Are your frustrated with the dearth of entertaining bowl games on the NCAA football slate? Have you gotten sick of seeing some 7-5 Conference USA team battle a 6-6 MAC team in some meaningless Dec. 20 game from Detroit? Are you tired of waiting for the excitement of the BCS games to begin on New Year, only to sit back on your couch disappointed, as you witness a series of blowouts?
Unfortunately, these problems do not appear to be coming to a conclusion at any point in the future as the NCAA refuses to stop the current madness that has become the bowl season.
There are a number of problems with the current system, and since no solution (i.e. a playoff) appears in to be in the cards, let's dissect the current problems with the system.
The first of these problems is the entire situation with Notre Dame football. Sure, it's more economically practical for them to remain an independent, but it's also screwing with the bowl system. Notre Dame was horrible last year, but take the 2006 season as an example of how Notre Dame unfairly benefits from the system.
Notre Dame did go 10-2 in the regular season, but were smoked by the only two BCS worthy teams they played that season, as they lost 47-21 at home to Michigan, and then fell at USC 44-24.
Still, because they were somehow ranked sixth after that loss to the Trojans, they automatically qualified for a BCS game even though they had not defeated anybody of that caliber. Not shockingly, they were over-matched in a game that they should never have played, as LSU utterly destroyed Notre Dame and its horrid secondary, 41-14 in the Sugar Bowl.
Notre Dame's putrid performance in recent bowl games though extends back to the mid 1990s, as they have not won a bowl game since 1994, and of their nine consecutive losses since the 1994 Cotton Bowl, only two have come by less than 10 points.
This can largely be attributed to Notre Dame's "contracts" with bowls like the Gator Bowl, agreements which allow the Fighting Irish to play in a certain bowl if they reach a certain win plateau, regardless of whether their schedule or performance merits acceptance to such a bowl. As a result, Notre Dame often plays in bowls for which they are not qualified, and, not shockingly are blown out of the water.
But the Fighting Irish are not the bowl system's only problem. Another dilemma comes from the traditional Big Ten/PAC-10 match up over which the Rose Bowl committee obsesses.
Take three of the past four years as examples over how this system needs revision. In the 2005 game, Michigan was pitted against Texas, who gained the bid over California despite the pleas from Cal Coach Jeff Tedford. Texas A&M eventually trounced Cal in the Holiday Bowl, and the supposedly "undeserving" Longhorns kicked a last second field goal to defeat Michigan 38-37 in a great game.
The next year was the BCS Championship game, so the Rose Bowl committee had no way to enforce its Big Ten/ PAC-10 game. The past two Rose Bowls, though, shed light on the problem with following tradition, as the Rose Bowl committee insisted on preserving a Big Ten/ PAC-10 match up.
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