Bowling

     For those aficionados of the Professional Bowlers Association Tour, this article is not for you. Then again, for those entranced with the present College Bowl system as it now stands including a four team playoff, then this also may not be agreeable to you.

     In 2016, there are a grand total of 41 bowl games slated from December 17 through January 2, 2018. Two of those games, the Peach Bowl, held in Atlanta, and the Fiesta Bowl, located in Glendale, Arizona, are hosts to the two semi-finals games for the College Football Playoff. On January 9, 2018, the winners emerging from the aforementioned two bowls will meet in Tampa, Florida for the National Championship.

     41 games in 17 days, largely because there are no contest held on Christmas Day in deference to religion (although the National Football League has scheduled a game and the National Basketball Association has games starting at noon into the night), and none on January 1 to allow the NFL to complete its regular season. That means 82 of 128 schools registered to play in the Football Bowl Subdivision are playing in the post-season.

     By comparison, there are 125 schools in the Football Championship Subdivision who only permit 24 teams to qualify for an actual single-elimination tournament overseen by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, known commonly as March Madness, is capped at 68 teams while drawing from a body of 347 colleges and universities. Division III, comprised of smaller schools in terms of enrollment, has nearly 250 football-playing members and has managed nicely to have a playoff which starts after all schools complete their 10 regular season matchups in November and ended on December 16.

     So why is there such a glaring, disparate percentage of FBS schools permitted to play in bowl games? Money drives the bus here. FBS schools have seen their schedules increase from 8 to 9 to 10 and now 12 regular season tilts. In most every FBS college, the main source of revenue comes from the football program. It is also the most visible symbol of the school, due to the oversaturation of games televised regionally or nationally. Alumni support is keyed directly to the success of the football team; the better the team, more money comes into the school from the alums.

     The costs of maintaining football teams and their palaces--training facilities with all the newest bells and whistles, dorms and stadiums--runs into the millions of dollars. Scholarships cost plenty, too. Thus given the economics of the sport, it is nearly vital for a team to make the post-season in order to generate necessary revenue for not just football but to operate Federally-mandated Title IX women's sports too.  

     As a result we get games in multiple locales, some in warm weather, others in colder climates. If there is a sponsor or a local Chamber of Commerce looking to advertise their town and ESPN/ABC, CBS or FOX is willing to shell out the dough, then there will be a game. How many times has the University of New Mexico hosted a game in chilly Albuquerque--no less this time against the University of Texas-San Antonio with its gaudy 6-6 record? Or that New Orleans Bowl, involving two 6-6 teams, Southern Mississippi and Louisiana-Lafayette? I am willing to bet that the bettors in Las Vegas do not get too excited. The hometown Las Vegas Bowl generated more excitement and more betting too as the two teams, San Diego State and Houston ONLY had 3 losses. A total of 12 teams had .500 records. Three teams had sub.500 records and mad the post-season largely due to having acceptable graduation for its teams. Acceptable? Mediocre? Really?

     Some of the big programs are seeing their elite stars now opt not to play in a bowl game in order to avoid injury in a meaningless contest and thus hurt their marketability to the NFL. Do the schools care about jeopardizing the futures of young men who now are practicing beginning in August and playing 13 games to line conference and athletic department coffers?

     I find that the whole bowl landscape has spun out of control. When I was younger there were the four New Year's Day bowl games without corporate sponsorships--Orange, Sugar, Cotton and Rose. They all were held during the day. The Sun Bowl in El Paso existed, as did the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville. The predecessor to the Citrus Bowl was the Tangerine Bowl and that was for smaller schools from 1947 until 1968.

     Seemingly games appear in markets that should never have a game. Do we really need a Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium? The Military Bowl in Annapolis, Maryland on December 27 is a barn burner. The Quick Lane Bowl indoors in Detroit's Ford Field is a must; do players desire spending a week in a nearly bankrupt city? While Nassau in the Bahamas beckons with its bowl game, we even now can justify playing outside of the United State for its Popeye's Bahamas Bowl coincidentally owned by ESPN Events, Inc.
   
     Miami, New Orleans, San Diego, Orlando, Atlanta, Tampa and Dallas have the need to twice enrich their coffers as well as their partners, which includes the particular affiliated conferences and the associated teams. I get that these events are worth millions to the local economy from the legions of fans who travel to see their alma mater play. Still, many bowls suffer from mediocre attendance and they survive because of the television contract and the sponsorships.

     The biggest bowls and the CPP Championship max out with $18 million payouts. While that is obscene itself, that is what the market bears. Promising a recruit the chance to play for something big is only limited to a handful of games with more established reputations in the bigger markets. While it is novel to play on the blue carpet in Boise, Idaho, try selling to a kid that your above .500 squad who may have finished in the middle of the pack of its conference gets to play for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl trophy.

     I do not mean to diminish the efforts of those involved and dedicated to their bowls. It is just that there are too many games without the pizazz that should accompany a really successful season.

     It is my opinion that the major conferences need to cut back on the needless home games against lesser schools to fatten their resume as insurance for a tough season and institute a playoff like the FBS universities have. Notwithstanding the opposition from noted academics like former Ohio State University President Gordon Gee, presently the head of West Virginia University, whose reticence to a playoff was legendary, laughingly in the names of the students and academics,  whereupon only a handful of schools would find their way into the final four.

     I say take 16 bowls and make them into the championship. Situate them in areas where schools can readily play first round games without enormous travel. Four rounds would determine a champion, one which can be crowned in a big game in early January.  Then reserve another 16 games for those teams who reach a certain cutoff number of wins--let's day 8 victories in 11 games--as a reward for a nice season. This would permit some of the present sites to remain viable. Plus no site should host two games.

     To me this is a workable solution to an untenable situation. If their brethren in the FCS and Division II and Division II can make it work, then there is no reason this cannot succeed at the highest level.

     Until this happens, count me out of watching North Texas and Army tagle in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Or Mississippi State and Miami of Ohio meet in the mausoleum know as Tropicana Field, home to the Rays for baseball but very ill-suited for football games.

     You can do better, institutions of higher learning. Use your collective heads in the NCAA and reach a realistic answer for the plethora of meaningless games which fill up dead time on the airwaves. The public, the players and the cities deserve better.