College Football’s Bowl System Eyeing Sweeping Overhaul - Sports Illustrated
Serious change could be on the horizon as bowls work to evolve in the current climate of college football.
www.si.com
Ross Dellenger on overhauling the bowl system.
- Thread starter DesotoCountyDawg
- Start date
www.si.com
Me too although I wasn't aware I had been on SI at all. Guess I read something about Leach. Not sure what else.
Increasing the threshold from 6-6 to 7-5 is a horrifically stupid idea. They will end up with many more G5 teams, that aren't as good as other P5 teams (who didn't get in because of a stupid record).
Needs to be based more on an advanced metric of some sort. Not all 7-5's are created equal.
Needs to be based more on an advanced metric of some sort. Not all 7-5's are created equal.
Try opening in incognito mode. That worked for me.
My main takeaways:
1. Bowls pull in more viewers (average 4.7 Million) than regular season college basketball, regular season NBA, the MLB Playoffs, and most regular programming that occurs in December. Most bowls pull in over 2 million viewers.
2. "Bowl Season", the organization that operates the 41 bowl games is pushing for the first rounds of the expanded playoffs to be played at neutral bowl sites instead of on-campus, but that wouldn't happen until 2026 at the earliest, if at all. One of their big selling points is Big Ten weather in December (having an opening round at the Citrus Bowl on December 22 would be better than, say, Columbus, OH).
3. Bowl Season is working with conferences to examine if bumping the eligibility floor from 6-6 to 7-5 if some bowls end up being eliminated. 6-6+APR would be the new 'backfill' like 5-7 is today.
4. One consideration is to incentivize players to play in bowl games by directing NIL money directly to players in addition to (or instead of) a payout directly to the conferences. Apparently Cheez-It is already doing this for a few players in the Cheez-It Bowl and the Citrus Bowl.
5. The CFP's contract with the New Year's Six bowls ends in 2025. Most bowls also end their conference affiliation contracts in 2025, so the 2026 season is when we could start to see massive shifts/additions/eliminations in bowl affiliations.
6. College football would start a week earlier. What we call "Week 0" with a few FCS games and a couple of neutral site "kickoff" games would become a true Week 1 with a full slate of games. This would allow bowl season to start a week earlier, allowing for the extra playoff rounds.
7. 38 of 41 bowls are on ESPN, with the CBS Sun Bowl, Fox Holiday Bowl, and Barstool Arizona Bowl being the exceptions. ESPN owns 17 bowls, so that leaves 24 bowls up for bidding, but each bowl controls its own broadcasting rights, so there's no top down directive to get those bowls onto other platforms and unless some other broadcast partner ponies up, ESPN will remain the home for most bowl games.
My main takeaways:
1. Bowls pull in more viewers (average 4.7 Million) than regular season college basketball, regular season NBA, the MLB Playoffs, and most regular programming that occurs in December. Most bowls pull in over 2 million viewers.
2. "Bowl Season", the organization that operates the 41 bowl games is pushing for the first rounds of the expanded playoffs to be played at neutral bowl sites instead of on-campus, but that wouldn't happen until 2026 at the earliest, if at all. One of their big selling points is Big Ten weather in December (having an opening round at the Citrus Bowl on December 22 would be better than, say, Columbus, OH).
3. Bowl Season is working with conferences to examine if bumping the eligibility floor from 6-6 to 7-5 if some bowls end up being eliminated. 6-6+APR would be the new 'backfill' like 5-7 is today.
4. One consideration is to incentivize players to play in bowl games by directing NIL money directly to players in addition to (or instead of) a payout directly to the conferences. Apparently Cheez-It is already doing this for a few players in the Cheez-It Bowl and the Citrus Bowl.
5. The CFP's contract with the New Year's Six bowls ends in 2025. Most bowls also end their conference affiliation contracts in 2025, so the 2026 season is when we could start to see massive shifts/additions/eliminations in bowl affiliations.
6. College football would start a week earlier. What we call "Week 0" with a few FCS games and a couple of neutral site "kickoff" games would become a true Week 1 with a full slate of games. This would allow bowl season to start a week earlier, allowing for the extra playoff rounds.
7. 38 of 41 bowls are on ESPN, with the CBS Sun Bowl, Fox Holiday Bowl, and Barstool Arizona Bowl being the exceptions. ESPN owns 17 bowls, so that leaves 24 bowls up for bidding, but each bowl controls its own broadcasting rights, so there's no top down directive to get those bowls onto other platforms and unless some other broadcast partner ponies up, ESPN will remain the home for most bowl games.
"1. Bowls pull in more viewers (average 4.7 Million) than regular season college basketball, regular season NBA, the MLB Playoffs, and most regular programming that occurs in December. Most bowls pull in over 2 million viewers."
Well they damn well better be watching on TV because while I've only watched a few minutes of a few games, the crowds at the stadiums of the games I have briefly watched COMBINED wouldn't fill and average size P5 stadium.
Well they damn well better be watching on TV because while I've only watched a few minutes of a few games, the crowds at the stadiums of the games I have briefly watched COMBINED wouldn't fill and average size P5 stadium.
The number of bowl games is absurd, and its ESPN's fault. As the article states, even the ridiculous minor bowl games outdraw college basketball games (even a UCLA-Kentucky game was outdrawn by the Las Vegas Bowl). ESPN actually owns 17 of the 41 bowl games - and they are positioned for maximum profit for ESPN. They don't care that 100 people are in the stands, they care that 860k people are watching the game (the Bahamas Bowl, the weakest bowl game drew that 860k).
One of the ideas being floated is to give eight more bowls the first round matchups. That is an option, and that would be 14 total bowls and that's it. But as the Ohio State quote goes - "Its no longer bowl week, its playoff week." The importance of the bowl games is just not there anymore.
Here's what I think needs to happen to make bowl games relevant again.
1. Limit to 15 bowl games, maximum.
2. Only conference champions are locked into a specific bowl. One G5 team plays a P5 and the other four play each other.
3. Teams ranked in the Top 20 are guaranteed a spot. No unranked team can be selected if a Top 25 team is available.
Four team playoff after the traditional bowls.
Tier 1 Bowls (Current NY6)
B1G and Pac champs go to Rose
SEC champ to Sugar
Big 12 champ to Cotton
ACC champ to Orange
Fiesta and Peach get top two non-conference champions in alternating years.
Sugar, Cotton and Orange get the next at-large team of their choice in a rotating order.
Fiesta/Peach that does not get top two get the next two.
Tier 2 Bowls
Holiday, Hall of Fame, Citrus, Sun
8 teams go to Tier 2 bowls. The top G5 champ is guaranteed a spot here if not in Tier 1. Teams in this tier must be ranked in the top 25 or a G5 champion.
A rotating order. Bowl A gets pick 1 and 8, B gets 2 and 7, C gets 3 and 6, D gets 4 and 5.
Tier 3 Bowls
Liberty, Tangerine, Copper, Independence, Motor City
Liberty, Tangerine and Copper Bowls kick off Bowl Season. They have to take any remaining team in the top 25 before taking an unranked team. Bowl A gets 1 and 6, Bowl B gets 2 and 5, Bowl C gets 3 and 4.
Independence and Motor City get the four remaining G5 Champions (This year: MAC, MWC, C-USA, Sun Belt). Motor City gets MAC Champ if available. Independence gets C-USA or Sun Belt Champ but not both. AAC and MWC Champs are free to go to either. If more than one G5 team is taken in a Tier 1 or Tier 2 Bowl, then bowls are able to take any team with at least 8 wins.
So in practice (I'm going to select in order of current CFP ranking)
Tier 1 Bowls (Current NY6)
Michgan vs Utah in Rose
Georgia vs USC in Sugar
Kansas State vs Alabama in Cotton
Clemson vs Tennessee in Orange
TCU vs. Ohio State in Peach
Penn State vs. Washington in Fiesta
Tier 2 Bowls
Holiday: Oregon State vs. South Carolina (Ha ha)
Hall of Fame: Florida State vs. UCLA
Citrus: Oregon vs. Texas
Sun: LSU vs. Tulane
Tier 3 Bowls
Liberty: Notre Dame vs. Ole Miss
Tangerine: MIssissippi State vs. North Carolina
Copper: NC State vs. Purdue
Independence: Troy vs. Fresno State
Motor City: UTSA vs. Toledo
One of the ideas being floated is to give eight more bowls the first round matchups. That is an option, and that would be 14 total bowls and that's it. But as the Ohio State quote goes - "Its no longer bowl week, its playoff week." The importance of the bowl games is just not there anymore.
Here's what I think needs to happen to make bowl games relevant again.
1. Limit to 15 bowl games, maximum.
2. Only conference champions are locked into a specific bowl. One G5 team plays a P5 and the other four play each other.
3. Teams ranked in the Top 20 are guaranteed a spot. No unranked team can be selected if a Top 25 team is available.
Four team playoff after the traditional bowls.
Tier 1 Bowls (Current NY6)
B1G and Pac champs go to Rose
SEC champ to Sugar
Big 12 champ to Cotton
ACC champ to Orange
Fiesta and Peach get top two non-conference champions in alternating years.
Sugar, Cotton and Orange get the next at-large team of their choice in a rotating order.
Fiesta/Peach that does not get top two get the next two.
Tier 2 Bowls
Holiday, Hall of Fame, Citrus, Sun
8 teams go to Tier 2 bowls. The top G5 champ is guaranteed a spot here if not in Tier 1. Teams in this tier must be ranked in the top 25 or a G5 champion.
A rotating order. Bowl A gets pick 1 and 8, B gets 2 and 7, C gets 3 and 6, D gets 4 and 5.
Tier 3 Bowls
Liberty, Tangerine, Copper, Independence, Motor City
Liberty, Tangerine and Copper Bowls kick off Bowl Season. They have to take any remaining team in the top 25 before taking an unranked team. Bowl A gets 1 and 6, Bowl B gets 2 and 5, Bowl C gets 3 and 4.
Independence and Motor City get the four remaining G5 Champions (This year: MAC, MWC, C-USA, Sun Belt). Motor City gets MAC Champ if available. Independence gets C-USA or Sun Belt Champ but not both. AAC and MWC Champs are free to go to either. If more than one G5 team is taken in a Tier 1 or Tier 2 Bowl, then bowls are able to take any team with at least 8 wins.
So in practice (I'm going to select in order of current CFP ranking)
Tier 1 Bowls (Current NY6)
Michgan vs Utah in Rose
Georgia vs USC in Sugar
Kansas State vs Alabama in Cotton
Clemson vs Tennessee in Orange
TCU vs. Ohio State in Peach
Penn State vs. Washington in Fiesta
Tier 2 Bowls
Holiday: Oregon State vs. South Carolina (Ha ha)
Hall of Fame: Florida State vs. UCLA
Citrus: Oregon vs. Texas
Sun: LSU vs. Tulane
Tier 3 Bowls
Liberty: Notre Dame vs. Ole Miss
Tangerine: MIssissippi State vs. North Carolina
Copper: NC State vs. Purdue
Independence: Troy vs. Fresno State
Motor City: UTSA vs. Toledo
Last edited:
They don’t really care about crowds and most of those early bowl games have sparse crowds.
Let's have a seperate bowl selection committee for teams outside the playoffs. No more hard cutoffs based on number of wins.
I think that I'd like to see something EPLish with relegation and promotion. Bowls require a winning record even if you have to dip down to the next level. It definitely needs to have new life breathed into it.College Football’s Bowl System Eyeing Sweeping Overhaul - Sports Illustrated
Serious change could be on the horizon as bowls work to evolve in the current climate of college football.
I think 7-5 should be a minimum to get in one.
Reduce from 41 to about 18 plus the 6 bowls for the 12 team playoff.
That leaves 36 teams after the Top 12 with a nice reward at the end of the year.
Also like the idea of going back to games without a lot of conference tie-ins.
That could put us in the likes of the Sun and or Holiday or Hawaii bowls.
Still have the Sugar, Orange, Rose, Fiesta and maybe Cotton have Conference Champions in those tied into the playoffs.
Reduce from 41 to about 18 plus the 6 bowls for the 12 team playoff.
That leaves 36 teams after the Top 12 with a nice reward at the end of the year.
Also like the idea of going back to games without a lot of conference tie-ins.
That could put us in the likes of the Sun and or Holiday or Hawaii bowls.
Still have the Sugar, Orange, Rose, Fiesta and maybe Cotton have Conference Champions in those tied into the playoffs.
Why do we need to get rid of bowls? I’ve never understood the uproar in having football to watch on TV.
There is no logical reason to tie bowl eligibility to a certain win threshold. There just isn't. I implore you to give me one, a logical one. Not something like, "WeLl ThEy HaVe To HaVe WiNnInG sEaSoN!!!11". OK, so define that, in a way that can be applied across the board. 5-7 in the SEC is like 7-5 in the Big 12 and even moreso 8-4 or 9-3 in the AAC or similar. It's antiquated thinking. How can you watch UAB beat USM's near BCS-busting team in 2011, and not know this? The same UAB team that our 6-6 State team played awful against and still blew out.
As long as the bowls make money they will exist. And they will, since they fill up TV spots. But once the playoff gets expanded, the bowls outside of it are going to see even MORE opt-outs because no NIL payment is worth an injury. And if the bowls have to pay NIL, and attendance is down, along with TV viewers, can they still make money?
They are going to have to have some type of 'theme' for the bowls, something to play for besides that trophy, because we know that's meaningless.
You also will never be able to convince teams to play harder schedules when you're still specifically rewarding the W-L record. And no, I'm not saying W/Ls don't matter, they do. But schedules aren't created equally and you MUST account for this.
Moving the start of the season up by a week sounds like a wonderful idea***** I just love soaking up some cool crisp autumn air around here in late August. ******
Latest posts
Get unlimited access today.