From: james.m.gibson@gmail.com   
      
   On Tuesday, January 2, 2024 at 7:59:38 PM UTC-5, JE Corbett wrote:   
   > On Saturday, December 30, 2023 at 12:06:24 AM UTC-5, Eric Ramon wrote:   
   > > The transfer portal, NIL, and opting out have destroyed the bowl games, as   
   evidenced by the Missouri/OSU game and the upcoming Georgia blowout of FSU.    
   > >    
   > > Too bad. I liked college football.   
   > Bowl games should be broken and thrown into the scrap heap. They are an   
   anachronism from a bygone era. They started    
   > out as post season exhibitions with no real meaning and were a reward for   
   teams that had outstanding season. They have    
   > become college football's version of participation trophies. You used to   
   have to win 8 or 9 games in 10 or 11 game seasons    
   > to get invited to one. Now, in some years, teams with 7 losses have gotten   
   invites.    
   >    
   > There was a time bowl games had no bearing on what used to be called a   
   MYTHICAL national championship. The final polls    
   > were take prior to the bowl games. When #1 Texas played #2 Navy in the 1964   
   Cotton Bowl, the national championship had    
   > been decided in both polls. A Navy upset win wouldn't have changed that.   
   Over the years, bowl games became de facto    
   > playoff games. We went through the Bowl Alliance, to the Bowl Coalition, to   
   the BCS in an attempt to get the #1 an #2 teams    
   > to play each other in a bowl game for the national championship. Meanwhile   
   the minor bowls proliferated to the point now    
   > that they are no longer significant. Players opt out of them. Coaches opt   
   out if they have taken a new job. Stadiums are half    
   > filled and most are only watched by fans of the two participating teams. As   
   far as I'm concerned, now that we are going to    
   > a 12 team playoff, they ought to scrap the rest of these worthless bowl   
   games.   
      
   Say what you will about the games outside the top, they are still the highest   
   rated sports viewing option for the week between Christmas and New Year's   
   Day.  On 12/27, the top four sporting events for viewing were the Duke's Mayo   
   Bowl, the Holiday Bowl,    
   the Texas Bowl, and the Military Bowl with far higher audiences than NHL, NBA,   
   or soccer games, or anything else ESPN put on (Holiday Bowl was on Fox).  ESPN   
   is still going to like this programming, as it brings in higher ratings than   
   anything else they    
   are going to show.   
      
   And if there's a 100 participation trophies for going 6-6, so what?  I'd   
   rather have that than what I had in 1982 as a fan of a team that went 10-1 and   
   was shut out of the postseason completely.  If you don't want to watch these   
   meaningless games, you    
   don't have to, but enough people do that I don't think they are going anywhere.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)