One Step From Having Losers in Bowl Games

The International Bowl has folded, but there is no shortage of parties interested in entering the bowl business.

This month, the NCAA is expected to approve bowl games in New York and Dallas, bringing the number of postseason games to 35, an all-time high. Compare that to the 1996 postseason, when there were only 18.

Teams need a minimum record of 6-6 to be bowl eligible, and the NCAA will need 70 to fill the new postseason lineup. For the past three seasons, 71 teams have met that criteria. If the NCAA decides to add more bowl games, it will need to change the 6-6 rule to allow teams with losing records to compete.

Don't think it could happen? Nick Carparelli, chairman of the NCAA's bowl licensing committee, was asked how many bowl games there could be.

"As many games as the system can handle," he told Brent Schrotenboer of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The NCAA is also expected to approve a modification to bowl eligibility rules. The proposal by Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe will make teams with 6-6 records just as eligible to play in bowls as teams with winning records. Currently, teams with winning records are given priority.

Matt Sanderson, co-founder of Playoff PAC, a federal political committee pushing for a playoff system, called Beebe's proposal "a naked power grab."

Sanderson said the effect of the rule will result in teams from power conferences getting at-large slots over teams from smaller conferences.

Schrotenboer writes that "if the proposed rule had been in effect last year, the GMAC Bowl could have taken Notre Dame (6-6) over Troy (9-3) — if Notre Dame had wanted to play in it."

"The bowl system is already for the big schools and by the big schools," Sanderson said. "This is just another slap in the face."

Thanks to Mike.

Comments

[Ed]

Is it gonna happen? Yeah, probably - mainly because bowl games have more to do with money than they do winning records. If somebody can make a couple million dollars hosting a bowl game in North Dakota between two 4-8 teams, it's gonna happen. Right now there's no market for those games, but college football has exploded in popularity in the past decade. True, the bowl games have leveled out a bit, and a few of them don't make the money their backers thought they would, but that doesn't mean they won't ever work.

[bob cuomo]

I'm gonna use a baseball term that really applies here...it's bush!
Talk about watering down the bowl games...Yep, it's all about $$$ for the NCAA...it would be an awful decision...almost as bad as the NCAA Division I basketball tournament expanding to 96 teams...terrible.