Bowl Schedule: Irrelevant Football Games Should Not Be Played After BCS Bowls

It's bowl season in college football and I have a bone to pick with the NCAA.

We all know that the Bowl Championship Series is flawed, but that is not the issue that I have. The problem is with the entire bowl schedule.

The college football season used to end a few days into the new year, but over the past couple years bowl games are getting stretched out as far as nine or ten days into January.

My biggest issue is that there are four bowl games being played after the BCS bowl games have been played. The Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar Bowls should lead up to the BCS National Championship Game. Most of the teams in those games were in the hunt for a BCS bid throughout the season.

These are the four bowl games leading up to the BCS National Championship between Auburn and Oregon on January 10.

January 6, 2011

GoDaddy.com Bowl

Middle Tennessee (6-6) vs. Miami (OH) (9-4)

January 7, 2011

AT&T Cotton Bowl

No. 11 LSU (10-2) vs. No. 18 Texas A&M (9-3)

January 8, 2011

BBVA Compass Bowl

Pittsburgh (7-5) vs. Kentucky (6-6)

January 9, 2011

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl

No. 13 Nevada (12-1) vs. Boston College (7-5)

Now, who’s excited for the BBVA Compass Bowl? Not too many people outside of Kentucky and Pittsburgh, and yet this game is just two days before the BCS National Championship.

A major factor is the television contracts that have the rights to broadcast these games. More money will be made regardless of the teams on the field, simply for the fact that there won’t be any other games on those nights so fans will tune in.

My gripe is that these irrelevant bowl games with some mediocre teams should not be played so late in the bowl season. The only ranked matchup out of these four bowl games is the AT&T Cotton Bowl between No. 11 LSU Tigers and No. 18 Texas A&M Aggies.

The Cotton Bowl has been attempting to become a part of the BCS to no avail. Fox has the broadcasting rights to the game so having the game on January 7, 2011 (the latest the Cotton Bowl has ever been played in history) gives the game a BCS feel.

With the tens of millions of dollars to be made from these bowl games, its unlikely to see much change come to the college football bowl schedule. There might be a playoff system in Division I before the NCAA changes it.

All I want is to have these frivolous bowl games moved to mid to early December rather than the first week of January. Early January should be reserved for the teams that qualified for BCS bowl games. Get it together, NCAA!