NCAA & NFL Football Thread

[BestSportsEntertainer]

50/50 booking is killing Gus Malzahn's Auburn.

There was really no reason to squash Oklahoma. LSU has been pushed far too much anyway.

Alabama's time in the upper mid-card has been kinda fun, but we'll be back in the main event scene next season.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

Go Badgers.

[OYDK]

Showing my noobness here, but I followed NCAA Football from the beginning of the season until the end for the first time this year, and I have a question. What's the point of bowl games? Is there any meaning behind them besides just giving good teams outside of the top 4 a random game at the end of the year?

[Slyfox696]

Showing my noobness here, but I followed NCAA Football from the beginning of the season until the end for the first time this year, and I have a question. What's the point of bowl games? Is there any meaning behind them besides just giving good teams outside of the top 4 a random game at the end of the year?

This is something I wrote elsewhere, that I'll copy and paste here. It doesn't directly answer your question, but it does answer it more completely:

When talking about the college football system and why it is so ridiculous today, you have to remember it is college, not professional. This is very important, especially since fall college semester usually runs from late August to early December, and with the physical nature of American football, playing more than once a week regularly is not recommended. So that means there is simply not enough opportunities to play more teams (historically speaking, of late those "rules" have been bent quite a bit).

You also have to remember the original college football system grew organically. Because travel was difficult and expensive, it made sense for colleges in the same region to enter agreements to play each other, to help keep the university's program going and the costs lower. High schools today still do the same thing. This is where the conferences come from and why, historically, they are regionally based. (The regional thing also explains Notre Dame's prominence through much of history, despite its more stringent academic standards, as they were regularly on national broadcasts, whereas other schools were more local and regional).

The bowl system came in when businesses used college football as an attraction to big events (the original being the Tournament of Roses in California, the game which is called the Rose Bowl...as the Rose Bowl was played in a bowl like stadium, the name for postseason games became known as "bowls"). Each of the major bowl games had ties to specific conferences. For example, the Rose Bowl was the "West vs. East" game, which had ties to the Pac-10 and the Big-10 conferences. Other bowls had ties to specific conferences as well.

Keeping ALL of that in mind (short season necessitated by college semesters, difficulty of travel early on, bowl systems and their tie-ins), there was no real way to determine a true national champion. Because of this, national champions were "determined" by polls of voters (The Associated Press and the Coaches poll being the two most prominent at the end). That's why there were years where there would be multiple national champions, such as in 1997 when Michigan won the AP poll and Nebraska won the Coaches Poll. By the 90's most people saw the absurdity of the system currently in place. However, regional loyalty and bowl associations were SO strong, simply changing to a tournament format was not an option. Too much history/tradition and, more importantly, too much power and money.

So that's why they went to the computer system, the BCS...computers were all the rage at the time, the stated goal was to determine a TRUE national champion and that's why we had the BCS. Of course, some of the computerized factors were still "subjective" (for example, the AP and Coaches poll were used in the computer ranking, because, again, power and influence) so it was always seen as a terrible fix to an easily solved problem.

Now we finally have the 4 team playoff, but as mentioned, money and power is unduly influencing it. If the playoff were expanded to 8 teams, then a football team from one of the non Power Conferences (which are currently the ACC, the Big 10, the Big 12, the SEC and the Pac-12) might get into the tournament. And if one of those teams gets into the tournament, then the revenue sharing system means a non-Power conference would get some of that lucrative money.

So, eventually, we'll move to 8 teams, like we should have, but I'm sure it'll only come when the Power conferences figure out a way to not be damaged monetarily.

There's other things I could have added, but I think that's enough unasked for info for now.

To more directly answer why we have bowl games currently, it is for a number of reasons.

1) History. Some of these bowl games date back decades and, as I mentioned in the piece I copied/pasted, those bowl games had relevance at one point.
2) Money. This is probably the most important factor. It is money for the bowl organizers, advertising for the sponsors and money for the colleges.
3) College Exposure. Getting to play a bowl game gives your university greater media exposure and on a national scale. This helps with fundraising and with recruiting.
4) Extra playing time. Every coach loves to play more games, so kids can, theoretically, improve their skills and so coaches can try out different things.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

BSE, what's this all about?

https://twitter.com/sidelines_bama/s...352924672?s=21

[BestSportsEntertainer]

I have no idea tbh.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Jason Garrett has been fired. Glorious day for Cowboys fans.

[Spidey]

Uh what

[BestSportsEntertainer]

YOU HAD ONE JOB INDIANA!

[#AbsoluteUnit]

and I was hoping For 9WINDIANA!