The Bowl Thread

[Michael_ Gee]

Early January Saturdays are property of the NFL.

 

[BTExpress]

LSU vs UCF in the Fiesta. If UCF wins, they still ain't played anybody, right?

They will have played somebody, but a little perspective (that I posted on the other board):

My crappy team lost to the Nos. 1, 5, 10, 16 and 23 teams. And beat No. 14.

At least four of those teams more than likely had a first-round draft pick at QB.

That's HALF your schedule against the top 25 percent of teams in the nation. UCF played . . . ZERO.

The absolute worst thing about the CFP system is the destruction of New Years Day. New Years Day is Bowl Football. The best teams in the best games.

Remember this game?

Played on Jan. 2, 1987. Rendering all those Jan. 1 games to the Honorable Mention file.

 

[playthrough]

The absolute worst thing about the CFP system is the destruction of New Years Day. New Years Day is Bowl Football. The best teams in the best games. January 1 is now 6 Honorable Mention Bowl games.

****

There are more games on Dec. 31 (six) than Jan. 1 (five). I know that's a function of turning the Cotton and Orange Bowls into CFP semifinals, but still. Meh.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Early January Saturdays are property of the NFL.

And? They've infringed on Thursday nights so **** em.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

And? They've infringed on Thursday nights so **** em.

Saturday wild card games are ESPN and NBC Divisional round Saturdays are CBS and Fox. All four are going to prioritize the NFL over college football. What's left for the playoffs, the CW?

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Can we at least agree that a Monday game that starts at 8 p.m. on the east coast and doesn't end until after midnight isn't helping grow this sport?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Can we at least agree that a Monday game that starts at 8 p.m. on the east coast and doesn't end until after midnight isn't helping grow this sport?

Oh, I totally agree. The simplest solution would be to push back the playoffs (why a month off?) so that they ended on New Year's Day or the day after. The current setup is actually WORSE than the old bowl system prior to the BCS. You can have a playoff, or you can prioritize bowl games, but not both, at least not successfully.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

On a side note, I'm disappointed that the Hawaii Bowl isn't on Christmas Eve this year. I always liked coming home from an early deadline night to be one of probably 10 people in my state to be watching the game.

 

[playthrough]

Can we at least agree that a Monday game that starts at 8 p.m. on the east coast and doesn't end until after midnight isn't helping grow this sport?

Agree. But the noon games that end darned near 4 p.m. don't help either. And no one in the sport really seems to care.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Re the 1987 Fiesta Bowl: That was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence where you had independents as the top 2 and a bowl with no conference tie-ins eager to make a splash. If we had the bowl system now we had in 1987, another 1 vs. 2 of this type would be very unlikely because the only major independent teams left are Notre Dame, BYU and Army.

 

[GilGarrido]

Of course, the game is in the Southeast. No way Florida would ever go out of the Southeast to play the Maize and Blue.

Arlington is a little over 1,000 miles from Gainesville & a little under 1,200 from Ann Arbor. For that matter, it's cheaper and quicker to fly there (Dallas) from Detroit than it is from Gainesville.

 

[DanOregon]

That 14.5 Bama-OK spread looks tempting - until you realize outside of last week they hadn't won by fewer than 24 points all year.

 

[Neutral Corner]

I can see it now. Greedy Williams and Devin White will declare for the draft and opt out of playing in the bowl game. The rest of the team will fall back on the excuse of "we don't care" and UCF will win and the debate will rage on.

White is playing.

 

[Neutral Corner]

The absolute worst thing about the CFP system is the destruction of New Years Day. New Years Day is Bowl Football. The best teams in the best games. January 1 is now 6 Honorable Mention Bowl games.

****

Six NIT bowls. Not In Tournament.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

On a side note, I'm disappointed that the Hawaii Bowl isn't on Christmas Eve this year. I always liked coming home from an early deadline night to be one of probably 10 people in my state to be watching the game.

That bowl got me through countless family Christmas Eve parties where I had no interest in what anyone was talking about.

 

[DanOregon]

Can we at least agree that a Monday game that starts at 8 p.m. on the east coast and doesn't end until after midnight isn't helping grow this sport?

And it isn't like anyone on the west coast is going to watch anyway.

 

[HanSenSE]

And it isn't like anyone on the west coast is going to watch anyway.[/QUOTsE]
Except the folks in the stadium ... if they're not stuck in traffic.

 

[tapintoamerica]

I can see it now. Greedy Williams and Devin White will declare for the draft and opt out of playing in the bowl game. The rest of the team will fall back on the excuse of "we don't care" and UCF will win and the debate will rage on.

Sounds like a coaching challenge for Coach O.
Any guess on how they’ll do in ticket sales? UCF doesn’t have enough of a national alumni following and LSU people seldom leave the Southeast for any reason save a national title game.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

That bowl got me through countless family Christmas Eve parties where I had no interest in what anyone was talking about.

I'm old enough that my benchmark bowl was the old Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston on New Year's Eve, the bowl you watched while getting dressed to go out.

 

[playthrough]

Sounds like a coaching challenge for Coach O.
Any guess on how they’ll do in ticket sales? UCF doesn’t have enough of a national alumni following and LSU people seldom leave the Southeast for any reason save a national title game.

I'd be stunned if that sells out unless going to the Fiesta Bowl is what Arizona residents do every year, like it's the Phoenix Open.