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Are Bowls Dying?

Sorry but clueless or you just like talking bad about bowl games.
Change your perspective, don’t apply the current configuration to the future.

We’re breaking away from the NCAA.
 
Huh? Dude. Bowls are already not part of the NCAA! You need to get a factual perspective of what's going. Bowls are killing it for TV. And that means $$
The B1G and SEC will be deciding what the future of post season football looks like.

Whole thing is going to get restructured. The crap bowls do not do well.

 
The B1G and SEC will be deciding what the future of post season football looks like.

Whole thing is going to get restructured. The crap bowls do not do well.

They aren't cutting off the cash cow either! Again it makes a lot of money. Give it break. Nobody is killing the cash cow.
 
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They aren't cutting off the cash cow either! Again it makes a lot of money. Give it break. Nobody is killing the cash cow.
it’s not a cash cow lol look at the TV numbers.

They’re going to completely restructure it and make more because of it.

No one cares about these little league teams.
 
Then why are they watching in record numbers??
lol the power teams are getting views, the mid majors are all over the place depending on the matchup.

“The Coastal Carolina-San Jose State Hawaii Bowl had a 0.52 (-10%) and 950,000 (-15%), the smallest audience for the game since at least 2005. The South Alabama-Eastern Michigan Mobile Bowl brought up the rear with a 0.40 (-40%) and 765,000 (-37%), the smallest audience for that game since at least 2006.”

I literally sent you a link to this, nice to know you ignored it.
 
lol the power teams are getting views, the mid majors are all over the place depending on the matchup.

The Coastal Carolina-San Jose State Hawaii Bowl had a 0.52 (-10%) and 950,000 (-15%), the smallest audience for the game since at least 2005. The South Alabama-Eastern Michigan Mobile Bowl brought up the rear with a 0.40 (-40%) and 765,000 (-37%), the smallest audience for that game since at least 2006.”

I literally sent you a link to this, nice to know you ignored it.


Coastal Carolina-San Jose State Hawaii Bowl had a 0.52 (-10%) and 950,000 (-15%), the smallest audience for the game since at least 2005 -

Game was on 2 days (Saturday) at 10;;30 ET before christmas and the SA-EM game was also on the Saturday 2 days before christmas--not ideal viewing time ..


ratings are relative to date/time there is a reason those 2 lesser bowls were on Saturday night 2 days before Christmas.........

Bowls are cheap programming for ESPN, just like reality TV for networks....

On another note, going regional for both teams in Bowl games is desirable for bowls currently, mandating a bowl only pick from a small pool of teams (if eligible) is a long term disaster and the reason why bowls dont pick the same team within a five year window,,,,
 
It will quickly become only bowls supporting the CFB playoffs, plus a few others significant enough that they can turn a profit. The rest just doesn't work in this world anymore
Yep, and this should be obvious especially with beginning of the 12-team Playoff in 2024. I tried watching OSU, PSU and FSU in the last few days and turned those games off as those teams' rosters came nowhere close to their regular season rosters - especially FSU and OSU. Florida State was really decimated
 
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Saving the bowls is actually simple…. Expand the playoffs. Lower ranked schools get put into two or four small brackets that start Thanksgiving weekend. Winners get put into the big boy bracket.
 
Yep, and this should be obvious especially with beginning of the 12-team Playoff in 2024. I tried watching OSU, PSU and FSU in the last few days and turned those games off as those teams' rosters came nowhere close to their regular season rosters - especially FSU and OSU. Florida State was really decimated

im sure there will be a tweak in the transfer portal but the reason its early is to give the (student athlete) time to evaluate and visit schools and then enroll in January....

NIL is a different story but players skipping bowl games to prepare for the NFL..(Melton, Pacheco) is not uncommon...

May want to digest the below to those thinking bowls will go away...

ttps://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/are-bowl-games-really-worth-the-hassle-anymore-especially-as-playoff-expansion-looms/ar-AA1m7kAQ


In other words, the system is set up to keep going because there’s enough money to be made by enough stakeholders to keep it propped up in perpetuity. It doesn’t matter if a team has a bare-bones roster or a makeshift coaching staff; the games get played and somebody pockets the cash.


Among coaches and administrators across college sports, you’ll find no shortage of bowl-system defenders who cannot conceive of a world in which college football junks a 120-year-old tradition that began as a way for warm-weather cities to boost tourism in the winter. When you ask them why it’s important to preserve bowl games, they will mostly cite the importance of positive momentum to carry into the next season, the value of rewarding players for a job well-done and the extra practice time afforded to their coaches.
 
I hope the non playoff bowls continue to be successful, I just have no interest in them anymore.
Ranger games, Rutgers basketball and World Juniors Hockey has my attention
 
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I hope the non playoff bowls continue to be successful, I just have no interest in them anymore.
Ranger games, Rutgers basketball and World Juniors Hockey has my attention
junior hockey is awesome!!!!! assume you watch d1 hockey although nothing of note in the area I know
 
Among coaches and administrators across college sports, you’ll find no shortage of bowl-system defenders who cannot conceive of a world in which college football junks a 120-year-old tradition that began as a way for warm-weather cities to boost tourism in the winter. When you ask them why it’s important to preserve bowl games, they will mostly cite the importance of positive momentum to carry into the next season, the value of rewarding players for a job well-done and the extra practice time afforded to their coaches.
Which sounds great but TV is driving CF money right now and the bigger question - will anyone - outside of the fanbases of the schools that are in the bowl game - be watching? I suspect not as all attention will be focused on the expanded playoffs
 
Honestly… We have too many bowls now at 40+ and I think 20 games is max what we need for them to remain relevant and interesting. Up until 1990 we had 19 or less. When ESPN got their hands involved they were the ones to delute the product.

Go to a 14 team playoff format that takes 13 bowl games up. The other 7 for other interesting matches and just allow all teams the 15 developmental practices.

The Rose Bowl was the only major college bowl game in 1930. By 1940, there were five major college bowl games: the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl (1935), the Cotton Bowl Classic (1937), the Orange Bowl(1935), and the Sun Bowl (1935). By 1950, the number had increased to eight games. This figure of eight bowl games persisted through 1960, but by 1970 the number had increased again, to 11 games. The number continued to increase, to 15 games in 1980, to 19 games in 1990, 25 games in 2000, 35 games in 2010, and 41 games by 2015 (40 games plus two teams playing a second game to determine the National Champion).
 
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I consider the Northeast the area.
yes hockey east but I meant driving distance. Tough to drive up to Boston to see Terriers, Huskies, Maine etc play often.

I'd have to go to Canada often for work on some structred dollar bond deals we'd do and when they'd have their juniors season, man that was great to watch. Kids flat out fly, play hard, and give it 100%
 
Yep, and this should be obvious especially with beginning of the 12-team Playoff in 2024. I tried watching OSU, PSU and FSU in the last few days and turned those games off as those teams' rosters came nowhere close to their regular season rosters - especially FSU and OSU. Florida State was really decimated
Amazing how people can't grasp this fact
 
yes hockey east but I meant driving distance. Tough to drive up to Boston to see Terriers, Huskies, Maine etc play often.

I'd have to go to Canada often for work on some structred dollar bond deals we'd do and when they'd have their juniors season, man that was great to watch. Kids flat out fly, play hard, and give it 100%
Quinnipiac is less than two hours, so is Sacred Heart and obviously Princeton.
All 3 play against elite hockey schools.
UCONN also, even West Point
 
There are 43 bowl games. 86 teams.

As of right now, it’s not uncommon for 5-7 teams to fill spots each year.

What I see in the future is a 16 team playoff. All opening rounds taking place on campus.

Elite 8 taking place at NYD bowl sites and then a “Final Four” all in one location.

That leaves 70 teams that would be left out, I see this number getting cut in half to 36 bowl eligible teams.

The format? 110% regional. Think Rutgers vs Syracuse in Pinstripe or Maryland vs Virginia Tech in Annapolis.

These regional games will draw well from an attendance standpoint and will do very well from a TV perspective relative to the Miami (Ohio) vs Ball State type games.
Tell us you didn’t read all of the comments in this thread without typing the actual words “I didn’t read all of the comments in this thread”.

Multiple people have posted the TV rating evidence that shows these bowls aren’t going anywhere.
 
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Quinnipiac is less than two hours, so is Sacred Heart and obviously Princeton.
All 3 play against elite hockey schools.
UCONN also, even West Point
I'm heading up to Boston this weekend to watch the games in Fenway. If you can go I'd recommend it as it's a great time
 
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Yes.

All of CFB is dying.



PAYWALL SO:

The Year College Football Ate Itself

After months of maneuvering and spending—farewell, Pac 12; hello $75 million for Jimbo Fisher—it’s impossible to pretend it’s anything but another ruthless business

I will indulge reasonable arguments to the contrary, but only one event deserves to be called the biggest sports story of 2023.

This is the year college football ate itself...

What happened in college football in 2023 will reverberate for decades, and probably forever.

Denial has died, and the myth has left town on a Gulfstream 800. College football’s stubborn delusion that it was something apart and elevated from professional sports—an activity less about dollars than about tradition, loyalty and (laugh track) amateurism—hopped on a jet from the West Coast and flew east for better deals with deeper pockets...

The money’s been around for eons, as have eager sponsors, surrogates, pushy boosters and middle men feeding under-the-table money to athletes capable of tilting the field. It has long been true that the top-paid state employee in most U.S. states isn’t a governor or university president, but the head football coach.

In recent years, however, the money got too extreme to laugh off or ignore—the lavish salaries of head coaches, assistant coaches, assistants to the assistants, strength czars, nutritionists and specialists, to say nothing of the training facilities that would make Knute Rockne feel like he’d been beamed to the Year 3000...

Television deals have swelled from millions to billions, and we know all about it, because schools brag about it, and the business of college sports has evolved into a sport of its own. At the same time, the tumult of the transfer portal and the nascent economy of name, image and likeness (NIL) have made it clear there’s a robust paying market for college athletes.

It’s right in our faces. No one even tries to shame or deny it anymore. The NCAA, facing growing antitrust scrutiny, is finally rushing in with a proposal for paying players and it all feels a little insincere and very behind...

We’re approaching a seismic new chapter, and yet the field feels fragile. The NCAA, slow to everything, is laying the groundwork for a “super league” approach, with the biggest, best-funded schools breaking away from the lesser-funded riff raff to create their own system. Television networks—the hands behind the curtains here—will surely want a say in who makes the cut. Feelings are sure to get hurt. In any reorganization, low-rated schools are going to get dropped.

I’m probably a hopeless naif, but maybe there’s opportunity here—for the craziest schools to run off and for the rest of the colleges and universities to tap the brakes and return to a version of athletics that’s less lucrative, but saner.

I was going to post the same. Some of us think all of CFB is dying.

I wonder if this NIL thing ya'll are such fans of is the thing that relegates RU to the second tier, below the Super League. And would it really be a bad thing?
 
lol the power teams are getting views, the mid majors are all over the place depending on the matchup.

“The Coastal Carolina-San Jose State Hawaii Bowl had a 0.52 (-10%) and 950,000 (-15%), the smallest audience for the game since at least 2005. The South Alabama-Eastern Michigan Mobile Bowl brought up the rear with a 0.40 (-40%) and 765,000 (-37%), the smallest audience for that game since at least 2006.”

I literally sent you a link to this, nice to know you ignored it.
🙄
 
ratings are relative to date/time there is a reason those 2 lesser bowls were on Saturday night 2 days before Christmas.........

Bowls are cheap programming for ESPN, just like reality TV for networks....

On another note, going regional for both teams in Bowl games is desirable for bowls currently, mandating a bowl only pick from a small pool of teams (if eligible) is a long term disaster and the reason why bowls dont pick the same team within a five year window,,,,
ESPN isn’t in charge here.

Things are going to dramatically change in the near future, we’re basically just waiting on the ACC to crumble at this point.
 
No chance these minor bowls continue to pay full rate given the way the players are now treating these games. The value of the minor bowl game has been significantly diminished
ESPN ensures schools get paid.
 
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The B1G and SEC will be deciding what the future of post season football looks like.

Whole thing is going to get restructured. The crap bowls do not do well.

Huh? Those ratings are higher than any college basketball game and most NBA games.
 
ESPN ensures schools get paid.
True. Except ESPN (and Fox to a lessor extent) aren't looking to keep paying anymore. They are consistently conslidating their resources around the p2 schools and the CFP bowls and that's all they want to pay for. They rest of it all isn't going to continue to get paid like they used to, and factions of it will be forced to drop down or cease to exist all together. Just a matter of time at this point.
 
ESPN needs the content but at what price? Disney has a lot of issues right now and while ESPN is still a profitable operation they are dealing with cord cutting and just went through a pretty extensive round of staff cuts. Would not be surprised if the payouts for some of these games are either reduced or moved to a streaming entity.
 
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Last year 95
yes you are right. I have to dig through my emails and will let you know as this was the icing on the cake as I thought this was the date for it. I'm still heading up as I've personal matters to attend but this would have been a nice event.
 
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True. Except ESPN (and Fox to a lessor extent) aren't looking to keep paying anymore. They are consistently conslidating their resources around the p2 schools and the CFP bowls and that's all they want to pay for. They rest of it all isn't going to continue to get paid like they used to, and factions of it will be forced to drop down or cease to exist all together. Just a matter of time at this point.
.not get paid or cese to exist??..

ESPN is like any media company that is reviewing distribution costs based on cord cutting/streaming but have you noticed the increase in streaming with advertisements and banners??

Also ESPN bought a sports betting app for revenue diversification... (less games less betting) ... ....Yes ESPN had reductions in costs like every media company but do you need to pay a Sportscenter anchor 2 million a year when they are not driving viewers? The anchors at ESPN that get paid are they ones that drive viewership not just from TV but Social Media. All these years later and Disney has not sold/spin off ESPN and now bowed to embracing sports betting.....

If college football ratings are at an all time high, ESPN needs programming and to cross brand their betting app.. so some bowl games could be loss leaders ....The sponsorships of the bowl games are seeing great returns on advertising/brand awareness, another reason why getting rid of programming now is nonsensical because there were a few mismatched games...

I agree that a change in portal opening will be tweaked but is also going to be impacted by expanded playoffs next year. There will be more NIL impact (need to play in bowl game for portion unless declaring for draft) and branding tied into bowl games...(ie players are embassadors for bowl sponsors) ...
 
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Wisconsin v LSU was one of best games of the year.
Clemson and Kentucky was also great.
RU game was entertaining!!!
Wyoming win at buzzer was fun.

Everyone wants to say bowls are doomed but like every year, some great games, some blowouts, some in between, PSU v Ole Miss.

All the hand wringing is silly. They are all still fun to watch. Good ratings.
I don’t know if they still require schools to buy tix. That’s the only thing that should change.
 
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