Smurf Bowls

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DarkAudit

DarkAudit

It's 1998 all over again, but worse. Just like Kansas State missing out on a BCS game in spite of a #3 ranking after losing the Big XII Championship game, Boise State has been taken it in the rear by the college football bigwigs. For want of a field goal, instead of a potential national championship game, ESPN is projecting the... Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

Now really. What kind of bovine manure is this? Until the kicker missed at the end of regulation, Boise was tapped for a BCS game against one of the automatic qualifiers, if not the title game itself. But to fall to a game that would typically go to teams lucky to be eligible? That just reeks.

This year has proven that the bowl system has gone as far as it can go. There is still concern that there won't be enough eligible teams overall to fill the available slots. It's already a given that some conferences won't be able to fill their specific slots.

The only reason there are so many bowls in the first place is to fill holes in ESPN's early-winter schedule, when no one cares yet about the NBA season. A bowl bid is now nothing more than a self-esteem award. Take away the cachet of "Yankee Stadium", and you have a football game in New York City in late December between two teams locals wouldn't pee on if they were on fire.

I'm not going to advocate a playoff in this post, but I'd suggest the way to make bowls mean something again is to get rid of at least half of them, and quit naming them after the sponsor. Smurf the Weed Eater Bowl.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
It's always better to lose in the beginning of the season as opposed to the very end. And I don't think it mattered if the kicker made that or not - the BCS did not want Boise State AND TCU in place to be able to play in the title game.

Playoffs are truly the only answer but I doubt we'll ever see it because there's just too much money tied up in the Bowls.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

It is working as intended. Boise could not shut down Nevada, so they don't deserve it.

Until they face more than one or two teams a year, they should not get a shot at the title. period.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

But to end up in the KRAFT FIGHT HUNGER BOWL?? That's just salt in the wounds. It tells the players that ESPN is spiteful and petty, and they're being punished for ESPN's ramping up of the hype machine.

It's not about whether Boise belonged in the title game or not, it's how they're being shat upon as a consolation bowl. It's about how there are so many bowls now that there's a real chance that there won't be enough eligible teams nex season or the season after that. There are barely enough now, and that's because bowls had to look outside the conference tie-ins to get other eligible teams when the conferences contracted to play couldn't hold up their end.

Take a look at the names of the bowls the Big East is slated to play in. The Meineke Car Care Bowl? Except for the BCS bowl, I'd be happy to see all of them wiped off the face of the map. A winning season should not be a guarantee of a bowl game.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

ESPN's hype machine is there to sell the Thursday and Friday night games that Boise gets national coverage for, if there is no hype there is no ad revenue. Boise is one of the few schools that gets as much national coverage that they do, Notre Dame is the other team to be as undeserving of the nation's attention.

There will be some openings next year in some major conferences. Hopefully TCU and Boise State will get their shot at the big time.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
TCU and Boise State have both been trying to get bigger games and to move into better conferences. Nobody will take them.

[STRIKE]Nebraska was offered the chance to play them and pussed out. Then ended up playing some truly terrible team instead.[/STRIKE]

Take that back. Nebraska offered the games to Boise State an were turned down. Never mind.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

And now there is news that TCU may be joining the Big East. WVU will hand 'em another whuppin' just like they did in the '84 Bluebonnet Bowl. :)
 
General Specific

General Specific

How many years did Boise go undefeated just to be ranked in the top 5 this year? Then, look at their strength of schedule. It's almost non-existent. The only tough teams they faced were Virginia Tech and Nevada (Nevada being highly questionable as well).

Simple fact of the matter is that if Boise wants to be taken seriously as a national powerhouse, they must move to a better conference. Do they deserve to be dropped to that low of a bowl game? Probably not, but if they couldn't go undefeated in the WAC...
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

sixpackshaker said:
It is working as intended. Boise could not shut down Nevada, so they don't deserve it.

Until they face more than one or two teams a year, they should not get a shot at the title. period.
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Ah, but to do that, the big boys in the AQ conferences would have to schedule them. And they don't. Instead, they schedule teams like Appalachian State, South Dakota State, or (yes, I hang my head in shame) Austin Peay.

I'd love to see BSU go up against a Florida or an Ohio State squad, but they don't want to play them. Why? Because if they lose, there goes their own bid for a national title.

It's a catch-22, kids.
 
Steve

Steve

The bowl games are a lot like the participation trophy every kid gets playing little league. The only one that matters is the BCS National Championship game. A playoff of the top eight teams could easily be done. The weekend after the season ends you have your first match up. Then give the remaining teams the next weekend off. The following two weekends are the top four teams facing each other then the top two. Teams outside of the top 8 could fill the other bowl games. A playoff setting could have its own critics, though. This season we get Auburn and Oregon, both undefeated and both look great this season. Imagine the number 8 team with two losses pulling an upset. There have been years where the #8 team has had three losses. Your example of K State missing out on the BCS game because they dropped the Big 12 championship game could be replace with and undefeated KSU being dropped by a #8 team (which wasn't too far off from what happened-Texas A&M was ranked 10th.) I do like the bowl games just for the match ups. Sure you get a #10 and #12 matched up but if it's a Big 12 vs. SEC you get an idea of how the conferences stack up against each other. Look at TCU or Boise's schedule and ask if either team played in the SEC would they have the same win/loss ratio? They'd be lucky to have a five season win.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

I know one thing - MY Alma mater ain't goin' to no "Smurf Bowl."

We're going to the STAGG BOWL, baby.



GO WARHAWKS!
 
Covar

Covar

Steve said:
The bowl games are a lot like the participation trophy every kid gets playing little league. The only one that matters is the BCS National Championship game. A playoff of the top eight teams could easily be done. The weekend after the season ends you have your first match up. Then give the remaining teams the next weekend off. The following two weekends are the top four teams facing each other then the top two. Teams outside of the top 8 could fill the other bowl games. A playoff setting could have its own critics, though. This season we get Auburn and Oregon, both undefeated and both look great this season. Imagine the number 8 team with two losses pulling an upset. There have been years where the #8 team has had three losses. Your example of K State missing out on the BCS game because they dropped the Big 12 championship game could be replace with and undefeated KSU being dropped by a #8 team (which wasn't too far off from what happened-Texas A&M was ranked 10th.) I do like the bowl games just for the match ups. Sure you get a #10 and #12 matched up but if it's a Big 12 vs. SEC you get an idea of how the conferences stack up against each other. Look at TCU or Boise's schedule and ask if either team played in the SEC would they have the same win/loss ratio? They'd be lucky to have a five season win.
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top 8 teams? you're thinking to small. A 32 team tournament would only take 5 weeks to play, set it up like the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and you are good to go.

also saw this yesterday. Mark Cuban's BCS plan drowns inbox - Dallas Mavericks Blog - ESPN Dallas
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

I turned on the Little Caesar's Bowl for just a moment before I reminded myself, "Dude, you're watching FIU and Toledo."
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Double post, but this needs it's own. UConn got the Big East's BCS berth, and with it the task of selling 17,500 tickets at $111-268 each, and 550 hotel rooms at $125-225 a night. So far only ~4,000 of those tickets are sold, and they're just as behind on the hotel rooms. Reports suggest OU is more or less in the same situation. WVU, a school with a long tradition of traveling well to bowl games, has only sold about a third of it's allotment to the Champs Sports bowl in Orlando.

It was suggested on ESPN this evening that faced with a potential $3.5 million loss already, that UConn would be better served not to even bother with the game. In this economy, and with the bowl season so saturated, who could blame them if they took that route?
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

No. No I'm not. The guy on ESPN suggested to his interview subject that it was better off to just not go in the face of such losses.

I'd be interested in seeing the ticket sales and TV numbers from this year. I'd suspect they will be significantly down compared to previous years. Taking all but two or three bowls off network TV can't be good for the ratings.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

I read the article in SI about how schools are losing tons of $ on Bowls. Ayup.

Meanwhile, Bucky sends its contingent to Pasadena for the first time in over a decade, and get beat by a school that is smaller than MY alma mater. *sigh*
 
Krisken

Krisken

I hear ya, jwhouk. All they had to do was get the ball in the end zone instead of field goals and it would have been in the bag. Oh well.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Miami of Ohio and Middle Tennessee? In a bowl? Against each other? Seriously?

Any bowl held after Jan. 1st that isn't a BCS game will now be collectively known as the Who-Gives-A-Fuck Bowl.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

I would have no problem if the games after January 1st were the Cotton, Rose, Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, and BCS Championship. The problem is that the bowls control the dates, not the other way around.

*Sigh*
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

jwhouk said:
I would have no problem if the games after January 1st were the Cotton, Rose, Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, and BCS Championship. The problem is that the bowls control the dates, not the other way around.

*Sigh*
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I don't think the bowls really control anything. They're all beholden to ESPN for air time. Why else would the Rose Bowl and the national championship games be relegated to *cable*? ESPN may be big, but it's still cable.
 
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