30Duck No. 1 Share Posted December 27, 2021 You wouldn't think that the "Mouth of the South" would be of the same opinion as voiced here. But when it comes to the state of college football, even with the SEC on top, Finebaum sees an erosion in interest that needs to be addressed. Paul Finebaum sounds off on Bowl game cancellations Simon Gibbs On3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph Moderator No. 2 Share Posted December 27, 2021 To date - Hawaii, Military and Fenway Bowls canceled. Rutgers replaces A+M in the Gator Bowl. WAZZU still looking for an opponent after the Canes go MIA. UTEP would make sense but the Miners has already played a bowl game and lost and the UTEP coach is not interested. Maybe civic pride and the CBS $ will entice the Miners to suit up? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl LeDuck 85 No. 3 Share Posted December 27, 2021 While I have been a strong advocate for a 8 team playoff for the past decade plus, I have been skeptical of a 12 or 16 team playoff. Just seemed to hard to pull off in addition to other reasons. But seems to me that this state of affairs, even after filtering out the Covid effect, makes the case to expand it immediately to the full 16 team playoff. Or does that just make any games beyond the playoff irrelevant and uninteresting? If so, what other changes should be make to rescue the current state of affairs? That is to say, what changes that are in the realm of reality. What will make these games not only relevant, but make players highly motivated to play in them? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Author No. 4 Share Posted December 27, 2021 On 12/27/2021 at 11:55 AM, Carl LeDuck 85 said: What will make these games not only relevant, but make players highly motivated to play in them? This is where the problem really is, and what Finebaum says here, The bowl games just don't mean very much to most schools. This is not what you played or even the generation or two before that when going to a bowl game was considered a reward. Now it's mostly a pain. That is the problem. The CFP all or nothing has left us with 2 hand picked bowls leading up to a championship' rendering the rest of the Bowls, including the NY Bowls, meaningless. Now, 6-6 teams play in Bowls. Hardly a reward 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Washington Waddler Moderator No. 5 Share Posted December 27, 2021 The bowl situation is only top heavy when viewed through the aging lens of the ‘reward’ system. Maybe not administrations and coaches, but players are certainly experiencing a sea-change in attitude towards the lower value bowls: is the risk of further injury outweighed by reward? And who really gets the reward? To bring back balance and worth to the lower bowl system, the established route of the upper tier system seems to be the only relevant blue print; ie, expand the CBP to 12 or 16 teams, and then allow the existing lower tier bowls to bid on play-off bracket spots. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl LeDuck 85 No. 6 Share Posted December 27, 2021 On 12/27/2021 at 12:06 PM, 30Duck said: This is where the problem really is, and what Finebaum says here, The bowl games just don't mean very much to most schools. This is not what you played or even the generation or two before that when going to a bowl game was considered a reward. Now it's mostly a pain. That is the problem. The CFP all or nothing has left us with 2 hand picked bowls leading up to a championship' rendering the rest of the Bowls, including the NY Bowls, meaningless. Now, 6-6 teams play in Bowls. Hardly a reward I certainly can't disagree with that. Having a 16 team playoff would solve that for 16 teams. However, there are at last count 42 bowl games, which means 84 teams playing (before the Covid debaucle that is.). Which seems absolutely ludicrous to me. The number of average teams playing in bowl games has long been a pet peeve of mine. But then, I suppose if a bunch of average teams want to play in meaningless bowl games, who am I to say that is wrong? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Author No. 7 Share Posted December 27, 2021 On 12/27/2021 at 12:18 PM, Washington Waddler said: Maybe not administrations and coaches, but players are certainly experiencing a sea-change in attitude towards the lower value bowls: is the risk of further injury outweighed by reward? And who really gets the reward? To bring back balance and worth to the lower bowl system, the established route of the upper tier system seems to be the only relevant blue print; ie, expand the CBP to 12 or 16 teams, and then allow the existing lower tier bowls to bid on play-off bracket spots. The expanded Playoff is the solution. If ESECPN could see beyond their self interest the Playoffs finally would be a Playoff. Teams that played their way in to the Playoffs would be rewarded. If the Gasparilla, yes, really, the Gasparilla bowl folded, who would mind? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kamikaze Kid Moderator No. 8 Share Posted December 27, 2021 This why I'd advocate for a sixteen team tourney with two lower NIT versions. That would give 48 teams a playoff experience instead of a passe bowl obligation. Everybody makes more money, players get more exposure in important games and the NFL gets to see how players perform in playoff situations. Also, if they went with a select amount of conference champs filling out the top brackets, we could move past the beauty pageant contest of fake 12-0 records though weak in and out of conference scheduling. If done right, it seems like everyone would win. Propping up the dieing horse of a bowl system seems to reaching an ungloryious end. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
