For all the talk about protecting the bowl season, those running college football seem hell-bent on ruining it.
There have been rumors that the college football playoff is looking to expand and, despite my lifelong love of bowl games, it’s time. Though I favor a utopian 16-team playoff over a minor expansion to six or eight, the bowl season is becoming less and less in need of protecting. In fact, this year may end it.
The schedule for the 2019-20 bowl schedule is ridiculously long, with the first game coming on Friday, December 20, and the last non-title game coming on Monday, January 6. Incredibly, the title game is another week later on Monday, January 13, and ratings could be ugly all around.
When the college football playoff debuted, we were promised a return to glory on New Year’s Day and a condensed bowl season. For the past four years, no bowl games were played after January 2. It felt like we had finally revisited the “bowl week” concept that ESPN pioneered in the early 1990’s as the “Most Wonderful Week of the Year.” Instead, this year harkens back to the ugly early 2010s, when a spread-out schedule essentially killed off the bowl system.
Let’s go through the high-, err lowlights of this year’s schedule.
A Terrible Start
Last year, I wrote about how ESPN had discovered that the mid-December Saturday after the Army/Navy game is a perfect opportunity to kick off the bowl season. To extenuate this point, there are a whopping seven (!!) bowl games on Saturday, December 21, with three each on ESPN and ABC, and one on CBS Sports Network.
Unfortunately, that’s not the start of bowl season. Desperate to cram as many of its games into the pre-Christmas malaise, bowl season kicks off at 2 p.m. on a workday Friday. Feel the excitement! Following the Bahamas Bowl on Friday, December 20, the Frisco Bowl suffers the indignity of being the only bowl game ESPN airs on ESPN2. That positioning really lets the AAC know how ESPN feels about its broadcast partner.
A Wasted Saturday
Saturday, December 28, could have been a perfect day of college football to get ready for New Year’s Day and the college football playoff. Instead, that’s the date of the college football playoff itself. Yes, you read that correctly. The semifinals will take place one day before the last day of the NFL season and before 18 (!!) other bowl games are played. They tried this last year and the ratings flopped, hard, for two blowouts.
This year, the Cotton Bowl and Camping World Bowl lead into the two playoff games. However, the exclusivity of the playoff games forced the displacement of a handful of other bowl games that would’ve made so much more sense here.
ESPN will try to make lemonade out of lemons, but for the fourth time in six years, college football fans will vote with their remotes that they really, really want to watch the playoffs on New Year’s Day.
A Pathetic New Year’s Day
A full four days after the semifinals, New Year’s Day will be accompanied by arguably the worst New Year’s Day college football slate ever. The Orange Bowl vacated its afternoon slot to be featured in ESPN’s usual Monday Night Football slot. It leaves New Year’s Day with only four games, with the Citrus and Outback bowls leading into the usual Rose/Sugar doubleheader.
It’s such a pathetic slate that I’ve argued it presents an opportunity for the Group of Five to encroach on the best day for television viewing of the year, similar to how the NHL used college football’s mind-boggling desire to vacate New Year’s Day to thrust itself into the national spotlight with the Winter Classic.
A Schedule That Just Keeps Going…
Somehow, there are still five bowl games after New Year’s Day. As a college football fan, I might watch them. As a college football fan, I know watching them will depress me.
The problem with post-New Year’s Day bowl games is that vacation is over for everyone except college students. Who is traveling to Boise for a bowl game on the afternoon of Friday, January 3? Are fans expected to attend a bowl game in Mobile, Alabama on Monday, January 6?
It’s the continuation of the worst part of ESPN’s rule over college football – punishing the most ardent fans. If your team is playing in a bowl game and you really want to follow them, ESPN is making it nearly impossible because all that really matters are the fans watching on television. Makes you wonder why ESPN doesn’t just give the tickets away for free since they’re merely television shows anyway, and television shows work better when there’s an audience.
A Sad Evolution
Bowl season is one of the reasons I became a college football fan as a kid of the 1980s. I will never forget waking up on New Year’s Day like it was Christmas, knowing that I had all the best games to watch.
Even when the BCS initially formed, I didn’t mind because New Year’s Day became the starting point of a 4-game sprint to crowning a champion on January 3 or 4.
Then the dreaded “double-hosting” model debuted with the 2006 season and the bowl system has become a drawn-out, bloated mess. Next year, it will somehow get even worse when three new bowl games are added to the mix.
I hate to write these words, but they are true – the college football bowl system has officially outlived its usefulness. Unfortunately, change is not coming unless college football fans tune out.
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The schedule for the 2019-20 bowl schedule is ridiculously long, with the first game coming on Friday, December 20, and the last non-title game coming on Monday, January 6. Incredibly, the title game is another week later on Monday, January 13, and ratings could be ugly all around.
When the college football playoff debuted, we were promised a return to glory on New Year’s Day and a condensed bowl season. For the past four years, no bowl games were played after January 2. It felt like we had finally revisited the “bowl week” concept that ESPN pioneered in the early 1990’s as the “Most Wonderful Week of the Year.” Instead, this year harkens back to the ugly early 2010s, when a spread-out schedule essentially killed off the bowl system.
Let’s go through the high-, err lowlights of this year’s schedule.
A Terrible Start
Last year, I wrote about how ESPN had discovered that the mid-December Saturday after the Army/Navy game is a perfect opportunity to kick off the bowl season. To extenuate this point, there are a whopping seven (!!) bowl games on Saturday, December 21, with three each on ESPN and ABC, and one on CBS Sports Network.
Unfortunately, that’s not the start of bowl season. Desperate to cram as many of its games into the pre-Christmas malaise, bowl season kicks off at 2 p.m. on a workday Friday. Feel the excitement! Following the Bahamas Bowl on Friday, December 20, the Frisco Bowl suffers the indignity of being the only bowl game ESPN airs on ESPN2. That positioning really lets the AAC know how ESPN feels about its broadcast partner.
A Wasted Saturday
Saturday, December 28, could have been a perfect day of college football to get ready for New Year’s Day and the college football playoff. Instead, that’s the date of the college football playoff itself. Yes, you read that correctly. The semifinals will take place one day before the last day of the NFL season and before 18 (!!) other bowl games are played. They tried this last year and the ratings flopped, hard, for two blowouts.
This year, the Cotton Bowl and Camping World Bowl lead into the two playoff games. However, the exclusivity of the playoff games forced the displacement of a handful of other bowl games that would’ve made so much more sense here.
A Pathetic New Year’s Day
A full four days after the semifinals, New Year’s Day will be accompanied by arguably the worst New Year’s Day college football slate ever. The Orange Bowl vacated its afternoon slot to be featured in ESPN’s usual Monday Night Football slot. It leaves New Year’s Day with only four games, with the Citrus and Outback bowls leading into the usual Rose/Sugar doubleheader.
It’s such a pathetic slate that I’ve argued it presents an opportunity for the Group of Five to encroach on the best day for television viewing of the year, similar to how the NHL used college football’s mind-boggling desire to vacate New Year’s Day to thrust itself into the national spotlight with the Winter Classic.
A Schedule That Just Keeps Going…
Somehow, there are still five bowl games after New Year’s Day. As a college football fan, I might watch them. As a college football fan, I know watching them will depress me.
The problem with post-New Year’s Day bowl games is that vacation is over for everyone except college students. Who is traveling to Boise for a bowl game on the afternoon of Friday, January 3? Are fans expected to attend a bowl game in Mobile, Alabama on Monday, January 6?
It’s the continuation of the worst part of ESPN’s rule over college football – punishing the most ardent fans. If your team is playing in a bowl game and you really want to follow them, ESPN is making it nearly impossible because all that really matters are the fans watching on television. Makes you wonder why ESPN doesn’t just give the tickets away for free since they’re merely television shows anyway, and television shows work better when there’s an audience.
A Sad Evolution
Bowl season is one of the reasons I became a college football fan as a kid of the 1980s. I will never forget waking up on New Year’s Day like it was Christmas, knowing that I had all the best games to watch.
Even when the BCS initially formed, I didn’t mind because New Year’s Day became the starting point of a 4-game sprint to crowning a champion on January 3 or 4.
Then the dreaded “double-hosting” model debuted with the 2006 season and the bowl system has become a drawn-out, bloated mess. Next year, it will somehow get even worse when three new bowl games are added to the mix.
I hate to write these words, but they are true – the college football bowl system has officially outlived its usefulness. Unfortunately, change is not coming unless college football fans tune out.
the playoff games on that Saturday was weird last year. Don't like it. Play the games on New Years Day
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