Do bowl games matter anymore?
- Thread starter Cy4All
- Start date
It depends on the context. The 2020 Fiesta Bowl seems equivalent to a Sweet 16 victory in basketball.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Maybe a couple of them, but the games started as exhibitions designed to get fans to travel, or, if you will, for folks to spend money.
There were maybe 3 bowl games in a given season that determined the national champion.
The only reason the bowls matter less is because there was a collective decision that they just mattered less. Their actual affect on final standings or a school's success (or lack thereof) is the same as it always was.
Bowls have always been glorified exhibitions. It's just that sometime in the last 20 years, that became a popular reason to look down on them or ignore them.
College football was so pure until the early 1900s.
Does the Pro Bowl matter? It's about the same level as some of these games. But I wouldn't get rid of them. They are a way to reward the athletes for their hard work and success throughout the season. And it typically gives the fans a nice excuse to travel over the winter holidays. It's a win all around, but they still don't matter.
Getting to a point where you really don't have to be good to even make one really hurt and just watered it down further.
Otherwise like others have said it's more football.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
It's not really about the schools making money. Well, the schools think so, but it's much more about TV, advertisers, and businesses involved in tourism making the money. The schools and teams just a means to an end.
This article is pretty solid in breaking down payouts and how it flows down to teams.
College Football Playoff Payouts 2023-2024
How much do teams make for the College Football Playoff? We've got the 2023-24 revenue distribution plan plus payouts from past years.
businessofcollegesports.com
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It's a clear indicator that many bowls mean far less to players than they do the fans. And that shouldn't really come as a surprise. Players who are heading to the draft are weighing the injury risk and players who are want to transfer want to just move on. A trip to Nashville or San Antonio isn't necessarily much of an incentive.
And with the playoff expanding, they'll mean even less going forward. It's just reality.
Bowl games don’t matter when we say they don’t matter.
When we say bowl games matter we’ll give you both barrels!
When we say bowl games matter we’ll give you both barrels!
I can't remember a time when 6 wins weren't eligible. The criteria for inclusion hasn't really changed much in probably 30 years.
6 wins meant you were eligible but certainly didn't mean you would get selected for a bowl until the late 90's or early 2000's when the number of bowls dramatically increased. Up until then there were 6,7,8 win teams that got left out.
As said...they matter...but they matter for reasons other than the obvious reason which was the competition/game that was played that day on the field. Extra practice for teams who play in bowl games matters to coaches and tourism money matters to the host city. The game itself? Not as much as they used to matter.
I'm 37, and the first football season I can really remember is 1995 (TD's first good year). 6 win teams went to bowls all the time, and people were talking then about how there were too many bowl games.
I don't think opt outs started until sometime around 2013 or 2014. You had a 20 year window where we had a pile of bowl games, but players still treated them as significant. There was no substantive change to the bowl season or format, there was just a collective mindset shift that this didn't mean much.
