SMQ: The FBS postseason and the history of bowl games

Why does the modern college football postseason feature 40 contests? SMQ looks into the history of bowl games in this week’s edition.

In every other level of college football and in pretty much every other collegiate sport, there is a clearly delineated postseason structure that involves a simple dichotomy of haves and have-nots. The playoffs are designed to reward successful teams with a shot at a national championship.

Something approximating that structure is beginning to exist at the FBS level of Division I football. This is due to the recent development of the four-team College Football Playoff, which evolved out of decades of evolutionary steps toward a system designed to crown a definitive national champion.

But even in an era where the postseason is solidifying into bracket form to conform with other collegiate athletic offerings, bowl games still hold relevance. They are imbued with mythic qualities. Yet, more often than not, bowls are merely a venue for teams with between six and eight wins to get in one last paycheck and 60 more minutes of playing time for the season.

Even so, bowl games continue to linger in college football lore as a bridge between the memorialized past and modernity. Bowl games come and bowl games go, as evidenced by the shift in this year’s schedule. The loss of the Poinsettia Bowl and the Miami Beach Bowl coincided with the arrival of the Frisco Bowl, holding the number of bowl games at 39 in the 2017-2018 postseason calendar.

This week, Sunday Morning Quarterback sets out to learn more about the evolution of the postseason we know today as college football fans. Keep reading to see how the Granddaddy of ’em All in Pasadena spawned a cottage industry of imitators that evolved into the commercial college football behemoth of the 21st century.