After Week #6, who should be the new #1?

[JeffHCross]

It would be the most anticipated game EVER.

Honestly ... I love the MWC and WAC schools ... but no, no it wouldn't be.

Bowl games are killing college football

Okay, seriously? I can accept you not liking the BCS. I can accept you thinking that the BCS conferences have unacceptable levels of preference compared to the non-AQ conferences. But come on. The bowls are killing college football? The things that define college football, and have been part of the game since 1902 are killing college football? That's like saying Joe Paterno is killing college football.

You want to say there are too many? Fine. You want to say that the payouts for the non-BCS bowls are too small? Fine. But killing college football? Good grief.

Just ... no.

[JBHuskers]

There are too many when over half of D-I gets in a bowl. At this point it's less about the prestige of getting into a bowl as it is getting the paycheck for getting into one.

[Rudy]

That's not what I meant. I said people would be fine watching Boise OR TCU in the title game but would prefer if ONE of the title teams was a big name like Oregon or OU. I didn't mean they didn't want to see either. I think a Boise St. Oregon matchup would be fun to watch. I'm not nearly as interested in Boise vs. TCU.

[morsdraconis]

Okay, seriously? I can accept you not liking the BCS. I can accept you thinking that the BCS conferences have unacceptable levels of preference compared to the non-AQ conferences. But come on. The bowls are killing college football? The things that define college football, and have been part of the game since 1902 are killing college football? That's like saying Joe Paterno is killing college football.

You want to say there are too many? Fine. You want to say that the payouts for the non-BCS bowls are too small? Fine. But killing college football? Good grief.

Just ... no.

It's killing college football because these teams out of the WAC, MWC, Sun Belt, and even some of the lower BCS schools are LOSING money by going to these bowl games. Remember when Pittsburgh played Utah a few years back? Both those schools ate a HUGE amount of money in ticket sales alone because neither team's fans traveled to the game but the schools still had to buy the tickets to have available to sell to the fans. It's that type of stuff that is killing college football.

More and more schools are losing money even with all the grants and such that they get from the government. It's costing more and more to run these programs and, overall, schools aren't making money on the lower bowl games. They just aren't.

Where as, the tax exempt and government funded Bowl game committees for those bowl games are making a fuckin' killing. Just like everything else that revolved around the BCS and the bowl system, it's about the bottom dollar and nothing else.

It is most definitely that the payouts for the lower bowl games are too small (or those bowl games just shouldn't exist). These games between two 6-6 teams isn't going to have a huge fanbase following to the game so those schools are going to just lose money by going to those bowl games.

Someone posted somewhere with a link about this stuff (can't remember exactly where) but there's a book about it written by some of the guys that have been reporting about college football for years.

[JeffHCross]

You know ... those schools can decline invitations. So if they're truly losing money, they only have themselves to blame.

I absolutely agree there are too many and that the lower tier bowls probably don't deserve to be played.

But "killing college football" is drastically overstating things.

[Rudy]

Bowls are great for college football. I think it's fair to debate the number of them since it's grown to a crazy amount but bowl season should always exist. One more reason for me to be dead set against any playoff format greater than 4 teams.

[SmoothPancakes]

Bowls are great for college football. I think it's fair to debate the number of them since it's grown to a crazy amount but bowl season should always exist. One more reason for me to be dead set against any playoff format greater than 4 teams.

Yeah, bowl season is still great for the sport. It's the one time of year that I have a chance to literally watch a bunch of teams that I never would see at all. Even teams that I don't give a damn about, I'll sit there watching every second of each bowl game (flipping constantly back and forth when multiple games are on). As well the national exposure every team gets by being on TV for bowl games, which always helps with recruiting.

Plus it's that much more college football on TV as the season slowly winds to another end. And in the middle of December, it's not exactly like there are a ton of sports on TV. Your only options pretty much are NFL on Sundays and most likely a selection of Lakers/Celtics/Heat/Magic/one or two other big name teams of NBA action in the evening on TNT and whatever other channels two or three nights a week.

I do however agree about there being way to many. If I remember correctly, there are bowl slots for 70 teams. Last year, there were only 71 eligible teams, to fill 68 bowl slots. Only 72 eligible teams in 2008 for 68 slots, etc, etc. Which is why I couldn't believe the NCAA added another bowl after last year. They only had 3 extra teams out of bowls last season. That, in my opinion, was cutting it too damn close to potentially having a 6-7 or 5-7 team slipping into a bowl game just to fill slots. I say chop off at least 3-5 bowl games (if you go even just 5, you knock the available slots down to 60 so only a total of 50% of the teams make it to the bowl season) and only add new games as new teams in the future jump up to DI-A, allowing a maximum of only 50% of teams to get into bowl games, never more than that.

Of course that will never happen. It's all about the mighty dollar. Just watch, some day that dollar is going to be so irresistible that the NCAA will expand it to 60 bowl games, everyone will play in one, and afterwards, everyone will receive blue participation ribbons.

[jaymo76]

Man Michigan St keeps on winning. I just love watching this team play.... er... well... okay the new uniforms are hidious but they play a fun game of football.

[JeffHCross]

I don't like the shoulder / collar stripe, but the new helmet has grown on me.

[Rudy]

I like MSU's new uniforms.