It is evident that there are lots of players that are hurt and tired at the end of the regular season and ready for a break. The incentive of missing Christmas with family and playing in a bowl game isn't much.
There are also players who are in a position to get paid to play football and every practice and game is just a risk for injury with limited potential for changing the perceptions of NFL GMs. I understand why these players are opting out.
What would you think about:
1. Expand the playoffs to 16 teams (figure that out however nuanced you want).
2. Allow teams to schedule 1 (or 2??) scrimmages in the spring.
- This would allow the high quality teams with something left to play for at the end of the regular season to participate in a competitive setting with a lot on the line.
- The use of a scrimmage in the spring (instead of a lower tier bowl) would allow more participants to be healthy, competing for their new coaches after off season coaching changes, and with more of the players that will be on the team in the subsequent season.
- The athletic departments could generate money by hosting games instead of generating profits for a bowl comittee.
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Comments
The NCAA's response:
I love bowl season and want to leave it as is. I'm also opposed to expanding the playoff, but that's another convo...
I propose that non-playoff bowl games don't count against redshirts. Play an all freshman team, who cares.
I think that technically since you can play 4 games now without burning the redshirt this could basically be the case if you want to just play them all.
I am not even sure who we have redshirted this year but might as well give them some snaps if they are up for it.
I think bar1990's idea is to give the redshirting players a possible fifth game. That way if you have a player who's already played four games, but suddenly gets thrown into a possible starting role because all of the players ahead of him transfer or opt out, he's not penalized for circumstances out of his control. (See LSU's QB situation at the moment.)
Tech Sideline podcast proposed an interesting idea. Have bowl games be pre-season games instead. Expand the playoff. Remove the game against FCS opponents to compensate for the addition of a preseason bowl game (and not needing to fluff the schedule to try to get yourself to 6 wins). With SO many players opting out of bowl games, coaching changes, etc its just not the same team anymore. Also, when 68% of teams are going to bowl games its no longer special anymore. Maybe your standings at the end of the previous year are factored into what bowl game you get invited to
They went further. Have the play-offs as normal and then have 6-8 big bowls with conf champions or something like that. The rest would be pre-season.
I love-ed bowl season when it was prestigious but it's just noise at this point. I will watch VT, and then I will watch some of the big match-ups...But when something like 70% go bowling is crazy. Teams should be at least 7-5 if not 8-4 to be eligible.
I did like the idea of pre-season. The only drawback I see is a senior who worked his tail off to get a starting role but maybe doesn't have legit NFL prospects would maybe miss out on a pre-season bowl.
I like everything about their ideas but expanding the playoffs. I want the CFP to be conference champs only from the ACC, B1G, SEC, and PAC. SEC and ESPN wouldn't like it but fuck them. They're a bunch of ladder pulling cunts.
Edit: I would also like to see some kind of relegation and feeder leagues to the P4 though so... not holding my breath on any of it.
Not downvoting, but you might want to rethink your choice of words there. There are a lot of ladies on this site, and as a husband and a father of a daughter, i can tell you thats just about the worst word you can use - even in jest.
Don't ever visit the UK then.
FYI: A bit of an error carried forward here- 68/130 teams are bowl eligible.That's about half (52.3%).
Edit:
I thought there were 42 bowls. Wouldn't that be 84 teams?
You're correct! Good catch.
(84/130)*100 = 64.6%
The only difference between what you will be doing and what you wish to happen is that someone else will be watching games.
I guess I'm a dinosaur but I like the bowl system. I don't need to watch two 6-6 G5 teams square off in the Little Caesar's Bowl, but I like that there is still a postseason game/challenge/reward for good teams that aren't national champion contenders.
As the fan of a team that won't be winning a national championship anytime soon, if the Hokies have a good year it would still be nice to get to see them square off with another similar team (I.E. Pitt vs Michigan State in the Peach Bowl). And I dont think a spring-time scrimmage would have the same juice.
I'm not against Playoff expansion to get some fresh blood in there. But I don't want to lose the postseason opportunities for 90% of the teams.
I am for the bowls. I like seeing these additional match ups that we don't get to see in the season and it gives me something to watch even if it is a 6-6 team playing at noon on a Wednesday. I want to see the playoff expanded with first round on campuses.
I do think that schools should get to schedule a spring game against an opponent though.
My thoughts
1) remove games against FCS teams
2) Championship weekend has every team play, two teams play for championship the rest play because why not. Ties in division ranking are broken by travel costs to keep costs lower.
3) remove the playoffs, no championship game. Rose bowl is Big10 #1 vs Pac12 #1. Fiesta, Sugar, Orange get the other 3 conference champs big12, sec, acc respectively. Their opponents are at large, G5 gets one spot.
4) Another 10 or so bowls should exist (cotton, peach, liberty, holiday, etc)
5) every other 6+ win teams play eachother in a sponsored game at normal stadiums (e.g. VT plays UMd at either Blacksburg or college park). Games are schedule to 1) have teams play teams OOC that haven't played previously in the season, 2) have teams and conferences not constantly get home field. So not ever ACC team get home field, mix it up and teams don't get home field every year. Make 6-6 UF travel to play at Fresno State or some other place away from Florida. 3) get new matches that almost never happen.
Spring: make it a scrimmage against an FCS opponent. Make a rule so first team does not play in the second half. Allows both teams to play the bench.
Bowls: remove the contracts with the conferences. Tier bowls so that teams play against other teams within a loss. It will create competitive and unique matchups. That means a 9-3 team can only play down to an 8-4 team, unless there aren't any eligible. So 10-2 App St can play 9-3 Clemson.
Playoffs: 16 teams. First two rounds at campus sites Eliminated FCS game allows additional week of playoffs. Final Four at 1 city or metro area. Play semis on 1/1 or 12/31 if it's a Sunday. Championship the following Saturday. Let's pick LA as the host. Semis at Rose Bowl and Coliseum. Final in SoFi Stadium. Locks down hotels and saves on travel costs for fans.
Question about that final four scheduling -- if New Year's falls on, say a Tuesday, do you play the championship on January 5 or 12? Either you shortchange the teams on practice, prep, and recovery time, or you have fans either staying in town for two weeks or making two trips anyway.
Ideally, fans would be in the championship City for 7 days tops, so within the week. Does not necessarily have to be Saturday.
The reason we have so many bowl games is because fans pay to go watch their 6-6 team play another 6-6 team for participation trophies. Fans go because it's tied to money their program gets for going to said bowl, and participating in shared bowl revenue from their respective conferences. You want that to change stop going to watch....
That being said, I have an idea for a change:
Conference champions in playoffs. 8 teams with 2 wildcards. that's it. you want it, win you're damn conference.
Bowls for teams with at least 8 wins (Maybe some 7s), played during current bowl season because they deserve it.
The remaining bowls, hence the noise for participation trophies, played after Spring practice in a lottery style selection. No fucking tie-ins at this level. Lottery happens day before National Championship, thus allowing teams and more importantly Bowl sponsors enough time to market and make money. The potential match-ups could be amazing and it gives the teams in rebuilds the benefit of a real tune-up before the next year.
boom. come at me.
I like the lottery for the spring games. It would be an exciting day for all eligible programs at a time when the big dogs are garnering most of the headlines. It would also give those same programs a marketable game in the spring.
Maybe VT could get a Wisconsin game?
8 Teams is the perfect playoff. 12 or 16 is just too much. 4 works many years but is unfair to teams 5 and 6 too often as well. I can see the argument for 6 instead of 8 but the problem with that is the 6th spot comes down to either a team like Georgia or a team like Cincinnati when both deserve it. You need to get the P5 champs in, you need to give the G5/Independents a chance, and you need to leave a window for a team like Georgia this year to have a chance as an at-large. But you don't need to be squeezing the fringe teams like Oklahoma/Ole Miss/Oklahoma St/Michigan St in. 5 Conference champions, Highest ranked G5, and 2 Wild Cards.
I would like to see at least first round games played on campuses and then if you absolutely have to keep the big bowls/neutral sites you can keep them for the Final Four. That's where this gets tricky again though because you still need to have some arbitrary/subjective process for determining seeding and home games, but I think that is easier to stomach than the current system of just deciding who even has a chance that way. Personally I think the cleanest way to do that would be to keep the rankings involved for seeding/home games and not necessarily who makes the playoff; this gets messy and weird if you start giving Baylor/Utah/Pitt higher seeds than Georgia and Notre Dame just for winning their conference. I agree winning your conference should get you into the playoff but I don't think it needs to get you anything beyond that automatically.
1. Alabama (SEC Champ)
2. Michigan (B1G Champ)
3. Georgia (At Large)
4. Cincinnati (G5 Champ)
5. Notre Dame (At Large)
6. Baylor (Big 12 Champ)
7. Utah (PAC 12 Champ)
8. Pitt (ACC Champ)
Alabama vs. Pitt at Bryant Dennie Stadium
Michigan vs. Utah at Michigan Stadium
Georgia vs. Baylor at Samford Stadium
Cincinnati vs. Notre Dame at Nippert Stadium (Could see some rankings manipulation between Cincy/Georgia to avoid this rematch but I'm just going by current rankings for this example)
BoWL gaMEs DoNt mAtTeR
Sorta /s
Malzahn vs the leftovers should be a fun one
I think this is more a by product of Covid and people wanting to get out.
It's UCF vs. Florida in Tampa.
16 team playoff.
Round 1 is the week immediately following the Army-Navy game. With top 8 seeds getting home field. Kickoff times every hour, rotating ABC/FOX/NBC/CBS
Round 2 is Christmas week. NY6 bowls rotate as hosts. Kickoff times when each preceding game gets to halftime. One per channel.
Semifinals is New Years. Unused NY6 bowls host. One game 8pm New Year's Eve, One game 8pm New Year's Day.
Bowl Season is the remaining 114 teams playing 57 bowls, 1 per day, over that same window (57 days).
Finals are the Saturday before the Super Bowl at the Super Bowl venue.
I'm against expanding the playoffs, so...no sale.
Regardless if the playoff is expanded require at least a winning record for bowl eligibility. Tired of everybody gets trophy mentality.