As I started to realize what a National Championship is (around the start of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998) I still watched the bowls, but focused mainly on the big ones.
Over time, as I grew more frustrated with the BCS system, I watched each bowl to measure teams against each other, trying to prove a team like Boise State or TCU played legitimate teams to warrant spots in the title game.
Now, I don't watch bowl games at all.
No bowls. No title game. Nothing after championship week but the D-1AA tournament.
Why have I stopped watching bowls, you may ask? It's quite simple: I'm not putting my stamp of approval on the postseason.
People wonder why 35 bowl games are needed. In case you were curious, that requires 70 out of 120 D-1A teams. That's right - a higher percentage of teams get into college football's postseason than any other sport.
It's glorified free advertising for the sponsors of these bowls. This year, there was an Idaho Potato Bowl. Two football teams basically put on a three-hour infomercial for a vegetable!
But having massive amounts of games with mediocre teams is not what bothers me. I'd be willing to sit and watch a few if not for one problem: Only one of these games means anything.
While it's nice to hold a trophy on TV, does anyone actually care who is holding the title of Meineke Car Care Bowl champion? Or Insight.com Bowl champion. Heck, even Sugar Bowl champion?
The only time people bring up a team winning a bowl is when the teams play each other the next year and it's touted as a rematch. Unless you're in the BCS National Championship game, a bowl victory means little more than a bigger check.
Granted, teams need that bigger check to help pay for the tickets they don't sell. According to Yahoo.com, the University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada for non-Nevadans) have sold a whopping 10 tickets to their match-up in the Hawaii Bowl. TEN tickets!
Bowl games usually demand schools sell between 5,000-20,000 tickets, and if they can't, then the school has to buy them out. This leads to 80 percent of bowl competitors losing money on their trip to play a worthless game.
But I could deal with all of this crap if it wasn't for the biggest problem: Bowls are a scapegoat for not having a playoff.
Bowl executives fear that if a 16-, 8- or even 4-team playoff was implemented, it would demean the value of the bowls and kill them. (Because, you know, they're SO valuable now.) People can't wrap their heads around the fact that bowls can live with or without a playoff, so it's a forced choice that isn't needed.
But since that forced choice is in effect, I have to choose to fight for a playoff.
I've asked many people to join me on this, and a few have supported me, but I still have holdouts. Many of them are fans of teams like Ohio State (6-6 this year), Illinois (also 6-6) and UCLA (a pathetic 6-7).
Well I'm sorry to be rude to you, but I frankly could not possibly care less that you want to see your piece of garbage football team insult the intelligence of football fans one more time with your God-awful play.
Do you mean to tell me that because a sub-.500 Bruins squad want to play Illinois in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, or because the amazing Ohio State wants to have a 6-6 clash with Florida in the Gator Bowl, that Boise State has to play a miserable Arizona State squad instead of possibly being in a playoff?
Oklahoma State should have to play Stanford in a meaningless Fiesta Bowl, and Oregon should have to play Wisconsin in a meaningless Rose Bowl, instead of being in a playoff, because worthless football teams and bowl executives have made a forced choice between themselves and finding a true champion?
Well to all of you who watch these terrible games, I'm sorry, but I can't follow in your moronic lead anymore. And to the university presidents who willfully lose money to play these terrible games, my hat's off to you - and my middle finger.
Until a playoff is instituted, I will not put any more money into this broken system.
Heck, only seven of the bowls are even remotely decent anyway. So I'm not missing that much.
For a system potentially like D-1AA, I'll gladly skip the Beef 'O Bradys Bowl every year.
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