Back in the golden ages of college football, there would only be about 15 bowl games or so. Every bowl game would feature some of the best teams throughout the season to face off with another team that had a great season. Most of the time these games would feature amazing matchups that would lead to classic games that are still remembered to this day. In todays era of college football, it went from 15 bowl games back as soon as 1980, to now over 40 bowl games.
I’d honestly say about over half of the games featured involve the most boring football I have ever watched in my life. A lot of teams that play in these bottom tier bowl has small fan bases, struggled through the entire season, and honestly do not deserve to get any recognition or reward. Many fans, like myself, are tired of these games getting featured and are tired of these pointless bowl games getting any t.v. time. Yes, its true a football game is a football game. But its not fun when you’re practically falling asleep when watching two mediocre teams face off. So, here’s a great question. Why does the NCAA bother still featuring these kinds of games?
For those of you who don’t know what a bowl game is, it is a postseason game for Division 1-A schools who have at least 6 wins and the winner receive a trophy, which basically is a participation trophy for just getting into a bowl game. Would you really be that excited to win a trophy from some random bowl game from some random sponsor nobody has ever heard of? Quite honestly, I wouldn’t. So why does the NCAA bother with these games?
Well, the biggest reason is of course is money. The NCAA is a non-profit organization that focuses on giving student-athletes the opportunity to play the sports they love while still receiving an education. Yet, the NCAA is a multi-million-dollar organization? This money comes from sponsorship. Which might explain why some bowl games have sponsors like Bad Boy Mowers, Nova Home Loans, or Foster Farms have bowl games. Ever hear of these companies? I doubt it.
But, if they can provide some sponsorship money for the NCAA, they’re going to get their own bowl game. All these pointless bowl games force fans to have to wait weeks in anticipation of the actual good bowl games with good teams that will give fans a competitive game finally. Another reason for these ridiculously boring games is ESPN. ESPN shows 36 of the 41 bowl games. 36.
Basically, ESPN uses this game to fill empty time slots for viewers and receive part of that sponsorship money. Yep, that’s basically it. That’s why football fans have to settle for these awful college football games for several weeks. Hopefully, in the future, the NCAA will decide to fix this system where it can benefit both fans by providing us good fun football games for us to watch, while still benefitting the NCAA themselves.
While I highly doubt this will happen anytime soon, us fans can still dream. For now, lets get ready for next year’s toilet bowl featuring the two worst teams of the entire season. Sounds fun right?
Source: Nudelman, Cork Gaines and Mike. “ESPN Is Why There Are Now 41 College Football Bowl Games and Other Networks Are Catching On.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 16 Dec. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/espn-college-football-bowl-games-networks-2017-12.
