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There are 36 non-playoff bowls

Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:30 am
Posted by Landmass
Premium Member
Member since Jun 2013
24960 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:30 am
That's 72 teams out of 136 FBS programs, so more than half, playing in these irrelevant games. If we are going to keep bowl games around, we need to have fewer of them. But, what would be better is either a G5 playoff or an NIT style playoff for the next 12 teams. Of course, both of these should be on-campus games and only championship games should be at bowl/neutral sites.
Posted by TygerLyfe
Member since May 2023
3090 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:32 am to
There's going to be a Great Contractening pretty soon. Probably 1/3 to 1/2 of those irrelevant bowls will vanish
Posted by Landmass
Premium Member
Member since Jun 2013
24960 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:33 am to
quote:

There's going to be a Great Contractening pretty soon. Probably 1/3 to 1/2 of those irrelevant bowls will vanish


There's no way that most of these bowl games are turning a profit.
Posted by bigDgator
Dallas, TX
Member since Oct 2008
48484 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:35 am to
Probably a tax write off for the sponsors.
Posted by Tarpon08
Cut Off, LA
Member since Dec 2014
8206 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:35 am to
quote:

Probably 1/3 to 1/2 of those irrelevant bowls will vanish


I’m sure you have a great source at a major TV network giving you that info . As much as that is what needs to happen it’s not going to happen.
Posted by Roll Tide Ravens
Birmingham, AL
Member since Nov 2015
51063 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:38 am to
I love bowl games. The opting out stuff messed them up. Before around 2016 when Fournette and a few others started the opting out trend, bowl games were really fun.
Posted by Allthatfades
Mississippi
Member since Aug 2014
8764 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:43 am to
Bowl games used to be great. The week between Christmas and New Year’s was awesome. They are a hard watch now. I’ve put a couple on for background noise and ended up switching to a movie. Couple coming up could be good..Texas-Michigan, Vandy-Iowa. But the if it’s not the playoffs, or it’s not your school, these games have become irrelevant.
Posted by captainFid
Never apologize to barbarism
Member since Dec 2014
9263 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:44 am to
Yep, we've discussed before. The slow blood-letting of college football.

17 back in the 80's when I hoped to compete in one.

Half filled stadiums and being bowl eligible (as Auburn has in past years) has really hurt the sport. Went from having a great season, to a winning season... to finally, 'didn't have a losing season'... LMAO.

Everything is watered down these days.
Posted by cornerstore
Member since Jul 2024
1764 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 7:45 am to
Why do we need/want any of them?
Posted by New Money
Athens, GA
Member since Jun 2023
3690 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 8:20 am to
G5 has a playoff. It's called the College Football Playoff.
Posted by StringedInstruments
Member since Oct 2013
20563 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 8:36 am to
quote:

to finally, 'didn't have a losing season'.


It’s not even that.

We could have gone to a bowl this year at 5-7. That’s a losing season even with a bowl win.

The bowl games have been a quick cash grab. They’ll be cut down pretty hard as capitalism chomps them up.
Posted by Placekicker
Florida
Member since Jan 2016
12414 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 8:59 am to
quote:

Bowl games used to be great. The week between Christmas and New Year’s was awesome. They are a hard watch now. I’ve put a couple on for background noise and ended up switching to a movie


Absolutely loved bowl season when I was in college back in the 90’s. There was no better feeling than winter break- exams were over, no responsibilities, Christmas, sleeping in, and bowl games every day. It was glorious!

Now? With so many bowls, opt outs, and the responsibilities of life, it’s lost its luster.

Sad, really…
Posted by Vecchio Cane
Ivory Tower
Member since Jul 2016
18624 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 9:13 am to
Bowl games have always been irrelevant infomercials for the title sponsors.
The only changes are increased access to other entertainment & drastically reduced attention spans
Posted by ColtTiger247
Jonesville
Member since May 2025
900 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 9:25 am to
Clicked on this expecting to see how Landmass could tie this all back to lsu. I’m surprised
Posted by mckibaj
Member since Nov 2010
8148 posts
Posted on 12/29/25 at 9:41 am to
They are still money makers for the cities and TV (Mostly ESPN). If companies stopped buying adds and sponsorship dies out, then yeah.

For comparison, “Pardon the Interruption” is ESPNs highest viewed show with around 675K average viewers. The 2024 Potato Bowl (on Monday 12/23/24 at 2:30pm) with Northern Illinois and Fresno State had 1.32M viewers. Double PTI and lasts 3+ hours generating lots of add revenue.
This post was edited on 12/29/25 at 9:49 am
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