Lol, their 2 best wins were 6-6 Florida and 6-6 Auburn, along with the typical Vanderbilt win and 3 cupcakes.
That's the SEC formula for getting all these below average teams in bowl games. You onky have to go 2-6 or 3-5.
I mean, he's kinda right...
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Lol, their 2 best wins were 6-6 Florida and 6-6 Auburn, along with the typical Vanderbilt win and 3 cupcakes.
That's the SEC formula for getting all these below average teams in bowl games. You onky have to go 2-6 or 3-5.
I may be wrong, but I believe when ISU played in the Eddie Robinson Classic they got to start practice early.
If they are exhibitions then they shouldn't count the games towards season records, or record stats. Nor should final rankings be impacted by results. Players also shouldn't play very hard on defense. But wait, they do count all of that. Why? Because they aren't exhibitions. The pro bowl and NBA all star game are exhibitions. The Senior Bowl is an exhibition. The Cheez-it Bowl was an actual real game. No less than the TCU game in November.
The "meaningless bowl" talk comes from ESPN and other media guys and guys on bar stools. Players like them, coaches like them, fans like them, and host cities definitely like them. Why piss in a perfectly good bowl of Cheerios?
Which is funny, because the glut of bowl games is directly due to ESPN's involvement. ESPN owns bowl 16 games (having created 11 from scratch in the last two decades), and has broadcast rights for all but 3 of the rest.
So not only are a lot of these games made-for-TV, they're made-by-TV.
TV ratings, fans, players, and coaches suggest these games matter a lot. Other than being senior day, the Clemson game was a lot bigger than TCU. A good game against a big name opponent with tons of people watching vs a blowout against a bad team nobody cares about watched by few.
"Tons of people" are watching because there's only one game on at a time, not 7-10 in each window like a regular football Saturday. If Minnesota/WVU or ASU/Wisconsin were played at 11:00 on a Saturday in September, they wouldn't draw beans compared to now, when there's no competition for eyeballs.
With increased coaching moves, the transfer portal, more opt-outs, and 2/3 of FBS already playing a 13th game thanks to the bloated bowl system, I feel like we're approaching a tipping point where:
(a) the regular season will expand to 13 games, with some of the matchups you'd normally see in a bowl game instead being played as Week 0 "classics" or the week after CCGs as part of a pre-determined H/H scheduling alliance between conferences
(b) most of the pre-12/28 bowls go away (including the made-by-TV ones that ESPN created out of thin air)
(c) whatever bowl venues are left serve as host sites for an expanded playoff system
Same with conference championships to a large degree, yet the Pac12 and ACC still pulled in similar numbers.
Exclusive, and hence increased, exposure is a big part of why bowl games are not just any other game and good for programs.
Bowls matter a lot if applying the same standards as we would to other games. They fall short of the standard of what they meant when there was even more exclusiveness and novelty.
If you don't like football..... I encourage you to explore alternative message boards.
I’m just asking questions. I understand the value of the bowls to everyone involved. I just wonder if having so many has a negative effect on the sport as a whole.
Yeah...I agree with this mindset. I mean...if one doesn't want to watch it then don't...right? So what if there are more bowl games now than there used to be and the best thing about it is that the players get one more experience! Why not?