's Thursday turkeys,would be picked up by Fox Sports or TBS/TNT not carrying an NBA game that night. Put Comcast in the mix and the sure Las Vegas bet is that cable bills will rise. Take out unwanted sports,shopping channels and religious fare from the cable lineup and the average family would not need two paychecks to underwrite this garbage. The NCAA-the NFL's minor league you pay top prices to watch-shameful.
Dec 17, 2016   |  Reply
 
 
 
 Page: 1 of 1  | Go to page: