As the annual college football bowl season culminates with the National Championship next Monday, now is a good time to look back on this football season's edition, soak in all the postseason football that's been played over the past two weeks, and wonder what exactly is going haywire in the world of college football's bowl game system right now.
I can't quite put my finger on the culprit with one all-encompassing point, but as a rigid college football fan that spends a good portion of his winter holiday each year entrenched in bowl games, I can't help but to feel that the system has lost some significance lately, especially when comparing this year's slate of games to those of previous years. I can't remember a less enjoyable year of bowls, and though this only reinforces my claim of a sputtering system, last year seemed to be this year's closest rival. Overall, it felt as if the competition, fandom, and most importantly, the fun, all dwindled this year.
Typically, I look forward to sitting down during the holidays to watch competitive gridiron games with intriguing matchups between teams I likely haven't seen much of during the regular season, but that wasn't the case this year. It almost seems like playing in a bowl has become more of a chore than a reward for a successful season, as it has been painstakingly evident in many games this year that some teams, simply put, didn't want to be there.
In the grand scheme of the college football season, this makes sense. It's been a very physically taxing past four months, and some student athletes probably prefer to be home with their families during the holidays. Unless you're one of the top four teams that have been selected to compete in the College Football Playoff, there really isn't much to play for anyway, other than pride and a trophy for the school's case.
The fate of a coach can also be an element that drains motivation if players know their coach or coaches won't be returning next season. As the coaching carousel takes its course, coaches move on to new opportunities, and that can sting for players who have spent years building a relationship with their coach, likely the man that recruited them to campus in the first place. The same thing can also be said for players who are looking a little too far ahead at their potential NFL futures. About a week ago, ESPN had a crew on air discussing the games leading up to the Playoff semifinals, and they ripped the decisions of a few Florida players to declare for the NFL Draft before the team had even played in its bowl game, claiming that the declaration did absolutely nothing to help the team and only displayed the true selfishness of the players. It could be a harmless coincidence, but Michigan ended up manhandling Florida 41-7 in the Citrus Bowl.
Couple these things with the overall vacation-like feel of certain bowl destinations, and you have a fairly distraction-friendly environment which we saw in action this year with the sending home of three Clemson players for failed drug tests, as well as Trevone Boykin's suspension for felony assault on a police officer. I'm not saying a trip to Hawaii is a justifiable excuse for San Diego State's 42-7 thumping of Cincinnati in the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve, but it's another factor to consider when trying to diagnose the problem here.
Student athletes are people just like you and me, and sometimes, from the comfort of your couch, it's easy to forget that they have feelings, emotions, and are subject to human nature just like everybody else. So when these types of distractions act on their will, the results, as evidenced by this year's box scores, are not pretty. After witnessing blowout after blowout after blowout, I felt as little motivation to watch bowl games as I can ever remember. It's one thing to play a bad game or not have as much talent as your opponent, but it's a completely different thing to play your entire bowl game completely disinterested. I'm looking at you here, Florida State.
But again, I pose the question, what is wrong with the bowls? Is it the sheer distracting nature of the games, or does it have something to do with the volume of games? This year, there were 41 separate bowl games (not including the National Championship), which means 82 teams participated in a bowl, and it seems like there's a new bowl or two each year. But how many new bowls can be added before every team in college football gets the opportunity to play in one regardless of their regular season record? I mean, Nebraska and Minnesota both finished 5-7 in the regular season and still got invited to go bowling. This is a far cry from how the system used to operate, where there was a bit more prestige in the bowls, and only the best teams were invited to play. Nebraska and Minnesota both won their bowl games, though, so then again, what do I know?
Even the Playoff semifinals weren't very competitive. Clemson and Oklahoma stayed close for about one quarter, while Michigan State couldn't get out of first gear all night in a route at the hands of Alabama. Not to mention, the semis were played on New Year's Eve, so the games didn't draw near the audience that the Playoff Committee had expected (which, to be fair, is a little uncertain in itself, as this is only the Playoff's second year in place).
There's also the issue of players jeopardizing their futures by playing in bowl games that don't mean anything for the team or the player. This year, we saw one of the top projected picks in this year's coming NFL Draft, Notre Dame's Jaylon Smith, suffer a gruesome knee injury in the first half of the Fiesta Bowl, and for what? Many experts have long said Smith is the best linebacker in this draft class, and he had essentially nothing to gain by playing, having already cemented his draft stock. But of course, Notre Dame wanted to win, and logically they will try to win by playing their best players. It's just an unfortunate situation, and one must wonder that at what point, if ever, will the school begin to consider the student athlete's future with regards to professional prospects in meaningless games.
For a football fan like myself, it's frustrating to see my once beloved bowl season slate become so one-sided that the victors resort to littering the game with trick plays in the second half. I'm not saying I don't enjoy a creatively executed trick play here and there, but after the tenth halfback pass of the day, it gets a little old. Are teams just that ill-prepared for their bowl games this year?
Allow me to digress briefly, as I'm still getting over a tough Penn State bowl loss from earlier today, which never aids the cause for a successful bowl season. Regardless, though, my feelings toward bowl season still stand after sitting through the rest of the games from the day almost against my own will, as I'm currently watching Oregon in the process of embarrassing TCU 31-0 at halftime.
Maybe it's just a coincidence that these games were wholistically less competitive this year, but man, it would be nice to able to watch the bowls past the second half without a bench-clearing brawl for once. If this is what the future of the bowls holds, then maybe it's time to modify the system again, because I honestly think it's really hurting college football at the moment. The question is, with so many different interests at stake, and especially with the introduction of the playoff format last year, where exactly do we go from here?
