Bowl games are terrible this year - they are headed out

[615dawg]

Bowl games have been a complete disaster for the better part of the past 20 years. Anyone that has attended a Mississippi State bowl game will attest to the fact that they just don't have the affinity that they once had. Even the Orange Bowl in 2014 was a terrible fan experience. Tickets were being given away in the parking lot and the stadium was half empty at kickoff. Rinse and repeat. The extra 15 days of practice is literally the only advantage of the bowl games. Schools break even at best. Unless you are one of the NY6 or about 4-5 more, the local economies barely see any movement. Most bowl games are ESPN-owned for content.

Here are the bowls that are P4 vs. P4 this year
Birmingham
Liberty
Las Vegas
Pinstripe
Pop Tarts*
Alamo*
Music City
Reliaquest
Sun
Citrus*
Texas
Gator
Duke's Mayo

Of the 36 non-playoff games, only 13 are Power 4 vs. Power 4, and only three (*) feature two teams currently ranked in the top 25. A horrible lineup.

I think CFP expansion is happening and the bowl games are going away. South Alabama playing Western Michigan in Montgomery isn't exciting.

Here are the two options that make the most sense:

24-team playoff (8 teams get byes) with ranked G5 champions getting bids.
32-team playoffs with all nine conference champions getting bids.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Bowl games have been a complete disaster for the better part of the past 20 years. Anyone that has attended a Mississippi State bowl game will attest to the fact that they just don't have the affinity that they once had. Even the Orange Bowl in 2014 was a terrible fan experience. Tickets were being given away in the parking lot and the stadium was half empty at kickoff. Rinse and repeat. The extra 15 days of practice is literally the only advantage of the bowl games. Schools break even at best. Unless you are one of the NY6 or about 4-5 more, the local economies barely see any movement. Most bowl games are ESPN-owned for content.

Here are the bowls that are P4 vs. P4 this year
Birmingham
Liberty
Las Vegas
Pinstripe
Pop Tarts*
Alamo*
Music City
Reliaquest
Sun
Citrus*
Texas
Gator
Duke's Mayo

Of the 36 non-playoff games, only 13 are Power 4 vs. Power 4, and only three (*) feature two teams currently ranked in the top 25. A horrible lineup.

I think CFP expansion is happening and the bowl games are going away. South Alabama playing Western Michigan in Montgomery isn't exciting.

Here are the two options that make the most sense:

24-team playoff (8 teams get byes) with ranked G5 champions getting bids.
32-team playoffs with all nine conference champions getting bids.

I'll be very interested in seeing the ratings for the playoff. I don't have it penciled in as must watch TV, but will tune it at least some if I have downtime and a game is on. Depending on the final matchup, I may make it a point to watch at least some of that one.

 

[GloryDawg]

I think eventually the playoff will be expanded to 16 teams using 8 of the bigger bowl games and the other ones going away.

 

[aTotal360]

I would love to play in a terrible bowl...

 

[patdog]

I'll be very interested in seeing the ratings for the playoff. I don't have it penciled in as must watch TV, but will tune it at least some if I have downtime and a game is on. Depending on the final matchup, I may make it a point to watch at least some of that one.

I think playoff ratings will be strong. Bowl ratings will continue to slowly decline. But the bowls aren't going anywhere soon because it's relatively cheap programming for ESPN and ratings are still better than anything else they can put in those time slots.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

I think playoff ratings will be strong. Bowl ratings will continue to slowly decline. But the bowls aren't going anywhere soon because it's relatively cheap programming for ESPN and ratings are still better than anything else they can put in those time slots.

My default when I sit down to watch TV is see if sports are on with MSU stuff as my go to and CFB as the primary one I'll tune into if there is no MSU stuff on.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

I think playoff ratings will be strong. Bowl ratings will continue to slowly decline. But the bowls aren't going anywhere soon because it's relatively cheap programming for ESPN and ratings are still better than anything else they can put in those time slots.

^^^^^this. Playoffs will be huge, bowls aren't going anywhere.

 

[pseudonym]

What we need is more bowl games.

 

[Dawgg]

Bowl games have been a complete disaster for the better part of the past 20 years. Anyone that has attended a Mississippi State bowl game will attest to the fact that they just don't have the affinity that they once had. Even the Orange Bowl in 2014 was a terrible fan experience. Tickets were being given away in the parking lot and the stadium was half empty at kickoff. Rinse and repeat. The extra 15 days of practice is literally the only advantage of the bowl games. Schools break even at best. Unless you are one of the NY6 or about 4-5 more, the local economies barely see any movement. Most bowl games are ESPN-owned for content.

Here are the bowls that are P4 vs. P4 this year
Birmingham
Liberty
Las Vegas
Pinstripe
Pop Tarts*
Alamo*
Music City
Reliaquest
Sun
Citrus*
Texas
Gator
Duke's Mayo

Of the 36 non-playoff games, only 13 are Power 4 vs. Power 4, and only three (*) feature two teams currently ranked in the top 25. A horrible lineup.

I think CFP expansion is happening and the bowl games are going away. South Alabama playing Western Michigan in Montgomery isn't exciting.

Here are the two options that make the most sense:

24-team playoff (8 teams get byes) with ranked G5 champions getting bids.
32-team playoffs with all nine conference champions getting bids.

I get what you're saying, but I'm going to watch most of these. What else am I going to watch? The family has already knocked out a couple of Christmas specials this year and I'm fortunate to have a wife that's not into Hallmark movies.

Bring on Conference USA vs the Sun Belt and MAC vs Mountain West! I'm here for it.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Bowl games have been a complete disaster for the better part of the past 20 years. Anyone that has attended a Mississippi State bowl game will attest to the fact that they just don't have the affinity that they once had. Even the Orange Bowl in 2014 was a terrible fan experience. Tickets were being given away in the parking lot and the stadium was half empty at kickoff. Rinse and repeat. The extra 15 days of practice is literally the only advantage of the bowl games. Schools break even at best. Unless you are one of the NY6 or about 4-5 more, the local economies barely see any movement. Most bowl games are ESPN-owned for content.

Here are the bowls that are P4 vs. P4 this year
Birmingham
Liberty
Las Vegas
Pinstripe
Pop Tarts*
Alamo*
Music City
Reliaquest
Sun
Citrus*
Texas
Gator
Duke's Mayo

Of the 36 non-playoff games, only 13 are Power 4 vs. Power 4, and only three (*) feature two teams currently ranked in the top 25. A horrible lineup.

I think CFP expansion is happening and the bowl games are going away. South Alabama playing Western Michigan in Montgomery isn't exciting.

Here are the two options that make the most sense:

24-team playoff (8 teams get byes) with ranked G5 champions getting bids.
32-team playoffs with all nine conference champions getting bids.

There's no way to disagree with the fact that we need a bigger playoff, and if the bowls remain, they become even more irrelevant than they were.
They were still relevant right up until the 4-team playoff was announced. They have rapidly decreased in value since that time.

That's why I will say that the best era of college football from was 1998-2011. You had an actual crowned national champion, all the conferences were at least semi-equal, and bowls mattered - thus giving a real reward to all the teams that could not realistically win a national title. But once that playoff was announced, it quickly became all about the title, and there's no coincidence that you began seeing the bowl opt-outs around that time.

 

[Ranchdawg]

I'll be very interested in seeing the ratings for the playoff. I don't have it penciled in as must watch TV, but will tune it at least some if I have downtime and a game is on. Depending on the final matchup, I may make it a point to watch at least some of that one.

I think you just identified why they didn't go to 16 teams. Going to 12 there are 4 test games to see how many people tune in.

 

[msudawg1200]

Why do people ***** about bowls? It's more football to watch during the holidays. Just don't watch if you don't want to. I find some of these games interesting like Tulane vs Florida and Vandy vs GT to name a couple. Watching the Hawaii Bowl on Christas Eve is always a tradition, as is for me watching the Sun Bowl on New Years Eve. Brings back great memories.

 

[Dawgg]

I think you just identified why they didn't go to 16 teams. Going to 12 there are 4 test games to see how many people tune in.

I think it's that and the fact that you don't throw the whole bowl system into disarray with 12 teams (since the NY6 was already 12 teams). Once they start adding more teams than 12, then they're effectively either closing up bowl games or increasing the number of 5-7+APR teams. Either way, 12 is a good test run.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Why do people ***** about bowls? It's more football to watch during the holidays. Just don't watch if you don't want to. I find some of these games interesting like Tulane vs Florida and Vandy vs GT to name a couple. Watching the Hawaii Bowl on Christas Eve is always a tradition, as is for me watching the Sun Bowl on New Years Eve. Brings back great memories.

I don't ***** about them as I enjoy more football over less, just like you. I don't understand how they persist financially.

 

[Ranchdawg]

Why do people ***** about bowls? It's more football to watch during the holidays. Just don't watch if you don't want to. I find some of these games interesting like Tulane vs Florida and Vandy vs GT to name a couple. Watching the Hawaii Bowl on Christas Eve is always a tradition, as is for me watching the Sun Bowl on New Years Eve. Brings back great memories.

The way I've always enjoyed bowl games was to think of them like the just completed ACC/SEC basketball challenge. The bowl games provide an inside look at the health of the conference top to bottom. Of course, players opting out is even destroying that.

 

[Perd Hapley]

I haven’t even looked at the bowl schedule. Even if we made a bowl, probably would just rely on SPS to tell me who we were playing, still wouldn’t watch.

Zero interest whatsoever. Bowl games are about half a tick above Spring scrimmages as far as interest level at this point.

 

[Dawgg]

I don't ***** about them as I enjoy more football over less, just like you. I don't understand how they persist financially.

ESPN owns 17 of the bowls (if you include the Celebration Bowl) and they're all on Disney/ABC/ESPN networks. They're in place purely to create content for ESPN. They probably sell enough tickets (some forcibly to each participating university) to pay for the production and the rent on the building. The local chambers of commerce and city councils probably throw some perks/incentives at them. I think a lot of the announce teams are now remote, so you get like the Wednesday night "C" announce team with Matt Barrie and, say, Joey Galloway or Dan Mullen from the ESPN offices without paying their travel. The payout for most of these bowls is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range and the advertising and sponsorship revenue outpaces that. Even something like the Myrtle Beach Bowl or the Bahamas Bowl draws in around a million viewers because, in a lot of cases, there's no other live football competing with them. Something like the Texas Bowl has like a $6 Million payout, but they're bringing in over 3-5 million viewers.

ESPN owns all of these:
Armed Forces Bowl
Birmingham Bowl
Bahamas Bowl
Boca Raton Bowl
Celebration Bowl (FCS)
Cure Bowl
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Fenway Bowl
First Responder Bowl
Frisco Bowl
Gasparilla Bowl
Hawaii Bowl
Las Vegas Bowl
Myrtle Beach Bowl
New Mexico Bowl
Salute to Veterans Bowl
Texas Bowl

 

[aTotal360]

Why do people ***** about bowls? It's more football to watch during the holidays. Just don't watch if you don't want to. I find some of these games interesting like Tulane vs Florida and Vandy vs GT to name a couple. Watching the Hawaii Bowl on Christas Eve is always a tradition, as is for me watching the Sun Bowl on New Years Eve. Brings back great memories.

Exactly.

My new TV has a remote. It has a power button and a change channel button. If I don't like the game, I don't watch it.

 

[mstateglfr]

24-team playoff (8 teams get byes) with ranked G5 champions getting bids.

Goat will ***** about who ends up being 25th and will say 'obviously the CFP needs to expand to 32!'.
Cool, cant wait.**

32-team playoffs with all nine conference champions getting bids.

Goat will ***** about who ends up being 32nd and will say 'obviously the CFP needs to expand to 48!'
Cool, cant wait.**

I think eventually the playoff will be expanded to 16 teams using 8 of the bigger bowl games and the other ones going away.

Goat will ***** about who ends up being 17th andnd will say 'I already said it needs to be expanded to 48, and you bring this crap as an option?!'
Cool, cant wait.**

 

[GloryDawg]

Goat will ***** about who ends up being 25th and will say 'obviously the CFP needs to expand to 32!'.
Cool, cant wait.**


Goat will ***** about who ends up being 32nd and will say 'obviously the CFP needs to expand to 48!'
Cool, cant wait.**


Goat will ***** about who ends up being 17th andnd will say 'I already said it needs to be expanded to 48, and you bring this crap as an option?!'
Cool, cant wait.**

All I was saying many of the bowls will go away. No one is going to attend, and advertiser will stop advertising. Bowls mean nothing now. Getting into the play off is everything. Back in the day when there were only 12 or 13 bowls games the meant something. I just think fans will lose interest in them and many will go away. I do think the only post season one day will be the playoff. It will be more than 12.

 

[mstateglfr]

All I was saying many of the bowls will go away. No one is going to attend, and advertiser will stop advertising. Bowls mean nothing now. Getting into the play off is everything. Back in the day when there were only 12 or 13 bowls games the meant something. I just think fans will lose interest in them and many will go away. I do think the only post season one day will be the playoff. It will be more than 12.

I fully agree with everything you posted above. Wasnt intending to criticize your earlier post, I was just predicting how Goat would react to your idea.

 

[DAWGSANDSAINTS]

In reality, all of the Bowl games minus the Sugar, Orange, Rose, Fiesta and maybe the Peach some years have always been pretty meaningless.
Those bowls were going to determine the winner of the Natl Championship.
The rest were a reward for a fairly successful season and 7 wins use to be the minimum number to be invited to a bowl and even 7 wasn’t a guarantee - see State in ‘97
Now, there are so many, 5 win teams sometimes make it.
That and the bad matchups is what make them harder to watch and or care.

 

[615dawg]

Here is what a 32 team playoff would look like this year (true S curve, I would think seeds 17-32 would be unseeded and no conference vs. conference first round matchups would take place)

WEST REGION (Quarterfinal hosted by Rose Bowl)
1. Oregon vs. 32. Jacksonville State
16. Clemson vs. 17. BYU

8. Indiana vs. 25. Memphis
9. Boise State vs. 24. UNLV

SOUTH REGION (Quarterfinal hosted by Sugar Bowl)
2. Georgia vs. 31. Ohio
15. South Carolina vs. 18. Iowa State

7. Tennessee vs. 26. Texas A&M
10. Southern Methodist vs. 23. Colorado

MIDWEST REGION (Quarterfinal hosted by Cotton Bowl)
3. Texas vs. 30. Marshall
14. Ole Miss vs. 19. Missouri

6. Ohio State vs. 27. Louisville
11. Alabama vs. 22. Army

EAST REGION (Quarterfinal hosted by Orange Bowl)
4. Penn State vs. 29. Kansas State
13. Miami vs. 20. Illinois

5. Notre Dame vs. 28. Duke
12. Arizona State vs. 21. Syracuse

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

In reality, all of the Bowl games minus the Sugar, Orange, Rose, Fiesta and maybe the Peach some years have always been pretty meaningless.
Those bowls were going to determine the winner of the Natl Championship.
The rest were a reward for a fairly successful season and 7 wins use to be the minimum number to be invited to a bowl and even 7 wasn’t a guarantee - see State in ‘97
Now, there are so many, 5 win teams sometimes make it.
That and the bad matchups is what make them harder to watch and or care.

As long as ESPN draws tv viewership they don’t care how many people show up to watch at the game. Those bowl games get better ratings than anything else they could put on in that timeslot.

 

[onewoof]

Announced, official, in order of payouts, Ole Miss is 5th selected by payout. Player gifts to include noise-canceling headphones and bluetooth speaker inside a personalized box; Maui Jim Sunglasses with fitting; Fossil watch; backpack; “History of The Bowls: Celebrating the Good of The Game” book.

• $8.2M Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (Orlando) – South Carolina vs. Illinois – Dec. 31 – 3 pm ET – ABC
• $6.4M Kinder’s Texas Bowl (Houston) – LSU vs. Big 12 – Dec. 31 – 3:30 pm ET – ESPN
• $6.4M Reliaquest Bowl (Tampa) – Alabama vs. Big Ten – Dec. 31 – Noon ET – ESPN
• $5.7M TransPerfect Music City Bowl (Nashville) – Missouri vs. Big Ten - Dec. 30 – 2:30 pm ET – ESPN
• $5.3M TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (Jacksonville) – Ole Miss vs. ACC – Jan 2 – 7:30 pm ET – ESPN
• $4.7M AutoZone Liberty Bowl (Memphis) – Dec. 27 – Arkansas vs. Big 12 - 7 pm ET - ESPN
• $2.9M SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl (Las Vegas) – Dec. 27 – Texas A&M vs. Current/Former Pac-12 – 10:30 pm - ESPN
• $1.37M Birmingham Bowl (Birmingham) – Vanderbilt vs. ACC or Big 12 – Dec. 27 – 3:30 pm ET - ESPN
• $1.3M Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth) – Oklahoma vs. American - Dec. 27 - 12 pm ET - ESPN
• $1.125M Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa) – Florida vs. American – Dec. 20 – 3:30 pm ET - ESPN2

 

[Dawgg]

All I was saying many of the bowls will go away. No one is going to attend, and advertiser will stop advertising. Bowls mean nothing now. Getting into the play off is everything. Back in the day when there were only 12 or 13 bowls games the meant something. I just think fans will lose interest in them and many will go away. I do think the only post season one day will be the playoff. It will be more than 12.

I was curious about this because I didn't remember a time in my life (I was born in 1980) when there were only 12 bowl games. Luckily 538 had an easy chart.
It looks like we haven't had 12-13 bowl games since the mid-70's, so 50 years ago.
We've had over 20 since the late 90's, so about 25 years ago.
We've had over 30 since the mid-2000's, so about 20 years ago.
We've had about 40 for the past 10 years.

 

[PBRME]

Eliminate conference championships. Expand the playoffs. Use the extra games to fill the bowls.

 

[onewoof]

There is a Jimmy Kimmel bowl

 

[Dawgg]

Announced, official, in order of payouts, Ole Miss is 5th selected by payout. Player gifts to include noise-canceling headphones and bluetooth speaker inside a personalized box; Maui Jim Sunglasses with fitting; Fossil watch; backpack; “History of The Bowls: Celebrating the Good of The Game” book.

• $8.2M Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (Orlando) – South Carolina vs. Illinois – Dec. 31 – 3 pm ET – ABC
• $6.4M Kinder’s Texas Bowl (Houston) – LSU vs. Big 12 – Dec. 31 – 3:30 pm ET – ESPN
• $6.4M Reliaquest Bowl (Tampa) – Alabama vs. Big Ten – Dec. 31 – Noon ET – ESPN
• $5.7M TransPerfect Music City Bowl (Nashville) – Missouri vs. Big Ten - Dec. 30 – 2:30 pm ET – ESPN
• $5.3M TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (Jacksonville) – Ole Miss vs. ACC – Jan 2 – 7:30 pm ET – ESPN
• $4.7M AutoZone Liberty Bowl (Memphis) – Dec. 27 – Arkansas vs. Big 12 - 7 pm ET - ESPN
• $2.9M SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl (Las Vegas) – Dec. 27 – Texas A&M vs. Current/Former Pac-12 – 10:30 pm - ESPN
• $1.37M Birmingham Bowl (Birmingham) – Vanderbilt vs. ACC or Big 12 – Dec. 27 – 3:30 pm ET - ESPN
• $1.3M Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth) – Oklahoma vs. American - Dec. 27 - 12 pm ET - ESPN
• $1.125M Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa) – Florida vs. American – Dec. 20 – 3:30 pm ET - ESPN2

With the way the SEC payouts work, any bowl with a payout of $4 Million to $5.999 Million gives the participating SEC school the same payout of $2.4 Million, so they're actually making the same as they would if they went to the Liberty Bowl.

Here are the tiers:
<$2,000,000 = $1.1 Million Take Home
Between $2,000,000 and $3,999,999 = $2.1 Million Take Home
Between $4,000,000 and $5,999,999 = $2.4 Million Take Home
>$6,000,000 = $3 Million Take Home

Teams also get a travel stipend.

The remainder of the payout is split 17 ways (16 members plus the conference). Mississippi State is getting a cool $1,282,058.82 from the above bowls.

As an aside, the SEC teams getting into the CFP:
First round gets $3,000,000
Second round (quarterfinals) gets $3,500,000
Third round (semifinals) gets $3,750,000
Championship participant gets $4,000,000