Running 2011 Bowl Season Thread- Match-ups on Page 1

If it's the Chick-fil-A bowl, that's a great argument. You can't possibly get me to believe Baylor or KState wouldn't travel to the Sugar Bowl. Or any of the other myriad teams that are more deserving than VT.

 

Bowl games are exhibition games. In theory, the economic premise of exhibition games (or exhibitions in general) is that the better the show you put on, the more money you make. But bowl games don't operate on that premise. Their rationale is exactly that of drug dealers: to wit, the more addicted to their damn teams the fans are, the more money you make by inviting them.
What I continue not to get is ESPN's role in all this. They have a vested interest in putting on a good show that the actual bowls do not. Don't tell me ratings for the Orange and Sugar Bowl will justify ESPN's considerable investment in them. Were I them, I would have insisted that my network make the BCS non-championship bowl matchups as a part of the broadcast contract.

 

Because for a long time in college football history, bowl games were special events. They were rewards to teams that were very good, and they actually meant something.

Now, like you said, they're mostly meaningless exhibitions (even though they count with overall reoreds) used in order to give ESPN some December programming. It's just a blatant money-grab now, whereas before, it was something special and fun.

 

So essentially you think it's short-sighted? That the short-term gain of programming and money hurts the sport in the long run?

I have this argument with my brother about NASCAR all the time. I hate that the Sprint Cup drivers race in Nationwide races the night before. I think it waters down the main event on Sunday. He basically counters with my argument: It's what the market demands. It's a business.

I think it's different, though, because the valid comparison would be a million bowl games and then LSU playing in the Kraft Bowl as well as the national title game. I kind of like the system now because it builds up to the main event, incrementally. Plus, after two months of regional conference games, we get to see a bunch of inter-conference matchups between teams that don't usually play.

You know who I think the bowl glut hurts? College basketball. Although at least most of the games are over before league play begins.

 

Except if ESPN had done that, the bowls would have refused to go along. And they would have found some other sucker TV network who would have been willing to go along with the bowl organizers to get those "addicted" individuals to watch their network.

 

Watching the Rutgers offense is akin to getting stuck in the genpop.

How much appearance money are they paying for people to show up?

 

So long as the University of Spoiled Children is doing time . . . absolutely correct.

 

Not going to defend the Va. Tech selection. I was as stunned as anyone...

However, the "Tech travels" argument holds a shit ton of water. Tech has been to NOLA three times and brings a crapload of fans each time, especially for a fan base that's quite frankly sick of spending every New Year's in Miami Gardens. Tech will bring 30-40K fans to this game. So will Michigan. That's why the matchup happened. No one knows how Baylor's fan base will travel to a big game, because the Bears haven't been in one.

 

Cosmo ain't wrong. And I remember someone saying that the Bourbon Street business crowd might not be thrilled with Baylor...I think the opposite holds true with VT. And I mean that as a compliment. All my Hokie friends are right at home in that element. It's what I love about them.