College football bowl thread: Pop-Tarts Muzik

It's a case of absolute marketing malpractice that that game is starting at 4:30 EST instead of 10 minutes earlier.

 

Followed by what feels like the most underwhelming Heisman Trophy presentation in quite a few years. I guess it'll be Travis Hunter? Maybe because it's been overshadowed by Playoff talk, but it seems like there's hardly been any serious buzz at all about it.

 

Scheduling in general this year is a train wreck. There is only one FBS level bowl this Saturday because we just had bowl selections. (Plus it is also Army-Navy weekend.) The 21st is out because that’s a tripleheader for first-round playoffs games. So the 28th is stuffed like a turducken.

 

This Saturday is usually clear, though, isn't it? They've cleared out that whole day for Army-Navy and the Heisman. The first bowl games aren't normally until next weekend.
Then after that they always stuff them wherever there's room starting on about Dec. 20.
Having the two games this Saturday is actually kind of weird.

 

Well one of the two is the Celebration Bowl for HBCUs and they’ve never been all that worried about syncing with the rest of the football universe. But under the previous setup, Dec. 21 this year would be chock full of bowl games. Sure some get spread out to weekdays because ESPN wants it that way. But if your game has any kind of clout with the Mouse you desperately want a Saturday slot for the gate, or at least the Friday after Christmas.

 

There's also two less games of inventory because of the playoffs, right? The teams that lose in the first round would normally be four more teams in a traditional bowl game.

 

My brain hurts too much to do the math on how all the slots balance out, but the Cotton and Orange will have teams technically playing in their second bowl of the season so I think that balances things back out.

 

You have four teams blocking out three bowls on each end of the bracket, so you end up with a deficit of four teams all told. Granted, those are all high-tier bowls that Arkansas State would never sniff in the old order, but you still have four teams pushed out at the bottom end.

 

All of this scheduling talk jarred a memory of my short stint on the staff of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, which also published the Pasadena Star News. The Star News went huge on the Rose Parade and Bowl, for obvious reasons, including a producing a magazine called ROSE before the big day. So, in August, the managing editor calls us all together to begin discussions. First thing she says it, "OK, which teams are playing in the Rose Bowl?" Congrats to our sports editor for keeping it together to calmly explain that we won't know until AFTER the regular season ends.
That brings me to now, and how the Rose Bowl pairing won't be decided until after the first weekend of games. All of the pregame advertising will be to see No. 1 Oregon against Some Other Team in the Granddaddy of them All.

 

Punting is a key aspect of finishing in the middle of the B1G standings.

Trust me, I’m an Iowa fan.