It's AC/DC finishing each concert with a hoarse rendition of For Those About to Rock We Salute You. It's wearing your ragged T-shirt from 1994 or watching Saved by the Bell reruns. It's stumbling down Court Street in a costume.
It's tradition. And in college football, it's dwindling.
Why, in the name of conference realignment, should the college game rid itself of the 90-year heritage that is the bowl system?
For almost three weeks each holiday season, 56 teams do battle, with 28 earning the right to end their seasons as victors. With more than $185 million in bowl revenues paid out, though, they all can call themselves winners.
But bowl games are about much more than money. Pride is at stake when 78,000 fans cram Alltel Stadium for the Gator Bowl. While college basketball crawls through pointless December games, the college football regular season was the playoffs for bowl-worthy teams.
Sure, some will argue a need for a playoff system to give mid-major programs a fairer shot and to determine a true national champion.
Several Mid-American Conference teams got overlooked for bowl bids this year, but history tells a different story. Of 117 Division I-A schools, 79 have participated in at least one bowl game the past five seasons.
What about a champion, you say? No need. University of Southern California and Louisiana State University will just have to learn to share. Controversy sparks heightened interest and debate. Just ask Michael Jackson.
It's time for college football to wake up and smell the roses. Better yet, put some sugar on the oranges and be host to a fiesta. Some things are just better left alone. Why try to mimic the National Football League?
College football is unique as the only NCAA sport without a playoff. Let's keep it that way.
Playoffs makes more senseAs our old friend Jim Mora would say, Playoffs
you're talking about playoffs? Well, yes. Playoffs are the answer to the BS; I'm sorry Bowl Championship Series problem with college football. Here is what you do: you take a page from the National Football League. You cut out conference championship week and award rankings based on season play. Let the players take this week off and put the top six teams in a playoff system. Two teams have a bye (the number 1 and 2 teams) and four play. You continue to play until only one team remains.
It would take some tweaking, but then the BCS has had years of tweaking and how far have we come since Michigan and Nebraska split a national title and everyone called for a change? Playoffs just make sense. Another big point for playoffs is that you could eliminate the neutral sight of bowl games. Like the NFL playoffs, only the championship game would be at a neutral sight. That's one thing that the BCS has left out all these years, the fans. All through the regular season college fans play a huge role in their team's fate. With the bowl system, the stadium is split 50-50 with each team's richest fans and highest rollers. What happens to the hecklers, what happens to trying to come out of the home team's end zone with 100,000 people saying bad things about your momma?
One other big concern for the playoff system is the number of games played. Someone's grandmother must have thought of this worry. Division I-AA teams play four playoff games and you don't hear them whining. 17
Archives
Matt Bixenstine
