FishDuck Article Administrator No. 1 Share Posted July 22 College football postseason bowl games have been pretty lackluster for the better part of the last decade. Bowl season used to be an award to teams with successful seasons. They used to be the pinnacle of the season, but now they are just another event in December. Sadly, they may even be the least interesting thing in an already overly ... This is How to Make Bowl Season Matter Again | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM College football postseason bowl games have been pretty lackluster for the better part of the last decade. Bowl season used to be an award... 1 Two Sites: FishDuck and the Our Beloved Ducks forum, The only "Forum with Decorum!" And All-Volunteer? What a wonderful community of Duck fans! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicroBurst61 No. 2 Share Posted July 22 (edited) From within the article posted: >>>"Bowl season should consider a handful of venues and host multiple games at the same site — and those games should be played over the course of two to three days. Bowl season would take on a feel more akin to the March Madness hub locations where fans could go to multiple games."<<< Although a lot of venues would be "butthurt" by getting dropped from the oversaturated "bowl-season as it currently is; this idea would probably "fly" guite well. Kinda like what the NIT is to "March-Madness in college basketball. But, with paychecks. An interesting idea in helping keep the "bowl-season" alive, but streamlined and promoted to make the "second-tier" games more interesting and more than just "glorified spring games". Ok. Now on to the important stuff! Just a week out until fall camp. My, oh, my has it been a Loooonnnngggg off-season. CAN'T WAIT! GO DUCKS! Edited July 22 by MicroBurst61 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 3 Share Posted July 22 Boy...I do not know about making the bowl season before the Playoffs, because that is also the prime recruiting signing time. Can't do both at once as a coach... I would like to think that you can mix in the bowl games between the Playoff games, which means they may be on Thursday or Friday nights for example? Great stuff to ponder, David--thanks. About to get a sack in the Alamo Bowl... Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lrod No. 4 Share Posted July 22 I actually love this idea.. but what will always remain will be lack of importance to the player who may be drafted trying not to get hurt and skipping out. Skipping out for the draft will diminish dramtically for only the playoff teams Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 5 Share Posted July 22 On 7/22/2024 at 9:40 AM, Charles Fischer said: Boy...I do not know about making the bowl season before the Playoffs, because that is also the prime recruiting signing time. Can't do both at once as a coach... Nice thing in a way is that early signing day has moved up this year to December 4th (a Wednesday). The B1G championship game is on December 2nd so that's championship weekend. So the big recruiting push for the majority of players is wrapped up. The portal is opening up which is the next big recruiting push. The reality is that it feels like move up bowl season or cancel it. Recruiting is the priority for most teams because bowl games are seeing so many more opt outs. Hard to do both but there are ways to make it easier.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 6 Share Posted July 22 Having hubs would limit those bowls to artificial surfaces. Although I do not know how many are played on grass nowadays. Is the Rose Bowl the only one? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 7 Share Posted July 22 On 7/22/2024 at 12:54 PM, Steven A said: Having hubs would limit those bowls to artificial surfaces. Although I do not know how many are played on grass nowadays. Is the Rose Bowl the only one? How many stadiums have real grass. Just thinking of the former Pac-12... USC, UCLA, Stanford.... Cal maybe? I think the two Arizona schools were turf. The heat makes grass expensive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanLduck No. 8 Share Posted July 22 Great ideas. For sure something has to change. Especially now with more playoffs using more bowls to play in. What if some bowls moved to preseason exhibition games? That would make for better weather and all players participating. I do think players getting some $$ would help participating. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 9 Share Posted July 22 On 7/22/2024 at 2:20 PM, DanLduck said: What if some bowls moved to preseason exhibition games? That would make for better weather and all players participating. I think fans are itching to get in their own stadiums. Having early season neutral site games just don't feel the same. I'm not opposed personally. I think the whole season needs to be restructured and I'll have more articles about that in the future. I have one brewing about conference championship games and the playoff that needs some editing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Sousa No. 10 Share Posted July 22 I understand that Bowl Season is not the same as it once was, but it definitely still matters... to a lot of people. Just look at Arizona State last year. The football staff and especially the athletes got the wind knocked out of them when the University decided they would not be going to any bowl game before the season started. They were not expecting to get to a big name bowl. They would have been happy to go to the "Little Sisters of the Poor" Bowl. For many athletes, getting to a Bowl game is their only chance to be on TV. The fact that maybe only families and friends might be interested in watching cuts down on the Bowl attendance and viewership. Many bowl are sponsored by the city that hosts it. Venues look for Bowls; Bowls don't generally look for venues. It helps the local economy. Family, friends, and fans, that can afford it, all make the trip, which supports local businesses. Speaking of the economy, all bowl games are driven by economics. Economically sponsoring a bowl game has to make economic sense to the sponsoring companies. TV will not get involved if it makes no economic sense to do so. Since all of these Little Sister Bowls have sponsors and are on TV, they must matter to someone. All this is not to say that Bowl Season cannot be thought out a little better... but it might be better if individual bowls were allowed to make most of those decisions. Paying NIL would be helpful to the athletes, but for the Little Sisters Bowl, it's not going to change anyone's mind about sitting out because those athletes just want to come and play. Bowl eligibility at 6-6 (50%) was a raising of the bar at the time it was first imposed. Becoming bowl eligible at 6 wins matters. To raise that bar to 7 wins just so we can have fewer bowls? Let the economy decide how many bowls we need. People don't have to be interested in watching every bowl. The stadiums don't have to be full. A whole lot of students just want to play one more game. If someone wants to flip the bill, I say let the kids play. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 11 Share Posted July 23 On 7/22/2024 at 1:39 PM, David Marsh said: USC, UCLA, Stanford.... Cal maybe? Cal no, UCLA is the Rose Bowl. SC and Stanford grass. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
