College football fans, we have some bad news for you. It might be better if you sat down for this, even though this news should be obvious now:
The bowl system is on life support, the prognosis bleak. It will probably linger for years — mainly because the TV people need something to fill the scant time between annoying insurance commercials (it’s either football or “Golden Girls” reruns) — but it’s just postponing the inevitable. It’s dying. The symptoms are apparent: a progressive illness, a vastly weakened condition, a general disinterest in going on.
At least 10 teams turned down bowl invitations this month. Remember when bowl games were considered a reward, a payoff, something to earn and look forward to? Now they treat it like it’s an appointment with a proctologist.
Snooty, spoiled Notre Dame refused to play in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. That was bad enough, but when the likes of Central Florida, Kansas and Temple are turning down bowl invitations, you know something is really wrong.
Even those guys don’t want to play?
Iowa State, Auburn, Florida State, Baylor, Rutgers and Kansas State also declined bowl invitations.
“The bowl system we know now is officially dead,” a college football bowl executive told On3 Sports’ Brett McMurphy. “RIP. It was a nice run while it lasted.”
It’s a run that began in 1902.
There is no medicine, no remedy that can fix it. College football is sick and delirious with its new-found freedom, via NIL, the transfer portal and virtually no rules, and there’s no turning back now. There’s also a glut of bowls — 35 of them in all, plus 11 playoff games.
Not even money can fix it. Notre Dame refused a $3 million offer to play in the Pop-Tarts Bowl (plus all the Pop Tarts they could eat). Kansas State and Iowa State were fined $500,000 each by the Big 12 Conference for refusing to accept a bowl invitation.
Notre Dame opted out because the Irish are pouting over their exclusion from the playoff.
That’s the thinking: if not one of the 12 playoff spots, then nothing. The playoff is a great thing — even if the selection process is a mess — but it comes with a side effect: it renders all the other bowl games meaningless.
Last year the playoff was expanded from four teams to 12, which further reduces the number of quality teams available for the other (regular) bowls. Rules stipulate that a team must have a record of 6-6 or better to play in a bowl game, but if there aren’t enough teams that meet that criterion then they turn to teams with 5-7 records to try to fill out the matchups. Ten teams with 5-7 records were invited to bowl games; only three accepted.
The Birmingham Bowl had to search for more than a week to find a second opponent to play Georgia Southern after numerous teams declined. They settled on Appalachian State, with a 5-7 record.
Iowa State declined a bowl invitation citing a coaching change and player fatigue (apparently, they are borrowing the NBA’s “load management” philosophy).
Kansas State also opted out due to a coaching change.
Florida State, Auburn, UCF, Baylor, Rutgers, Kansas, Temple — all of them sporting 5-7 records — turned down bowl participation so they can focus on the transfer portal and begin preparing for offseason preparation for next season.
Wait, isn’t that backwards? Don’t teams prepare in the offseason hoping to play in a bowl game?
“We’re all just super excited,” Georgia Southern quarterback JC French told TV station WJCL 22 when his team was invited to the Birmingham Bowl. “The opportunity to play in the postseason is special.”
At least someone still thinks that way.
