More bowls? That's not what college football needs
The NCAA recently certified three more bowl games for the 2015 postseason.
That means 84 of the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision teams will advance to bowl games. That's great news for programs such as MTSU, which has been bowl eligible each of the past three years but was snubbed twice in the selection process.
But it's bad news for college football fans.
Attendance at bowl games declined for the fifth consecutive year. Nineteen bowl games saw attendance drops. Attendance at the New Orleans Bowl dropped by more than 20,000; attendance at the Cactus Bowl dropped by more than 17,000; attendance at the Orange Bowl dropped by more than 13,000.
The Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl was one of the few bowls to show a significant gain as attendance for the Nashville bowl was up 8,024.
Granted, some of the attendance drops are because of the matchups. But, as more programs are added to the mix, the matchups are not going to get any better.
This past season, 68 FBS programs posted winning seasons. Another 16 were 6-6. Thus, 84 programs were bowl eligible. That number was cut to 81 because three programs (Old Dominion, Georgia Southern and Appalachian State) were in a transitional phase of moving to the FBS level and were not permitted to play in bowl games.
Obviously, mega television broadcast payouts and sponsorship deals have enabled the explosion of bowl games. From 1950 to 2000, the bowl game schedule grew from five to 25. That's an additional 20 games. It's taken just 15 more years to add 17 more games (and that's not including the FBS championship game).
It is now quite possible that a team with a losing record will advance to a bowl game. Last season Fresno State posted a 6-6 regular-season record, but then lost to Mountain West championship game. Despite their 6-7 record, the Bulldogs earned a berth into the Hawaii Bowl where they lost to Rice. The game attracted 26,365, one of nine bowl games to attract fewer than 30,000 fans.
There is a very good chance that more programs with losing regular-season records will advance to a bowl game next winter. In 2012, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved a change that could allow teams with losing records to advance to bowl games. There are a series of conditions that must be met, but a 5-7 team playing in a bowl game is soon going to become reality.
It's not quite like youth recreational leagues where every player on every team gets a trophy, but it's getting to start to feel that way.
The three new bowl games will be played in Austin, Texas; Tuscon, Ariz.; and Orlando, Fla. Nice warm locales and winter vacation destination spots.
Yet, in the era of 65-inch high-definition televisions, more and more football fans are staying home and not traveling to watch their favorite teams.
Can you really get excited about a matchup of two 6-6 teams playing in a bowl game? I can't.
Reach Dave Ammenheuser at 615-259-8352 and on Twitter @NashSportsEd.
BOWL ELIGIBLES
A look at the 2014 FBS conferences and the number of teams with winning records, .500 records and losing seasons:
American Athletic 5-1-5
ACC 11-0-3
Big 12 5-2-3
Big Ten 7-3-4
Conference USA 5-3*-5
Mid-America 4-2-7
Mountain West 6-1-5
Pac-12 8-0-4
SEC 9-3-2
Sun Belt 5*-1-5
Independents 3-0-1
Totals: 68-16-44
* Old Dominion, Georgia Southern and Appalachian State were not bowl eligible because of FBS transition policy.