Years ago going to a bowl game following standard season play was a substantial reward and a sign of excellence. Now it has develop into an absolute joke.
What has brought on this sad state of affairs? I’m glad you asked. The answer is cash-grubbing bowl game organizers with dollar indicators in their eyes. It is all about creating cash at the expense of respect for the game, the players, and their quest for excellence.
You see there are only 120 significant college football teams in Division 1-A, what the NCAA loves to call FBS (the Football Bowl Subdivision). The NCAA brain trust loves extra and extra bowl games simply because they believe it promotes the sport, and becomes a funds magnet.
It also is killing the sport like a wounded animal operating for its life immediately after being shot by a sportsman, not realizing that even if it escapes its hunter, it will bleed to death in the method.
The plethora of bowl games will sooner or later lead to football to loose its appeal as the number one spectator sport in America. That may sound unthinkable, but I have been covering or watching football for a half century, and can see history repeating itself.
I can keep in mind when baseball was king in America, and the powers to be believed it would under no circumstances stop becoming THE sport of choice. Then basketball became real well-liked with rivalries at the pro level. Then football became all the rage. I can recall when pro football games have been not even televised due to a lack of demand. When you live lengthy adequate and pay consideration, you see the cycles building.
Pro baseball created the mistake of expanding to more and more teams, and extra and far more playoff games. Quite quickly the excellent of play was diminished, also a great deal dollars was involved, and the game became driven additional by dollars than the quest for excellence.
Baseball club owners place crummy teams on the field and men and women stopped coming. Some important cities would not even support a lousy group. Another sport then became additional preferred.
Here is ตารางคะแนนเอเชียนคัพ 2024 : We have 120 significant teams and now the bowl season has been expanded to 35 games. That signifies 70 of the 120 teams will play in a bowl game. The predicament has grow to be so dire that the NCAA is speaking about waivers since not sufficient teams currently qualify to play in a bowl game.
The normal now is 6 wins among 12 games – that is just a stinking .500 record which doesn’t definitely merit the reward of a bowl game. Heck, you employed to have to win 7 games to make it into a bowl game. Now there is speak of letting teams with a 5-7 record play in a bowl game for the reason that not adequate might qualify with six wins.
This is nonsense. One pernicious outcome of this is rewarding incompetency.
It reminds me of parents who all but force their kid to play tiny league baseball when the kid could care much less. He then plays 12 games on a team that loses each and every game and, as a reward, they give just about every kid on the team a trophy so their feelings are not hurt by their incompetence.
Parents also feel compelled to have images taken of their small “stars” and have them place on baseball cards like they are some type of significant league player. How stupid. The kid learns that being a zero counts for almost everything. He feels like a practically nothing and is a absolutely nothing.
He is denied the blood, sweat and tears of working his butt off to really develop capabilities, discover to turn out to be a team player, and love some actual, actual life success – a far more important lesson that will support him all through his life.
Last year, 71 teams became bowl-eligible by winning at least 6 games, and 68 of them played in bowl games. This year, 64 teams are bowl eligible and 20 may possibly be if they win again. Bowl selections are to be announced on Sunday, Dec. five.
Unless someone with authority puts their foot down, we might soon see 60 bowl games with every single key school participating. That might make an individual a lot dollars, but the games will be terrible and the players will be cheated out of a thing very vital – the feeling of achievement that comes from hard operate and sacrifice, and can not be replaced.