Missing: Bowl Games

Adam Hefty

by Adam Hefty

In 2014, college football fans got a brand-new toy; College Football Playoff. The CFP is much better than the BCS system that was in place before. I can’t describe how much I love the CFP. With just 12 games, it’s impossible to decide who the best two teams are most years. So, putting 4 teams in contention is a very big step up. A little side note, I hope they expand it to 8 teams very shortly.

With all the good that comes with the CFP, leave it to the media to make things worrisome. It absolutely should be the main focal point of the bowl season. However, it shouldn’t be the ONLY focal point of the bowl season. There are plenty of very good and entertaining bowl games. Not only with talent, but storylines.

If it continues down this way, we will start losing bowl games. And what football fan doesn’t enjoy sitting on the couch on New Year’s Day nursing a…*cough* …cold, watching good teams line up against each other in weather much warmer than the weather that is outside our window.

Image courtesy of Alabama Public Radio

The history of these bowl games needs to be defended. A lot of programs have built their brand on the field of the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Cotton, and other bowls. And a lot of us have our earliest memories of watching our teams in these bowl games. Don’t get me wrong, I love the snow games. But there is something magical about watching your team in the Rose Bowl with the mountains in the distance as the afternoon turns into night as the second half in Pasadena.

I know that those big bowls are safe. The playoff does rotate between those bowls. But when it comes to the smaller bowls. The bowls that go to the champions of the smaller conferences. We can’t let those go either. I hear a lot of talk that there are too many bowls. “Good riddance. We shouldn’t have every mediocre team going to a bowl game. We aren’t here for participation trophies.” First of all, who cares? Why are these people so against giving these student-athletes an experience they’ll never forget? Secondly, there is a large difference between being in the Rose Bowl and the Quick Lane Bowl. I find it hard to believe that the players don’t understand that.

We need to save these bowls. I want to see schools that I don’t normally see. I want to see that team that has been historically bad take a step up. Its fun watching a team in a resurgence from the ground floor. And, I like watching the culmination of a season from 40 teams from all over the country.