2016-17 College Football Bowl-a-Rama thread

I kind of miss the old WAC. SJSU, Fresno St., Boise St and Nevada were a good group with Hawaii et al. Wish San Jose was better those years (a couple of exceptions not withstanding).

 

Have no problem with Fournette skipping lame Bowl game. Just amused that a player from the SEC, where "it just means more," is doing so.
Memo to the aforementioned SECessionist Conference: In the end, it doesn't mean anything more to play in a third-tier bowl game in your league than it does in any other league.

Also fascinating to hear how SECessionist Conference super fans in media boast about the league's Bowl record without giving it proper context, specifically the absurd geographic advantage that benefits Southern teams at expense of Big Ten et al. Tennessee fails but gets rewarded with home game in Nashville vs Nebraska for example.

 

Fournette has mostly felt like a guest star on an 80s sitcom this season. He gets a special intro in the credits, comes in the room and everybody goes nuts, but it's all hype. He missed two games, had two mediocre to bad games, and by the end of the season Derrius Guice was a much bigger threat. It would've been nice to see him play one more game, but he won't be missed in the bowl. Ever since he got hurt and LSU's season turned south it felt like he was playing just enough to keep his name out there.

As for the "absurd geographic advantage," can the SEC help it if half the bowls (21 of 40) are played in their geographic footprint and the region is amenable to travel? Get a regional team, sell tickets. The southern bowls would be stupid not to go after SEC teams.
Is it any less absurd than New Mexico, Idaho, USC, Central Florida, Hawaii or North Texas essentially playing home games in their bowls?

 

Sorry we forgot to live in a frozen hellscape

 

The Big Ten can't win the Rose Bowl either (3 wins this century).

Maybe Big Ten stalwart Maryland can exploit the conference's home field advantage in the Quick Lane Bowl.

 

Rose Bowl -- also in the opponent's back yard. Quick Lane Bowl -- not in Maryland's back yard.

I think this was sort of the other poster's point.

 

The Quick Lane Bowl is as close to Maryland as the Sugar Bowl is to Florida.

 

Maybe so, but Florida is playing in Tampa. Florida, USC, Tennessee, and Florida State are all playing in their home states against Big Ten opponents. Again, this was sort of the other poster's point.

Obviously the bowls will be played in California and Florida -- that only makes sense. What doesn't make sense is ignoring the amazingly obvious -- year after year, some teams are in their home state, and the teams that play against them are essentially playing a road game.

 

I bet you could fit the Vols fans who feel "rewarded" by a Music City Bowl trip in my bathroom with room to spare.

 

That's exactly what I was about to post. When those players were recruited they were promised a bowl game in some pretty out of state party town, and the fans damn sure didn't have a trip to Nashville in mind.

 

OK, so it is home field advantage. So what? It's the way things are set up. There are 40 freaking bowl games. Maybe if the Big Ten wanted to play some bowl games closer to home, they should have lobbied cities like Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Philadelphia or Baltimore to start bowl games in the past 10-15 years when everybody and their mother was creating them out of thin air.

 

Hawaii really put its home field advantage to work. Too bad they really can't get anyone to play there.