This Saturday begins the bowl season in college football. That right, the time of the college football year where it really does not matter what you did in the regular season, just as long as you get 6 wins (even when at least 4 can be against 1-AA (FCS) teams) and get a trip to Las Vegas, San Francisco, or Tampa. This year's bowl games will feature 9 teams who did that very thing, only winning 6 games. 18 teams won 7 games, 14 teams won 8 games, 11 teams won 9 games, and 15 out of the 68 bowl eligible teams won 10 or more games.
Headlining the bowl season, as always, is the controversial Bowl Championship Series, which was created to do two things: 1) Eliminate the chance of having a split National Champion and 2) Placing the best teams in best 5 bowl games (Fiesta, Rose, Sugar, Orange, BCS Title Game). The 2008 version of the BCS does neither of the two. The likelihood of a split champion this year still looms large, especially after the fact it has happened twice in the 10 years since the BCS came into existence (2003 and 2004). This year's title game features two 12-1 teams in Oklahoma and Florida. The Texas Longhorns, however, still sit at 12-1 as well and some feel as though they were slighted out of a National Title slot, since they defeated Oklahoma earlier this season. If either team, Oklahoma or Florida, only win by the slimmest of margins and Texas blows out Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, some AP and USA Today voters could vote and we have a split champion. The 2nd problem with the BCS has to do with the fact the best teams don't play in the 5 bowls. Two 12 win teams, Boise State and Ball State, got left out of the BCS and are heading to the Poinsettia and GMAC Bowls, respectively. One 11 win team, Texas Tech, has also been left out and is going to the Cotton Bowl. While a 10-2 Ohio State team and a 9-4 Virginia Tech team both got BCS selections.
Now onto the rest of the bowls. The main problem with this bowl system is all of the contracts that major conferences hold on the bigger of the non-BCS bowls. SEC currently holds contracts to the Cotton, Outback, Capital One (Citrus), and Chick-Fil-A (Peach) Bowl. In those games, respectively, Ole Miss (8-4), South Carolina (7-5), Georgia (9-3), and LSU (7-5). While Georgia belongs in the Capital One Bowl, more deserving teams like Boise State (12-0), TCU (10-2), and BYU (10-2) all should get a chance at showing what they're made of on a bigger stage. The problem is, that these teams play in much smaller conferences, and are looked down upon because of it. BYU and TCU both play in the Mountain West. Utah, another Mountain West team, earned a shot at the BCS Fiesta Bowl by going 12-0, while their counterparts are heading to Las Vegas and San Diego. Boise State plays in the WAC and will be joining TCU in San Diego for the Poinsettia Bowl.
As for the games themselves, here is the list of the Headliners, Under the Radars, and Duds of this season:
Headliners:
Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego: Boise State (12-0) vs. TCU (10-2)
BCS Rose Bowl in Pasedena: Southern Cal (11-1) vs. Penn State (11-1)
BCS National Title Game: Florida (12-1) vs. Oklahoma (12-1)
Under the Radars:
Meineke Bowl in Charlotte: North Carolina (8-4) vs. West Virginia (8-4)
Holiday Bowl in San Diego: Oklahoma State (9-3) vs. Oregon (9-3)
Sun Bowl in El Paso: Pittsburgh (8-4) vs. Oregon State (8-4)
Capital One Bowl in Orlando: Michigan State (9-3) vs. Georgia (9-3)
GMAC Bowl in Mobile: Ball State (12-1) vs. Tulsa (10-3)
Duds:
St. Petersburg Bowl in Tampa: Memphis (6-6) vs. South Florida (7-5)
Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu: Notre Dame (6-6) vs. Hawaii (7-6)
Alamo Bowl in San Antonio: Northwestern (9-3) vs. Missouri (9-4)
International Bowl in Toronto: Buffalo (8-5) vs. Connecticut (7-5)
BCS Fiesta Bowl in Tempe: Ohio State (10-2) vs. Texas (11-1)
Travis's Bowl Picks:
Here are my selections for the Bowl Championship Series:
Orange Bowl in Miami: Cincinnati over Virginia Tech
Sugar Bowl in New Orleans: Alabama over Utah
Fiesta Bowl in Tempe: Texas over Ohio State
Rose Bowl in Pasedena: Southern Cal over Penn State
National Title Game in Miami: Oklahoma over Florida 31-30
In conclusion, this year's bowl games are very lackluster. The ones that stand out from the rest are few and stand out quite a bit. When so many teams only win 6 and 7 games are awarded with bowl games, it's almost a slap in the face to a team that has won 10 or more games that get awarded with the same honor. One of those 6 win teams, Notre Dame, has only beaten one other team who is bowl eligible (Navy (8-4)). If a playoff system is out of the question, let's reduce the number of game from 34 down to 20. Second, make a rule that a team must have at least 8 wins and 3 of those wins against teams with winning records in the FBS. If 40 teams do not reach that criteria, then reduce the number of bowl games for that year. This would make sure that only deserving teams are able to reap the rewards of a bowl win, and restore the prestige to not only going to a bowl, but winning a bowl game.
