Bowl bids no longer reward for excellence

In an online column on dailycommercial.com, Frank Jolley discusses his problem with how bowl games reward unworthy teams. He says that more than likely, Ohio State and Florida will play each other this bowl season in the Gator Bowl. Former Florida head coach Urban Meyer is now the head coach of Ohio State, so Frank said he wouldn’t mind seeing Meyer “dodge barbs — and possibly cups, hot dog wrappers and popcorn boxes”.

But what Frank doesn’t agree with is teams that only have 6 wins are allowed to play in a bowl game. He doesn’t think it’s right for average teams to receive millions of dollars to play in a bowl game when their seasons were much less than exceptional. He believes that teams should have at least 8 wins in order to be eligible to play in a bowl game.

He explains that it will get worse because there are expected to be 2 more bowl games added onto the list already in place because of 2 companies trying to get in on this business. Jolley predicts that soon teams with 5 wins will be playing in a bowl game. Frank says he wants to see classic match ups (he gives the example LSU and Alabama in the National Championship), and not contests between two teams barely making it to 6 wins.

Well, my opinion differs greatly with his. Yes, bowl games are all for the money, and yes, it might not be “fair” or “right” in rewarding teams with a mediocre record. But I do believe most college football fans love bowl games, from traveling to the city where their favorite team is playing and having a wonderful experience, maybe even family time, or just watching it on TV from the comfort of their homes. It’s not as if the bowl games are terrible match ups. I think the Gator Bowl will be a great game between Ohio State and Florida, the two teams with 6-6 records. The game will be a little more important because of Meyer’s new position.

Overall, bowl games are profitable for the sponsors because it is advertisement for their company. The media loves bowl season because they get the opportunities to cover so many football games. The cities the games are held at make money with the increased tourism. The fans love it because they get to watch football almost every day during the winter holidays. The players work hard all year-round to try to do the best they can to make it to a bowl game, and let’s face it, they only have 4 or 5 years to be on the team. So why not have as many teams possible play in a bowl game, especially if the sponsors are there. I know that I love to watch football, and I’d say that the more games there are to watch, the happier I’ll be!