Bowl season is here. Everyone knows where they are going and who they will be playing. However, a few P4 teams are bucking that trend and staying home this year, following a disturbing pattern that has increased in recent seasons.
While teams turning down bowl invitations used to be rare, it has increased in recent years, for numerous reasons. Coaching changes, the transfer portal, and even NIL have eroded the postseason in college football. Committment, something coaches drill into their teams, has become a buzzword - oft stated, but rarely demonstrated.
Kansas State has declared that, even with a 6-6 mark that makes them bowl-eligible, they are declining to participate in bowl season. While they have a new coach, Wildcat QB legend Collin Klein, he's still involved in CFP preparation with his old school, and many Wildcats are looking at the transfer portal already, leaving a roster in flux and putting the Wildcats in an impossible situation.
Iowa State faces a similar conundrum, as coach Matt Campbell was hired away days ago by Penn State, leaving the Cyclones to quickly pivot to Jimmy Rogers of Washington State.
Again, roster turnover concerns and the fluid situation with their coaching staff were reasons given as to why Iowa State won't participate in bowl season.
While most football fans didn't see much damage to the bowl schedule with these opt-outs, the Big 12 conference did, and fined both schools $500,000 to avoid having this behavior continue in future years.
Notre Dame, which finished 11th in the CFP standings and appeared likely to earn a berth to the playoffs, received a surprising snub on Sunday, being left out altogether. While they were guaranteed to be invited to a bowl game, they pulled the pride card and opted out completely, which appears to be a statement of disapproval of the way the CFP handled the selections this year.
Bowl games could become extinct
The bowls have been antiquated for years, and many are poorly attended. Yet the schools are required to purchase an allotment of tickets to keep the bowl itself afloat. And, they allowed teams additional practices, which proved valuable as a springboard for the players who planned on returning the following season.
In the transfer portal era, that extra game is a showcase for players who can be induced to enter the portal in January. Other players who already plan to enter the portal will often opt out of playing in a meaningless bowl to preserve their health and earning power moving forward.
Schools, having a revolving door of players coming and going, see their expenses rising with NIL and are looking to find money where they can, will continue to view opting out as a roster-saving exercise, if not an expense to be ignored.
Conferences, with seasons varying wildly on who is eligible to make a bowl, often fall short of their required bowl invites, and now have added incentive to get as many of their teams into the CFP as possible, since the payouts there are much greater, making the lesser bowls especially uninviting.
Only the networks still push the bowls as something desired to participate in, owing to the contractual agreements that extend out until the end of time.
Empty stadiums, cold or middling weather, and uninterested fanbases only add to the conclusion that the bowl season has seen its day. College football fans care about who wins and who is in the CFP, above everything else. They want on-campus playoff games and championships, not participation trophies.
Declining bowl invitations will be the beginning of the end for the bowls. ESPN just needs a reason to walk away, and it's coming sooner than anyone thinks.