The college football Bowl season gets underway tonight. I'm unimpressed, in part because tonight's matchup involves TCU and Northern Illinois; teams I really am not concerned with. Other matchups this bowl season include such powerhouse combos of Rice v. Troy (it's a college in Alabama, with a fight song and cheerleaders and everything!), South Florida v. East Carolina (the battle for the best directional college in the Southeast!), Middle Tennessee v. Central Michigan (see above; though I confess I'm rooting for the Chippewas of Central Michigan, as I have cousins who matriculated there), and Ohio (not Ohio State, mind you) v. Southern Mississippi.
Talk about some ammo for the scuttlebutt there!
In addition to these oustanding matchups, among the 32 bowl games are several matching teams that finished 6-6 against each other. Woohoo!
Here's my problem with the bowl system - and for once it's not the B(ull)CS. There are about 120 college football teams in Division I. There are 32 bowl games, which means that 64 teams will be playing in bowl games this year. Over half the teams will be playing a bowl game. This is absolutely ludicrous. Bowl games once were a reward for teams that played well, a payoff for superb performance. Now it's become a celebration of mediocrity. There are teams playing in bowl games this year that will finish below .500 for the season. We continually tell our kids that we want them to try their best, and that best efforts will be rewarded, yet we then celebrate mediocrity, through venues like bowl games and grammy awards, just so that we can make a quick buck.
This has got to stop.
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