Local Sports
MIKE CUMMINGS: Bowl games starting to lose luster
I don’t know about you, but I got really excited when I heard the news about the EagleBank Bowl.
What’s that? You haven’t heard of the EagleBank Bowl?
Shame on you. It’s only the newest, coolest bowl game among the 34 that will be contested this bowl season, and it’s going to be played at 11 a.m. local time on Dec. 20 at Washington’s RFK Stadium — that grand ol’ shining light of college football history.
Ok, just joking. Like most college football fans, I’m not exactly looking forward to watching the game. Actually, I didn’t even know it existed until Monday.
But there is good news. The inaugural EagleBank Bowl will be one of four bowl games kicking off the 2008-2009 bowl season a week from Saturday.
By the time we all tune in to watch Florida beat Oklahoma in the BCS Championship game 29 days from now, we will have watched 68 teams show off their skills on national television.
That’s right, 68 — or roughly 57 percent of the 119 teams in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision.
Another game on Dec. 20 — the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl — is the other new bowl game this year. And it’ll be played in another shrine of big-time college football: St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field, last seen making its debut it Major League Baseball’s fall classic in October.
EagleBank? magicJack?
What happened to bowl season?
Did you know that 18 years ago, there were only 19 bowl games? I didn’t either, until Tuesday afternoon.
And back in 1990, those 19 games didn’t have ridiculous names like EagleBank and magicJack, not to mention Roady’s Humanitarian, Meineke Car Care, R+L Carriers New Orleans and San Diego County Credit Union.
But hey, back in 1990, we also didn’t get powerhouse matchups like Florida Atlanta-Central Michigan (Motor City), Northern Illinois-Louisiana Tech (Independece) and Rice-Western Michigan (Texas).
So I guess beggars can’t be choosers.
The EagleBank Bowl, by the way, features Navy and Wake Forest, and the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl will showcase South Florida and Memphis.
But does it really matter? Of the 34 games, 23 will be on the same network, so it could be just about anyone.
In fact, why don’t we just do away with the teams themselves and show clips from the regular season? Or we could simulate the games on Madden ’09.
It would probably be just as compelling.
So when you hear college presidents telling you about how unfeasible it is — based on loss of revenue and overstuffed team schedules — to adopt a college football playoff, please laugh at the TV.
In case they haven’t figured it out, a playoff wouldn’t require nearly as many as 68 teams. Something like eight or 16 would do nicely.
But even if you take out all 16, you still have enough teams for 26 bowl games, with all the EagleBanks and magicJackses you could ever imagine. Counting the 15 more that would be needed for a playoff system, that’s 42 games — which means more TV revenue and more fannies in the seats.
The drawback is, of course, that the two teams reaching the championship game would play 16 games in a season. But by shortening the regular season, that wouldn’t be an issue.
As you know, Alabama is about to play its 14th game of the year. So asking them to play one or two more isn’t out of the question.
Besides, there isn’t a player in major college football who would turn down a shot at a playoff berth in favor of a date in a rinky-dink bowl like the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.
Instead of being shipped off to a 15-syllably bowl, Boise State could be facing TCU in a first-round playoff game. I’d actually be excited about that.
No joke.
‰ Michael Cummings can be reached by e-mail at michaelc@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 258.
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