UCF football win in Peach Bowl shows further futility of bowl system
The UCF football program finished the year undefeated with their win over Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, but it will do little to help the ailing college football bowl system.
Let’s get a few things straight right from the start. The UCF Knights are a quality football team who walked into Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and punched SEC powerhouse Auburn in the face. Finishing an FBS season without a loss is a huge accomplishment, and Scott Frost should be commended for the coaching job he’s done with this UCF football program.
But other than bragging rights for beating the SEC and a claim to Peach Bowl champions, what do the Knights get out of this huge win?
The answer is, not a lot, and like so many other college football teams who participate in bowl games without the “national semifinal” moniker attached, the Knights are probably feeling a bit underwhelmed – even cheated – by the archaic postseason system of an overloaded bowl schedule.
Oh sure, with 41 bowl games and over 60 percent of the FBS teams making a postseason game, the fans win with a ton of football entertainment to carry them through until the NFL playoffs begin.
But the players? The programs? Even the winners can turn out to be losers.
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Evidence that the bowl system is turning into a month of exhibitions and vacations for invited teams is clear. Star players now regularly opt to sit out bowl games and coaches (Scott Frost not included) make a habit of abandoning teams they’ve coached all year to move on to their newest cash cow opportunity.
If you watched many of the bowls leading up to the New Year’s Six, you undoubtedly saw a lot of empty seats and a decided lack of fan interest.
How some of these bowls stay afloat is nothing short of a miracle.
But back to UCF football and the 50th edition of Atlanta’s Peach Bowl.
UCF is undefeated, having won their conference and beaten a top 10 Power-5 team to finish the year. Yet there will be no consideration of a national title for the Knights, not even a whiff.
Why? Because the we’re-better-than-the-BCS College Football Playoff has monopolized teams who have any shot at the national championship in their two national semifinals.
The pendulum has swung too far in the other direction from the haphazard days of AP vs UPI polls to close out the season. Now, instead of the possibility of too many champions, we have – in the four years the system has been in place – too few.
Would playoff expansion have helped UCF get a toehold for a title shot? Possibly, but the NCAA Basketball Tournament has shown us that bloating the field of competitors does nothing to quell the mass of whining when someone is inevitably left out of the tourney.
Too many bowls, so many being so meaningless. Even a win in a bowl as old and revered as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl loses some luster when it leaves teams with a “what about us?” finish.
The solution? Trim the fat, make fewer teams eligible for postseason play and make more bowls count towards a championship. In short, don’t expand the playoff but reformat what we have. After every major bowl game is over, let the committee then choose four teams who they deem worthy for a shot at the title.
Next: Projecting 4-Team Playoff in BCS Era
UCF’s perfect season counts for nothing other than an obscure stat (and if you don’t think it’s obscure, ask the 2008 Utah Utes how many people still talk with reverence about their undefeated season). The Knights deserve better than a “good job, good effort” and some social media bragging rights.