1). It extends the season for the fans
2). Players and red shirts get more reps
3). Fun to go out of town
4). Players get a reward
5). Publicity
6). I go places I haven't been - Phoenix, Orlando, Alamo Bowl (and I love SA)
7). Once upon a time I thought they were meaningless but geez let's have fun.

I never thought a 6-6 team should go bowling....until now

I agree Waco. Kinda "everyone gets a trophy" but still a lot of fun.

True but like you say. "We all have fun."

I love it this year. However I remember when the bowls were very exclusive and miss that. I think the perfect model would be.

New years 6 bowls including playoff. 12 teams.

25 bowls with remaining top 50 teams. Total of 62 teams go bowling. Yes some 7 possibly 8 win teams are left out but bowls games regain their exclusivity again. Fans win, games are better and entertaining with best teams.

I like having my team in a bowl game to finish off football season. But I have gotten to the point where I watch very little of the other games when I don't care who wins. The match-ups are so lame and random now that they rarely have any particular appeal to me, other than they play with an oblate spheroid of pebbled leather. And that's just not enough any more. The playoff has made the bowls pretty irrelevant and uninteresting.

To me they are about equivalent to an nfl exhibition game in preseason. Doesn't matter too much in most cases...more of a glorified scrimmage except for the CFP games.

BoonDockSaint said:

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I never thought a 6-6 team should go bowling....until now

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Agree

I'm sure not hating on it now.

BellCountyBear said:

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To me they are about equivalent to an nfl exhibition game in preseason. Doesn't matter too much in most cases...more of a glorified scrimmage except for the CFP games.

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Especially with the recent trend of any NFL draftable players, some of which don't even get drafted, decide to skip the game.

Dia del DougO said:

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BellCountyBear said:

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To me they are about equivalent to an nfl exhibition game in preseason. Doesn't matter too much in most cases...more of a glorified scrimmage except for the CFP games.

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Especially with the recent trend of any NFL draftable players, some of which don't even get drafted, decide to skip the game.

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I can't say I blame them.

The nut of the bowl game problem is the financing. The Cotton Bowl prez in Dallas makes 400k for working two months a year and it's a stranglehold on fans and schools. I've been to some straight up kick ass bowls. Orange, Sugar, Rose. In the 80's, it was cool. Now, it seems...meh.

The Fiesta bowl tailgating thing sucked. Too corporate. The folks that built their own tailgate did it right. Cheaper, smarter, friendlier. That being said, I think there are certain bowls are good deals. The bowl game in San Diego against UCLA absolutely rocked. Right town, right attitude.

But as it stands, most bowls are a rip off. I've sworn to only visit the following cities for a bowl game.
-Not-so-New Orleans
-San Antonio(duh)
-Miami
-San Diego
-LA
-Dallas

Phoenix is a firm maybe.

I wish the Alamo were a possibility because I've been going to that bowl every year for quite a few years. I wish they would get a new stadium, though, or a major refurb. That dome has terrible lighting.

College football is pretty corrupt, is there any way we just go outside the bowl system?

Pick a fight with a team, schedule a nice venue and do it MMA style.

I seriously doubt bowl attendance is worth a damn. For the most part universities get screwed across the board and the cities make out like bandits. I don't get that.

It's a broken system.

Bowl Games
Player love to play football and it's one more game
Fans love to watch games and it's more game
I like visiting new towns.
I like 4 more weeks of practice.

So...let me see if I understand this correctly. Some people would rather watch less football than more football?

Anything over 900,000 waters down the product.

The only issue I have is the minimum guarantee schools have to make to buy tickets while those allotted tix are usually in bad seats. This puts many schools out on a limb. Say Troy plays in the Potato Bowl in Boise: how many tickets will Troy really sell? It's 2000 miles away. What if, say NC STate makes the Sun Bowl? El Paso is lovely for the holidays (said no one).

Most of these games, it's much more affordable to buy tix directly from the bowl AND get better seats. You can also wait until StubHub types start discounting. I get the argument that buying though BU is better for the school, but I'm traveling with a family and if I can get $30 tix with decent seats in Houston or Ft Worth, I'm grabbing those. YOull still see green and gold Surfo Oso & Surf Cubs in the stands

Texas Bowl. I'll be there