A Bunch of Boring Bowls

Couldn't get excited about too many of the bowl games.  Perhaps it was because the Big Ten teams did not do well, but perhaps also it was because the BCS Championship game has minimized interest in even the big bowl games, namely Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl.  The others have little meaning to all but their fans.

Until the BCS championship ten years ago or so, multiple bowl games were of great interest because they contributed to determining the national champion.  The 1997 bowl season exemplifies the importance and excitement of the old system.  Michigan and Nebraska were the only undefeated teams during the regular season and both won their bowl games.  #1 UM beat #8 Washington State in the Rose Bowl while #2 Nebraska defeated #3 Tennessee in the Orange Bowl.  The final polls gave a split national champion and generated spirited conversation about which one was correct.  AP poll ranked University of Michigan number 1 and Nebraska second while the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll had them reversed.   Some considered Nebraska's victory "better" than UM's.   More interesting would have been UM and Neb both losing.  Then Tenn might have been voted national champion (one loss and the big win over Neb) or WSU (one loss and a bowl win over UM); in addition #4 Florida would also have had some claim because they had only one loss and defeated Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl.  Three bowl games kept our interests back then because each contributed something to the mythical national champion.  The interest was intense, the talk interesting.

Now there is only one game that gets discussed for the national champion.  No more what-ifs before the bowl season, no more lively comparisons of schedules, no more who beat who and by how much, no more this bowl win was better than that one.

A lot of the fun of the bowl season is gone.  And a playoff will not bring the fun back.