College Football 2012: Sport Needs to Address True Issue with Bowl Eligibility

The idea of going from a six-win minimum to a seven-win minimum for inclusion in the college football postseason has died on the vine, according to reports from Jon Solomon at The Birmingham News. The measure, which would have raised the bar for postseason participation from a .500 record to a 7-5 mark, met static from coaches and athletic directors who like the six-win benchmark.

For a lot of fans who champion this abstract idea of "rewarding mediocrity" by sending a team they don't care about to a bowl game they'll brag about not watching, this move comes as a sort of blow. I use the words "sort of" because if you believe their logic, they don't waste time on these mediocre teams in terrible bowl games in the first place.

Ultimately, with all of the incessant complaining about 6-6 teams going to a bowl game, the true issue to be campaigning for is lost. This is not, or rather, should not be about whether or not a 6-6 team is worthy of going to a bowl game. No, this should be about the more deserving teams from smaller conferences who are left out of the bowl picture in favor of the 6-6 power-conference team.

If ever there was a place to reform the bowl-eligibility picture, it is this issue.

Shutting kids out based upon an outside standard of mediocre play is not the answer. Putting deserving teams with better records into those bowl games is the cause to champion. Get the 8-4 MAC or Sun Belt team into the bowl over the 6-6 ACC squad; that's rewarding deserving teams. If, in the 35 bowls, there is still room for the 6-6 teams—like 2011 Illinois—then slide them in to round out the picture.

Bloated conference tie-ins and worse; bowls that lose their tied-in teams but elect to go with the big name are the issue. It's not about being 6-6. It's about teams being left out in the cold with better records.

In the end, this measure failing is a positive thing. As more 6-6 teams push to grab control from smaller schools, hopefully the true issue will come into focus: finding a way to get quality teams into the bowls, not merely working to exclude teams.