NCAA Bans Creation of New Bowls Until 2019

Finally. The embarrassment of having three programs with 5-7 records make bowl games last year finally slapped some sense into the NCAA. Unfortunately they are not proposing to dump a few of the current games which means the image of teams with losing records making post-season appearances remains possible. But at least the hemorrhaging has been addressed. Having 41 bowl games diluted a great product and the number of games needs to be reduced. Now let's move the national semi final games off of New Year's Eve.

2015-16 Bowl Season

I have enjoyed attending and viewing bowl games for years. This year, not so much. The bowl match-ups were dreadful. Game after game were clunkers and the few competitive games played turned out that way due to atrocious defense. I enjoyed taking my family to see Duke edge Indiana in the Bronx but I certainly would not watch the tape of that game if I wanted to learn football. Obviously there were too many games but we need a bowl selection process that will ensure better games to help the sport continue to grow. Hopefully the title game will help wipe out the memory of this dreadful bowl season.

Bowl Picks

I am having a great start to the bowl season, which, of course, means I am going to tank any day now.
That said, I like Western Michigan to beat Purdue today and North Carolina State over a young Louisville squad. In the first game I am riding the team that wants this game more and in the second I have firm belief in Tom O'Brien as a bowl coach.

Tonight's Pick

Is the season over? The dragging out the "excitement" until well into January is one of the worst decisions ever made by the television executives truly calling the shots. Dumb. Half the country has already moved on to the NFL playoffs, while the other half may give the game a decent rating but has signed off on the games played between 1/1 and tonight.
College football should take over Christmas as the NBA and college football have two different audiences. If the NFL can have a triple header on Thanksgiving then college football can up the ante on Christmas. New Year's Eve can also be better utilized and the lesser games can be used as first games of double headers with the BCS games. And do not be afraid of the last Sunday night NFL game as that game is usually meaningless or, like this year's "battle for the NFC West" not carrying too much import even when a playoff berth is riding on it.
As for tonight I have like Oregon all along and do not see a reason to change. The game should be fun but not as high-scoring as people think. Don't get me wrong, both teams will reach the high 20s, but it will not end up 45-44. Enjoy.

Bad News For Big Ten

Please excuse my delay in posting but I have not been able to overcome Randy Edsall calling the Maryland football head coaching gig his "dream job". But the bad news that the Big Ten has to deal with is that they no longer have Rich Rod to kick around anymore. The haves in the conference have feasted on Michigan the past three years and now have to actually be worried about the game (assuming the Wolverines hire a decent coach) as soon as the replacement gets the team in shape.
Of course the conference as a whole benefits from a reborn Michigan team. Then again, perhaps they need to fall further out of the spotlight. That was the problem with the January 1 massacre of conference squads. Because the conference supplies both television viewers and people willing to travel to bowl games, Big Ten teams are highly coveted for bowl invitations. And so they get invited to better games then they deserve. This was especially true of Michigan, but so too of a few others. Moving up in class because you deliver viewers is no way to win a bowl game (see Notre Dame prior to their recent two-game win streak--when they were not over-seeded).
And so the conference remains popular but disrespected nationally. Unfortunately the two go hand-in-hand.

A Little Love for the GMAC Bowl

If you call yourself a college football fan then you must tune in tonight to see the illustrious QB Dan LeFevour make his final appearance for Central Michigan. Hoping to snap the MAC conference's ugly 14-game bowl losing streak, the Chippewas battle Troy tonight down in Alabama. LeFevour is the only QB in NCAA history to throw for 12,000y and rush for 2,500y in his career while also holding the record for TDs produced (passing, rushing, receiving) with 148--7 more than Tim Tebow.

As for a pick for tonight's game, I'll let some guy named Miller, who is dominating the pool I am in, make it. He likes CMU big--and that is good enough for me.

Reports of its Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

I guess the Big Ten is not as bad as once thought. That's a relief. All it took was a win by Ohio State in a BCS game, the Rose Bowl no less, and all is now right in the Midwest. Well, outside of Cincinnati anyway. The Buckeyes have always had a defense worthy of a national title, which made the argument against the talent in that part of the country a mystery to me as plenty of Buckeyes on the defensive side of the ball certainly look like supreme athletes to me (and the NFL). And certainly Terrelle Pryor is as athletic as they come. So kudos to you OSU and coach Tressel, who can breathe a bit easier--at least until their next flop in a national championship game. As for Oregon, and their supposedly great offense, you were not quite ready for the prime time. One of the bonuses for the Ducks this season after losing their first game against Boise State was that they could lay low and get rolling while the rest of the country focused on teams who did not get embarrassed in week one. But, back in the glare of national attention their offense just looked okay. The final score allowed Navy to keep their private accomplishment of scoring the most points this season against OSU with 27. Go Navy! That's what I love about college football.

As for the rest of the Big Ten yesterday, Northwestern and Penn State split against a couple of big, bad SEC teams. Unfortunately, nothing that occurred on those fields will change anything about the misguided perception that the SEC is light years ahead of everyone else. So I will not get too fired up, at least not until all of the bowl games have been played.

Bowl Angst

Ahhhh, just my luck. I had hoped to pick Utah in tonight's Poinsettia Bowl but returned to my computer in the 2nd Q after a day with the family. So, of course, Utah looks great and I cannot take credit for it. Of course, now that I am mentioning my fondness for Utah, Cal will rally and I'll look bad again.
Meanwhile, if the score holds up then all five bowl games played to date this year will have featured the game's winner covering the spread. Four of the games have been won outright by dogs--if the Utes hold on--and the one favorite to win so far, Rutgers, covered in doing so. That's due to change soon, although I do like SMU, the underdog, tomorrow out in Hawaii. The spread is way too high and Nevada is missing a host of key players through either injury or suspension.

Bowl Bound

Yeah, I know. The bowl pairings were locked in a few days ago. But it is never too late to analyze the top match-ups nor complain about the total number of games on the docket this year and for the near future.

But let's first focus on the BCS title game, which will pit Alabama and Texas. With most everyone overrating what happened this past weekend, Alabama will be a decent favorite for the game. After all, Alabama looked very good in vanquishing Florida while Texas beat a solid-but-not-spectacular Nebraska squad by the slimmest of margins. But the Longhorns were bigger underdogs when they upset Southern California in January of 2006 and, overall, underdogs usually do well in this game. Another advantage for Texas is that defensive coordinator Will Muschamp knows Alabama coach Nich Saban very well from their days at LSU, although that, of course, cuts both ways. Another factor in the lack of love for Texas is that they do not have one signature win, in conference or out, this year. In 2005 they beat Ohio State on the road and faced a little bit better conference competition. We will continue to dissect this game as the weeks go by.

As far as the other BCS games, I would have preferred to see TCU and Cincinnati square off and have Boise take on Florida. Ohio State playing Oregon should be a nice game and since there is not much you can do with Georgia Tech and Iowa, it is better that they play in another Orange Bowl game that will draw little interest. From regular fans that is as I will happily watch the Hawkeyes and Yellow Jackets tangle. It sure beats watching regular television. The others? There are a few compelling match-ups, like LSU versus Penn State, Oregon State battling BYU, Stanford and Oklahoma meeting and Virginia Tech taking on Tennessee. But with too many games--34--there are naturally some bad match-ups as there are not 68 compelling teams in FBS football. I'll break down each and every game in the coming weeks.

An imperfect collection of bowls is no reason for a playoff system, however. What I would love is the elimination of the conference tie-in and the use of a panel, like they do in college basketball, to choose the pairings for each bowl. This panel would concentrate on producing exciting match-ups and delivering more fans and higher ratings to each bowl. This can be done and should be done. Eliminating 5-7 bowls would go a long way to improving the product presented to sports fans this time of year too.