Bowl Tie-Ins, Just Say NO

In a day and age where the people who run college football seem more concerned with who is high fiving too high or too early and where a player can't even grab a player inside of the collar to bring him down, maybe it's time to look at the big picture and those things that are ruining the game.

While I have been scattering articles this offseason about some of the bigger issues, here lies another one that just never seems to get addressed.

It wasn't too long ago when there wasn't such a thing as a bowl tie-in to a conference except for a handful of New Year's Day bowls; now every bowl game has a pre-assigned list of exactly who can play in their game, this stinks and is ruining the game.

When bowl tie-ins first became the norm, it was pretty obvious it was a bad idea, but it seemed to be as ignored then as it is now.

While it used to just be an occasional rematch of a bowl game played the previous year like when Ohio State and South Carolina played in the Outback Bowl two years in a row, now it seems that regular-season rematches happen more and more often at bowl games.

These rematches aren't just reserved for the little bowls either. A few years back, Miami played Florida State in the Orange Bowl after playing during the regular season. They also opened the next season playing each other. One of the game's great rivalries lost it's charm as a result.

Having tie-ins doesn't produce or lend itself to great matchups, it just lends itself to monopolization of the bowl system and the bulk of the bowl money.

This New Year's Day may have been the worst line up of bowl games in history and it wasn't even as entertaining as many of the regular-season Saturdays were last fall.

If the game is going to move forward, bowl tie-ins need to be the first to go. While the idea of giving smaller conferences guaranteed bowl money is a noble concept, the overall plan is to keep the bigger money in the good ole' boy network.

Once again it's the fans who are left out of the equation.