Throughout the past few decades, college football has gained much notoriety as collegiate athletics’ best sport, which is reflected perfectly in the continued increase in the number of bowl games that take place each December and January.
The inaugural year for a bowl game was 1902 with the first Rose Bowl, which remained the lone game until 1930, but by 1940 four more bowl games were added. There were 11 bowls by 1970 and when the year 2000 rolled around, college football had 25 different bowl games.
A decade later, we reached our current number of 35 games.
I love college football as much as the next guy, and there is no doubt that bowl season is my favorite season of the year. But let’s be honest, 35 games are entirely too many — let alone the 39 games that will take place next year with the institution of a playoff system.
The Football Bowl Subdivision is made up of 125 teams, which means 70 teams or 60 percent of the FBS make the postseason and play in a bowl game. Maybe it’s just me, but having more than half of the teams qualify doesn’t make playing in a bowl game as noteworthy an accomplishment now does it? And in 2014 that percentage will rise more.
If the NCAA requires an eligible team to win a minimum seven of its twelve regular season games instead of the current six, that would be a big improvement.
By requiring seven wins it will decrease the number of eligible teams. More importantly, all teams participating in the bowl will finish with records of greater than .500.
Under the current system it is possible to play in a bowl at 6-6, which Pittsburgh did this year when it beat Bowling Green in the Little Caesars Bowl. But let’s just imagine for a second that Pitt had lost that game, which in actuality it almost did.
With a loss the Panthers would have finished their first season in the Atlantic Coastal Conference at 6-7. Teams that we deem to be postseason-caliber should never be in danger of finishing with a losing record.
The current bowl system gives fans a lot of football — probably more than they may even want. However, it is not necessarily giving fans the best quality of football. I would much rather see fewer games if it meant better quality.
@mllrc93
cm001111@ohiou.edu
