The Big Ten And Bowl Games: Could Have Gone Better

So that all the top 25 teams at least have a chance. The exact number isn’t all that important. But we all know this isn’t about competitiveness, it is about money, and as long as the bowls and their sponsors make money, they’ll find excuses to keep playing as many as they can. The only solution is to not watch/go.

one was the result of Gooden carrying the ball like a loaf of bread, the other was solid defense

The think I like about the bowl games is the history. There is no history in the Little Caesar’s Bowl. If they really want to add a few new bowl games, how about The Man Up Bowl, and play it outdoors in the north.

and who cares about the NIT? Of course, based on the comments on this thread, it is pretty clear a lot of people already don’t care about most of the bowl games already, so maybe we aren’t losing all that much…

If a school like Tulsa is wiling to lose money on sending its team to a 2nd tier bowl game, to reward its fans and players, how can we, fans of a 1st tier conference school, say with a straight face, “I don’t like that there are so many bowls. All the bowls that you could make are cancelled forever. Might as well just cancel your program because unless you can become the next Boise State, even if you win 10 games a year you can’t have a postseason.”

Also, the entire qualifying conference thing is a joke. The entire BCS is a joke and if you disagree that is fine. But as long as it exists as it currently is, we might as well go back to the old system of major bowls since there is no push among the media or NCAA to junk it and go to a playoff. The media wouldn’t be able to set a championship based solely on hype, so they would lose $$$$ in advertising and spin coverage and of course the bowl execs wouldn’t be able to line their pockets and hold meetings in strip clubs based solely on the television dollars for games. Guess they could still meet in strip clubs to decide if teams had moral issues.

ESPN and SEC folks seem to be the only ones that ride this fairly recent “bragging rights” for best conference. But it is their way of getting the teams higher ranked at the beginning of the season, which does help as the season wears on. I think it started with basketball “conference toughness” but it is not done the same way using a complex means of actually ranking teams. There is still a top 25 in basketball but it really doesn’t mean a lot come tournament time, unlike for football where the biased confernence rankings can be used to put a team in the championship game.

I like the notion that you play a team hard on the field and then give them and their fans hospitality and respect when the game is over (actually respect during the game too). After Ohio State’s fairly classy reception to Penn State this year, I can’t even really say that I hate them enough to want to see them lose ALL the time. In fact, the only Big Ten school I think I feel that way about is Wisky, and that has more to do with Bielema than anything. Even Michigan doesn’t draw out the HATE in me since we don’t have to deal with them on a year-in year-out basis. Their more like that girl at the prom that thinks she’s way prettier than she actually is…I just don’t care.

There is a lot of Big Ten unity in Chicago, where alumni from all of the schools mix and pretty much dominate the college sports scene. There’s even a B1G charity bar crawl every year among the various alumni groups to kick off the football season, and lots of alumni from all 12 schools participate (although I did notice Penn State was the least represented, which I’m sure they are overall in Chicagoland.) There is a feeling of common experience here where most people under 40 didn’t grow up in the city, so when you meet someone who went to another B1G school, you at least have that in common. I even had a friend who is a Texas grad and huge Longhorns fan tell me that he feels left out sometimes because he’ll never get it.

but do I really want Ohio State or Michigan to win just to improve conference standings? I would want them to lose no matter what.

do we chant “Big Ten” at games? Has that ever happened at a Big Ten game?

Im a Big East basketball fan. I have to deal with people tell me how overrated the Big East is. Doesnt make me root for Villanova or Pitt or Georgetown, like, ever. I still smile when Pitt is bounced inevitibly prior to the Final Four. It still drove me up a wall to see UConn win a national title last year.

during the 90’s no one gave a shit about which conference FSU or Miami were in. In fact rival teams rooted against them in their finals. It is a very new media based perception that conferences should care what their brothern do. And makes no sense. I want my rival to lose. Did many no Pittsburgh, PSU fans root for Pitt to win in the 70’s, I sure didn’t. I put the qualifier in there because I can see people rooting for a team that has local players. I only root for a BIG team if I don’t like the opponent, that and I usually root for NW and I kind of like Iowa. But watching Pelini blow up against USC was kind of fun until the chanting started and then I thought, what a bunch of losers.

I wont pin all the losses on location, but put 2 similar teams in a game 50 miles from one team and 700 from the other and it isnt an easy game.

The B1G lost 6 games this year…. Oregon in California, Florida in Florida, South Carolina in FLorida, Houston in Dallas, Texas A&M in Houston and Oklahoma in Arizona.

I wont blame it all on that, but its no surprise the two best major conferences (outside the Big East) are where all teh bowl games are played.

Whenever I get a chance to go to a bowl game I try to find stuff to do that I enjoy, whether the bowl game goes well or not. And as with any trip, I’ve had hassles associated with traveling and locals, so I totally sympathize with that. I think the chance to go somewhere on a trip over the holidays with thousands of other Penn Staters and, hopefully, have some good weather is what college football bowl season is all about. It’s part of what I’ll miss if college football adopts a playoff system that trivializes the bowls.