College FB Bowl Season: How to Get Better Games
Most college football fans are obsessed with the BCS Championship Game—who's playing in it, and whether the BCS got it right.
Not me.
I’m not saying I don’t care about the title game—I do. But it’s the least of my concerns.
I’m what you'd call a football junkie. I can't get enough of it. So naturally I want every single bowl matchup—from the Rose Bowl down to the Papajohns.com Bowl—to be a good one.
This year, the diehard fans are high on the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, which features Auburn and Clemson. Beyond that, though, the pickings are pretty slim.
And it's all because of a misplaced faith in conference pairings.
I'm a Michigan fan, and I hate to pick on the Wolverines—but they don't belong in the Capital One Bowl against Florida. If I didn't have a biased interest, I probably wouldn't even watch the whole game.
I’ve talked previously about how greed leads the BCS bigwigs to pick teams like Kansas over Missouri, because they think Kansas fans will "travel" better.
Relying on conference pairings to determine bowl matchups is no more just—and no more sensible.
Tradition?
Who cares?
Give me a good game and I’ll give you my undivided attention.
I could care less about seeing the Big Ten No. 4 against the Big 12 No. 4. It’s boring and it’s pointless.
Besides, what is there not to like about the possibility of fresh bowl pairings ever year?
Just to give you an idea of what we'd have if there were no conference requirements, this is what the non-BCS Bowls might look like:
Capital One: Missouri vs. Arizona State
Gator: Florida vs. Boston College
Cotton: Clemson vs. Tennessee
Outback: BYU vs. Wisconsin
Chick-Fil-A: Texas vs. Virginia
Insight: South Florida vs. Auburn
Music City: Cincinnati vs. Boise State
Sun: Connecticut vs. Arkansas
Humanitarian: Texas Tech vs. UCF
Those pairings are based entirely on ranking—I took the highest-ranked team and matched them with the next highest. I only made exceptions to avoid pairing teams from the same conference.
One benefit of such a system is that a team like Cincinnati isn’t stuck in the Papajohns.com Bowl against Southern Miss.
The Sun Bowl decided to invite South Florida instead of Cincy—even though the Bearcats were ahead of the Bulls in the standings via tiebreaker. I’ll let you decide which default reason the organizers used.
In any event, most of the above matchups are far better than anything we'll actually see this year. Sure, you'll get a dud once and awhile—but it’s better than having a bunch of duds and a few good games.
As I see it, it’s time to throw a bone or two to the people who care about the "other" bowls. It’s also time to give people an actual REASON to watch your stupid cockamamie Sunoco Backyard Dirt Bowl.
And don't forget—non-BCS conferences produce quality teams every once in a great while. They might not go undefeated, but they can certainly compete with the big boys—which makes it a shame when they end up stuck in the GMAC and Motor City Bowls.
I think we all deserve better than that.
