College football posteason: Better/Worse since the BCS?

I think a couple of years ago there were more games on New Year's Eve than there were on New Year's Day. If we're going to have a billion bowls, can't we figure out a way to load up New Year's Day again? Hell, I'd even be OK with stupid matchups as long as there were games being played. How many people need the Cotton Bowl to be on Jan. 6? It's all spread out so much that by the time the NC game gets here it's hard to care any more. To me that's almost the worst thing about the current system.

 

I would like it if we went back to the old system, with the provision of a committee that could override conference bowl tie-ins to create an obvious championship matchup between two undefeateds.

In short, I want the old system, except where someone could have stepped up in 1994 and said, OK, undefeated Penn State doesn't have to play 9-3 Oregon in the Rose Bowl. It can play undefeated Nebraska where ever.

 

And throwing in bowls with a .500 Pitt team and Arky State and NIU after the BCS bowls and before the championship game. Talk about not understanding what building to a crescendo means. Thud.

And never mind about New Years Day anymore. It's becoming hockey's day anyway.

 

Just too many bowl games on these days. I don't give a rat's ass about the Beef O' Brady's Bowl.

 

I've made this argument before, but it's worth repeating here. I hate the people who defend the BCS by saying LSU vs. Alabama (or OSU-Florida in 2006, or LSU-OSU in '07) proves the system works because it selects a 1 vs. 2. They argue that the system does its job of using its formula to slice through the controversy and select two teams to play for the title.

To which I say, well, duh. As long as it produces two college football teams, it's always going to "work" by that bullshit standard. The super-secret computer formulas (which have never been revealed) and conflicted-interest coaches could determine 7-5 Texas and 6-6 Ohio State should meet for the title and the apologists would say the system worked. By that standard, the only way the BCS wouldn't "work" is if somehow it spat out the New York Yankees vs. the Philadelphia Flyers.

 

I'll take the Flyers and give the points.

 

Agree with everyone who used to love the New Year's Day football overload as a kid. A great day of snacks and football -- on three different channels!

Not sure the quality of the matchups is any different today, but they've taken some of the joy out of it by stretching it out so ESPN can cash in for four straight weeks on advertising for the hard-to-reach 18 to 45 year old male demographic.

Someone I work with who actually pays attention to the NBA season before the playoffs noted that the last-minute push to reach a deal had nothing to do with saving the majority of the season. It was COMPLETELY a rush job to save the Christmas day sports programming.

That's all that really mattered: making money off of bored guys who really hate spending time with their wives and children, and need hours upon hours of advertising sprinkled with a li'l sports programing to help their liquor go down the hatch on Dec. 25.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

 

On that note, who else loves that ESPN still calls it bowl week?

 

Remember when going to a Jan. 1 bowl was a huge accomplishment for any school?

Now we have 6-6 teams battling each other in a game that used to be pretty well-respected.

Anyone who thinks that anything about the bowl system has gotten better in the last 20+ years is out of their fucking minds...

 

Remember when there were Jan. 1 bowls? Whether you like or hate the bowl system, it lost a LOT of its allure when the big bowls sold out and moved off of Jan. 1.

 

This is really the only thing I hate about the current system.

One game a day for an entire month, when 98 percent of the matchups suck, has made college bowls lose so much appeal for me. I'll take a system of 35 meaningless bowls if New Year's Day was loaded up like it used to be.

 

I miss the days of my youth when No. 1 could play No. 4 on New Year's Day, or we'd get those awesome No. 2 vs. No. 7 matchups.

I also think the current system has too many bowls. It's not like alums of those schools that have no chance at conference titles, but instead make those bowls, care at all.

Eliminate them all and only keep the big bowls. That will really stoke interest in college football.