Of course this is my opinion. What happened? Maybe it just the aging/maturation process in one's life. What is it?
Bowl Games have lost Pizazz
- Thread starter jbenedict
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Thought the same exact thing. Maybe we’re just grumpy old men.
I only watch them for the biased, bloviating announcers and the endless stream of commercials.
Listen to the whole video. Nick Saban tells you what's what with bowls today.
Meaningless unless your in the playoff
Just too many to keep up with anymore and most of the teams playing are mediocre, so bowl season has lost its interest for me. Of course ESPN has screwed up the season as well by over saturating the airwaves with their constant presence.
Bowls used ot be a reward for a good season, now everyone goes and its just isn't near as much fun,
Bowls used ot be a reward for a good season, now everyone goes and its just isn't near as much fun,
I disagree with his premise. Forever, only one or two (3 tops) bowl games have had a bearing on the National Championship. How is it different now?
And I hate listening to Saban. Get the **** over yourself Nick. It's college ****ing football. He takes every question like someone just hit on his wife.
Yeah, going to a bowl with a 7-5 or 6-6 record is pretty ridiculous.
What, 39-40 bowls.....so 80 teams go? Yep, ridiculous.
Let’s try cutting this in half for starters and go from there.
Right. He doesn't answer hypothetical questions but guess what, he just did. Freakin goofball.
Excellent piece. Thanks for sharing. Like him or not he’s got it right. He also seems to command respect and a no nonsense type Coach.
The playoff is all that matters which is another reason it needs to expand. I keep hoping people stop going to these scrimmages.
I went from wanting to view each and every bowl game in my youth ... to, up until recently, only wanting to watch a few interesting/marquee match-ups, but if I happened upon a game I might stop and watch it ... to, now, I actually get upset when I'm flipping the channels and I run into a bowl game - I can't change the channel fast enough. Zero interest.
I'm not at all excited for PSU's bowl game, though I'll muster up fake interest for the benefit of my boys (8 and 10), and to have an excuse to sit and watch sports with them. And right now I'm thinking I'll skip the playoffs. Not having anything resembling a rooting interest (or rooting against interest, even) takes away from the luster. Just destroy the bowl system entirely, and give me 16+ playoff teams so there's some Cinderella storylines, potentially, and I'll watch those. Otherwise, eh.
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There are too many, I am not saying we go back to the days where an 8 or 9 win team would have serious worries about not being able to go, but at least maybe trim it down so you have to have at least 7 wins to be in the conversation of being bowl eligible, and to the point where 7 wins would not guarantee it, just get you in the talk, like how not that long ago it was "sure 6-5 gets you bowl eligible, but a good deal of 6 win teams won't be going" which even that small difference from now I think did alot.
Also they spread the games out too much, since they don't want them to overlap more then they have to, so you get one game maybe two at the same time, so if that game is "meh" you don't have other game(s) to choose from as much.
Also they spread the games out too much, since they don't want them to overlap more then they have to, so you get one game maybe two at the same time, so if that game is "meh" you don't have other game(s) to choose from as much.
Lion maybe I am comparing today to the good old days. You know i think. Do you remember when bowl games were completed in a few days, most games taking place on New Years day. Watching Joe walk the sidelines displaying his antics. The neighborhood in and out of my house all day drinking, eating, playing cards, and watching football. MaMa Leone and my dad loved this time. Boy could she cook. Of course it helped being on an extended school break. It just seemed that many in the neighborhood had an opinion and was rooting for a team. Oh well. Maybe the Penn State game will act as a recharge this Saturday. Board I am okay, those were the days.
I agree, although I still watch a lot because I don't have any interest in most everything else on TV. But I also agree with the poster above, it's oversaturation. You used to be able to watch bowl games on only a few days. Now they are on every day for 2 weeks +. I used to love waking up hungover on NYD and start to watch bowl games at 11 am. It was frustrating that there were so many games on a the same time, but now it looks like a blessing. I will get still get up NYD and watch a few, but with little excitement. Last year I didn't even watch the championship game because I was burned out from so much college football over the previous month.
There are just way too many bowls and that’s allowing teams with 6-6 and even 5-7 records in. It’s a seriously diluted product. Teams used to need to win 8 games to get to a bowl. It ended up matching up better teams against each other.
There were also more matchup possibilities as there were less conference tie ins (team X didn’t end up in Orlando 3 of the last 4 years). There was more flexibility of where your team could go and who you could play.
Now everyone gets a trophy and goes to a bowl and there’s a lot of bad matchups and bad games. The product is also becoming dull (IMO) with your team always going to 1 of the same 3-4 bowl games each year.
They need to require 7-8 wins to go and remove all conference tie ins to allow more variability in opponent and location.
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I've always only been sure to watch 2 bowl games, Penn State's and the National Championship. The rest I watch if there is nothing else on that interests me. I will try to watch B1G team's bowl games in most years. If ND is getting smoked I'll tune in. I do remember in my 20s my friends having 3 televisions on side-by-side on New Year's Day, but that was more of a party than interest in the games.
Solution? Bet on games and make yourself have an interest, its the only way to watch these really.
Sponsors still paying up for bowl games so they must feel there is enough viewers to make it worth it.
As Penn State gets better it does make it less enticing to watch the playoff games with zero rooting interest. Getting pretty sick of seeing Bama every year in it and now Clemson seems like a mainstay. None of the teams in the playoff do anything for me on a personal level good or bad. I don't even know who i want to win, maybe Georgia but their fans yelling SEC non-stop, barking ,calling us Penn Staters yankees, and chanting Paterno is a pedophile in the concourse of the bowl game in Jacksonville a couple of years ago makes me think no. Plus they have D'Andre Swift and I am very jealous of that. OU to me is a sick place that breeds RBs who beat kids and women and players who don't have to touch a school book to play football. Bama, I am just sick of their privilege so I guess its Clemson who is becoming the next Bama.
Sponsors still paying up for bowl games so they must feel there is enough viewers to make it worth it.
As Penn State gets better it does make it less enticing to watch the playoff games with zero rooting interest. Getting pretty sick of seeing Bama every year in it and now Clemson seems like a mainstay. None of the teams in the playoff do anything for me on a personal level good or bad. I don't even know who i want to win, maybe Georgia but their fans yelling SEC non-stop, barking ,calling us Penn Staters yankees, and chanting Paterno is a pedophile in the concourse of the bowl game in Jacksonville a couple of years ago makes me think no. Plus they have D'Andre Swift and I am very jealous of that. OU to me is a sick place that breeds RBs who beat kids and women and players who don't have to touch a school book to play football. Bama, I am just sick of their privilege so I guess its Clemson who is becoming the next Bama.
I think it's pretty obvious what has happened to bowl games: The glitz and importance is packed into three games, the semifinals and the final. Tell me what the significance is with the others? Of course there's school pride to be considered, but in the big picture, it carries no weight. Bowl season used to be a lot more fun than it is now.
It's called "aging". You're changing much more rapidly than the bowl system.
I agree with your first paragraph but not the second. I'll be very interested in our game, and excited to watch it, simply because I bleed blue and white. I also like watching the playoffs because you usually see good game. I must tell you, though, that I turn them off as soon as the game is over. I'm not interested in watching other teams celebrate. Only us.
Where was the glitz and importance "packed" into 30 years ago? The Liberty, Gator, Cotton, Citrus and many, many others were meaningless then just as they are now. What has changed?
Four years ago, and years before, I took off from work between the Holidays to watch the Bowls, and I knew every score before I went to bed. This year I have watched only the Purdue game. Seeing 5k in the stands sucks, but not unexpected.
During the season, I will stay up until 1am to watch a solid PAC12 game.
Truth be told, I am not sure why I am not vested as years past in the Bowls. I could really care less about the CFP, and certainly will not stay up until 12:30am to watch it.
I agree with the poster, maybe if I bet $20 a game,it would be more interesting, but that is not a given.
Hope CFB bubble is not about to pop.
During the season, I will stay up until 1am to watch a solid PAC12 game.
Truth be told, I am not sure why I am not vested as years past in the Bowls. I could really care less about the CFP, and certainly will not stay up until 12:30am to watch it.
I agree with the poster, maybe if I bet $20 a game,it would be more interesting, but that is not a given.
Hope CFB bubble is not about to pop.
It was the mystery, man. You had seasons where the national championship hinged on the outcome of two or three games played on New Year's Day. I remember the real importance of the Sugar, Rose and Orange bowls. Maybe you're too your to remember, but I certainly do.
How unselfishly “giving” of yourself. Aren’t you the great “parent”?
Perhaps you could be a man about it and elaborate on your implied snark and condemnation. Use your words.
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So what's different? This year, there are TWO games on NYD where the championship hinges on the outcome; all the rest are meaningless. Just like 1994, 1968, 1969, 1973 and 1985. The Liberty Bowl was useless and just providing programming in the early 1960's. What is different today?
I bleed blue and white. In fact, I wore the blue and white on the field of athletic competition (just not football). I live up here in Massachusetts now, and I've embraced it, and left my PA roots behind, except for PSU. My boys know that, although they can root for the Pats, Red Sox and Celtics ... if they root for a university other than PSU, they'll be living in the guest house ... if I'm feeling especially paternal at that moment. Otherwise, it's the shed.
I've watched the playoffs in past years. I just don't have that same feeling of caring this year. I've always been a proponent of expanded playoffs, and a year with no Big Ten rep, and some same ole, same ole programs, and others I don't care about ... eh.
Perhaps. However, after years of becoming more and more detached from the other sports of which I was a big follower/fan/participant, after becoming a parent and now having my kids involved in these sports and watching their growing interest, I've found myself gravitating back to those sports. And the same can be said for college football, generally. I just have no use for the current bowl system/mini-playoff.
Same with all the porn sites. Way too many has taken away some of the interest.
It's you! The Liberty, Gator, Aloha, Citrus and several other bowl games were useless decades ago but they all count as "bowl wins" on our resume. Go find something else to whine about. It sucks that we are not in the final four but we needed to win one of the two games we lost this year to do it.
This is why, for all of 2018, you shall be referred to as "Mister" mrtailgate! Thanks for one of the best contributions of 2017!
It wasn't long ago FBS had about 100 teams now you have 130 which translates into more bowls, college football needs another division. I admit i watch them all but up until this week it's like watching the MAC or Sun Belt.
The second problem started with the BCS with positioning, now it's positioning on steroids.
The second problem started with the BCS with positioning, now it's positioning on steroids.
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