32 Bowls and Nothing On

The Cold, Hard Football Facts takes a look on how the bowl system has become diluted and has completely gone overboard. There are a record 32 bowl games this year and most of the teams that participated really weren't worthy of a "post-season" game.

The Cold, Hard Football Facts does a good job looking at how the bowls went from being pure and desirable to both watch or play in. Now bowl games have been whored out to make sure every team over .500 gets to ride the community bicycle. In fact the Seven Deadly Sins could be used to explain the current state of the bowl system.

Lust - teams desire the recognition that comes with a bowl appearance. The lust is so bad that teams will lower themselves to play in games like the Papa John's Bowl or the Meineke Bowl.

Gluttony - too much of a good thing. I think the record 32 bowl games fits this definition to a tee.

Greed - all around the bowls is avarice and the sin of excess. From the convention and visitors bureaus of the host cities to the schools looking to make some coin off the backs of the football players greed abounds in the bowl system. Greed may be a sin against God but the current bowl system is a sin against even the slightest pretence of amateur sports. Money talks is the simple explanation why we have 32 bowl games.

Sloth - the current arrangement exists because the NCAA is too lazy to implement a playoff system.

Wrath - there is a growing wrath among football fans who are sick of the fake bowls. Just look at all the empty seats and low TV ratings of the fake bowls.

Envy - maybe the sin that started it all. The idea of "we were just as good a team as team X and we should have been in a bowl too" - that's what sparked the expansion of the bowls in the first place.

Pride - this sin has been completely perverted. It was pride which made teams think they were too good to stay home and not go to a bowl game but now what kind of pride can you really take in participating in such a baloney bowl as the International in Toronto of all places?