Is the Bowl Championship? Series hurting college football

[grogers103]

In the days before the BCS the major bowl games ALL had an impact on the eventual National Champion, The best teams were playing in the Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Rose, etc. Depending on who won (and other factors) the relevant recognition before 1998 came from various entities, including coach polls and media ballots, which each voted to recognize their own national champions. Back then everyone PLAYED in their bowl game for their school, nobody sat out, Now, with only THE four teams eligible to win the NC, players are skipping their teams' bowl game for fear of getting hurt,,, so has the playoff system (pre-1998) contributed to the "irrelevancy" of the rest of the bowls.....curious>>..

 

[Bill From Tampa]

With the action taken by players of skipping the bowl game, they are silently stating what a number of fans have been saying for a while .... that the bowls are becoming meaningless.

For me, I am only interested in our bowl game or the ones with the other four teams I follow as well as the NYD 6. If it is a game other than those, I am not interested.

This trend of players skipping is not a good one for the game IMO.

 

[NoleMoreTears]

It's not hurting by itself - the sheer volume of the games and TV money is diluting the product.

In the 80's and 90's It was a rare occasion when more than 2 teams had a shot at the title going into bowl season so I don't see how this is worse. In the end, it's entertainment and that's what is being delivered, albeit on a quantity over quality level.

 

[Bill From Tampa]

Ther was one quality game yesterday. One mediocre game. And one really bad game. Few games so far have been quality games.

 

[NoleMoreTears]

Yep, we'd expect exactly that on Dec. 28. The quality is still there it just gets diluted by the quantity. That certainly isn't the BCS fault. If anything, the BCS facilitated more even matchups on paper.

 

[Bill From Tampa]

I think we are agreeing. Since the playoffs have begun, the focus seems to be much more so on the 3 games that involve those four teams.

As imperfect as it was, I actually enjoyed the years before the BCS. There would often be a lot of variables at play in those New Year's Dayg games to determne who was number one.