2011 Holiday Bowl: Texas vs. Cal Game Illuminates Bowl-System Shortfalls

Wednesday night’s Holiday Bowl marked the 12th chapter of the bulky 35-section volume entitled, “The 2011-12 College Football Bowl Season.”

And really, the contest pitting the Big 12 vs. the PAC-12 in San Diego is the first of the “bigger” bowl games of the year.

This is a statement that can be backed up by mentioning that the Holiday Bowl is only the third game this postseason where two BCS programs have clashed, and it is the only contest thus far that features a team that has been a part of the national championship conversation in the BCS era.

Yes, the Holiday Bowl in not a “Johnny come lately” bowl game that was contrived in the last couple of years and has actually been around as a solid mid-level postseason game since its inception back in 1978.

And, this is the first bowl game where we saw more full seats than empty ones when the camera panned away from the 50-yard line…this due to the fact that for Cal, it’s a game in their home state, and for Texas fans, well, they travel well (which is what makes them so attractive to bowl executives).

We know now that the outcome of this year’s Holiday Bowl came down to five turnovers that cost Cal (a team that had more first downs and third-down conversions and won the time of possession battle) an opportunity to score their first postseason victory since 2008.

And now we could pick through the statistics, bemoan a game that featured a total of 116 total rushing yards (umm…Cal had only seven yards on the ground) and discuss what the game means for Jeff Tedford and Mack Brown’s careers.

But, what does it all really mean?

Yes, we have two good football programs and two teams who have struggled to 7-5 finishes in good conferences, but what is the point of the Holiday Bowl and the other 33 postseason college football games that are not the BCS National Championship?

True, they all mean money, an additional trophy, exposure and to varying degrees prestige and the opportunity for extra practice and perhaps a timely boost to recruiting, but what else?

Seriously…it’s Texas vs. Cal for what?

The college football bowl system currently has two huge faults: first, its reach has extended well beyond any reasonable limits; and second, it has zero meaning.

To illustrate the “over the top” nature of the growth of bowl games, we have a system that started with the Rose Bowl back in 1916, featured five bowl games in 1940 (the Sugar, Orange, Sun and Cotton all came about in the 1930’s), included eight games in 1950, eight again in 1960, 11 in 1970, 15 in 1980 and 19 in 1990.

And after this slow, steady growth the changing culture of collegiate sport is duly demonstrated by the growth to 25 bowl games in 2000 and then the massive spike to the current number of 35 which was reached by 2010.

This means that of the 120 teams in the FBS, a full 58 percent make the postseason by virtue of going 6-6 which neither seems like an achievement nor a prestigious reward for a job well done.

The second prong of the out-of-control nature of the bowl system in its current state is its inherent lack of meaning.

To put it into perspective let’s suppose we take the postseason system in college football and apply it to first to college basketball and then to the NFL.

In college hoops, the field of 64 (give or take a couple of teams) is gone and instead, teams are chosen for meaningless postseason play based on their finish in their conference and their leagues' ties with certain consortiums that operate the individual showcase games.

The participants in the final NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game are decided by how weighted computer rankings, combined with two human polls, rank the top teams, taking the highest two as the competitors to see who cuts down the vaunted nets.

Yes, that truly is “madness.”

In the case of the NFL, 18 of the 32 teams would make the “postseason” and 16 of these would be placed in meaningless exhibition games (driven by lucky, lucrative and loud sponsors) that do nothing more than showcase talent and sell tickets.

It’s the New York Jets vs. the New York Giants in a compelling cross-conference postseason match-up in chilly January that means…you guessed it, nothing.

The Super Bowl teams would again be decided by a combination of human and non-human forces that would ultimately deem two franchises as No. 1 and No. 2 and henceforth leave all other well-wishers out in the cold.

The ensuing argument of a true world champion would be a major discussion that could only be unraveled by numbers gurus at sports networks who eerily had ties to the games themselves.    

Yes, many of us tuned into watch Texas vs. Cal in the 2011 Holiday Bowl on Wednesday night because hey, this is major college football and we’re in love with this nation’s greatest and most passion-driven team sport.

But, in the back of our minds, in the bottom of our souls, we all know that we could do better and our already-stellar sport could be vastly improved.

Yes, in reality, Texas vs. Cal illustrates perfectly what’s wrong with the current state of the postseason…it's two good teams from two good conferences playing for absolutely nothing.

It’s an exhibition of talent by gifted athletes who deserve to play for more than an empty title, an inconsequential decision and a pointless outcome.

The question looms…Longhorns vs. Golden Bears, what does it mean?

And, my friend, the answer is simple: it means, give us a playoff.