Kirk Herbstreit calls for 8-4 record to be new bowl game qualification, drop in total bowls

At one point, opting out of bowl games was incredibly rare. Now, it’s rare when a top draft eligible player doesn’t opt out. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit believes he knows why opt outs have become more and more common.

According to Herbstreit, it’s because the importance of bowl games has been diminished.

“I think where we’re screwed here on these bowls is two things. Number one, when ESPN decided to keep going with more and more bowls, and we started to put 6-6 teams into bowl games, that damaged the brand of bowls and the meaning of bowls. That’s the first thing,” Kirk Herbstreit said Friday afternoon on the Pat McAfee Show.

There are varying opinions on whether or not there are currently too many bowl games. Kirk Herbstreit made his stance clear.

“There’s way too many bowls. I think you should be 8-4 to go to a bowl game. I think it’s not great for the bowl system that we have so many and so many teams, and these stadiums are empty, and the pre-Christmas bowl games are on TV,” Herbstreit said. “I think bowl games should be sold-out stadiums and teams that had great years, and it should be a celebration for the year you had.”

There’s no doubt that bowl games aren’t as big or important as they once were. They could be even less important beginning in 2024 as the College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams.

As the playoff expands, Herbstreit would like to see a drop in the number of bowl games.

“In a perfect world, we go to a 12-team playoff and we reduce it down to 15 or 18 bowls, and we have teams from these conferences that had great years and we go celebrate the years they had,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “We’re governing the sport like it’s 1985. This used to be a regional sport. This used to be a sport that the Big Ten and the Pac-12 worried about the Rose Bowl, the SEC worried about the Sugar Bowl, the old Southwest Conference, Big 12 worried about the Cotton Bowl, ACC worried about the Orange Bowl. And that doesn’t work anymore.

“No one cares about that because it’s now where everyone’s in one pool, because we’re all trying to get to the playoff. And if that’s the way the new world is on the field, then we need to change the governing body and the way we have leadership.”