OT: Power 5 Conference Bowl Problem

[Goose85]

A few years back when the conference realignment was crazy, the power 5 conference named themselves the power 5 conferences, and made their move to grab almost all of the football money and exposure. One of the things the power 5 did was further cement bowl tie ins.

The power 5 committed to sending teams to an expanded number of bowls, no problem right, if something happens and they don't have enough teams, the other five conferences will happily fill in. So, 10 SEC bowl ties, 9 Big 10 bowl ties, 7 Big 12 ties, etc. Well the other five football conferences decided to set up their own bowls to make sure their teams with good seasons would be assured a bowl.

Problem, right now only 71 teams are bowl eligible and there are 80 teams needed. Sure, if all breaks right another 9 might get there this week, but if not the NCAA will need to make decisions to let teams with 5-7 records in to make sure bowl commitments are kept.

Big 10, are you sure you want to go to 9 conference games and stop playing FCS teams? You need 9 teams with winning records to make your bowl sponsors happy.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/25387674/no-resolution-from-ncaa-on-bowl-eligibility-problem-talks-continue

Ok, now back to basketball talk.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

the honest answer is to eliminate some of the bowls. 40 bowls is a ton, and I would imagine the vast majority are sparsely attended and not highly watched on TV.

[TheSultan]

Well there has to be some reason why they exist right? If they aren't profitable, why have them in the first place?

My suggestion is just let every program play an extra game.

[Nukem2]

Well there has to be some reason why they exist right? If they aren't profitable, why have them in the first place?

My suggestion is just let every program play an extra game.
Then the two lowest ranked teams could play in the newly minted Toilet Bowl. ;)

[MU/Panther]

Actually the bowl games are a gold mine as they do very well on TV. The lowest bowl game last season was the Camellia Bowl between Bowling Green & South Alabama. 1.11 million. (That was going on during an NFL Saturday night game.

29 of the 36 bowls not including in the playoff had at least over 2 million plus viewers.
20 of the 36 bowls not including in the playoff had at least over 3 million plus viewers.
16 of the 36 bowls not including in the playoff had at least over 4 million plus viewers.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

Actually the bowl games are a gold mine as they do very well on TV. The lowest bowl game last season was the Camellia Bowl between Bowling Green & South Alabama. 1.11 million. (That was going on during an NFL Saturday night game.

29 of the 36 bowls not including in the playoff had at least over 2 million plus viewers.
20 of the 36 bowls not including in the playoff had at least over 3 million plus viewers.
16 of the 36 bowls not including in the playoff had at least over 4 million plus viewers.

Wow that blows my mind... If you ever needed evidence that college football is far more popular than college basketball that is it... Bowling Green v South Alabama out draws most college basketball games.

[AbovetheRim]

Wow that blows my mind... If you ever needed evidence that college football is far more popular than college basketball that is it... Bowling Green v South Alabama out draws most college basketball games.

College football isn't necessarily far more popular than college basketball.

Gambling on college football, though, is far more popular than gambling on college basketball and those numbers speak greatly to that point.

[MU/Panther]

I love college football & basketball! That being said I would love that college basketball would be more popular. That being said, most don't care untill March. Hence the rule changes to help improve the game. The viewership, the money, the radio shows are all college football. Only 7% of the college basketball regular season games had a rating of over 1.0. College football gets that in it's sleep.

Of the 979 regular season college basketball games on CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, FOX, FS1, FS2 & NBCSN, only 25 games had a rating higher than 1.5. More than half had 0.0 to 0.1.

Now, you see why I post Big East TV Schedules each day. :)