Does college football really need 3 new bowl games by 2020?
College football may soon be adding more bowl games, but does the sport truly need to add more to its already-loaded postseason schedule?
It’s the dog days of summer that make college football fans appreciate the lengthy bowl schedule each winter.
Football seems like a distant memory at this point in the year and fans are getting that itch again right after spring ball and before fall camps. Freshmen are beginning to report to campus to join their teams and coaches are gearing up for the last stretch until the regular season kicks off.
The regular season, consisting of 13 weeks, usually flies by and fans are left counting down the days until next season, especially if their favorite team either missed out on a bowl or didn’t live up to expectations.
Well, college football could be close to adding three more bowl games which would make 65 percent of all teams nationwide bowl eligible by 2020. Yes, about two-thirds of all college football teams could be playing in bowl games by the year 2020, pending an approval from the NCAA.
3 new bowl games in 2020 if NCAA approves Competition Committee’s recommendations, sources said. That will make 43 bowls (including title game): 84 teams or 65% of all FBS teams will go bowling. Chicago (B1G vs. ACC) & Myrtle Beach will be 2 of new bowls https://t.co/fcxi8GKyeI
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) June 11, 2018
At this point in the summer, fans have to love the idea of adding more bowl games because, well, that means more football and everyone is craving that in June, July and August. However, is this something college football truly needs?
The easy answer: probably not. Fans get by just fine with 40 bowls, including a playoff, which stretch from mid-December to early-January. That stretch satisfies those postseason cravings and the bowl games have gotten out of hand as it is. If the NCAA approved bowl games for Chicago, at Wrigley Field, and Myrtle Beach, along with one more location, while replacing three lesser-respected bowls, that’d be perfectly fine. Adding three may be just too much.
I get it, though, it’s a way for the sport to make more money. More viewership, higher ratings and the attendance at games in the heart of Chicago as well as sunny Myrtle Beach would be huge, but is it worth losing the luster of making a bowl game?
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Let’s cut the bowl game additions off and do strictly replacements — sound good? The last thing college football needs is more bowl games. Although we all know we’ll be watching no matter what.