re: Players sitting out for bowl games will force playoff expansion to 8, 12 or even 16 teams.

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Time you realize college football is now a business and 50 years ago it was played mostly for pride, so going to a lesser bowl still meant something - win and get ranked higher.

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There weren't really "lesser" bowls 50 years ago. If my count is right, there are 39 bowl games this year. In 1990, there were 19. Of the 39 bowl games being played this year, only 8 were around 50 years ago.

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Non-playoff bowl game viewership is way down. This will continue.

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I think there are a lot of reasons for the viewership to drop. One is oversaturation - 39 games (40 if you count the CFPCG).

Another is scheduling. With ESPN owning the rights to 99% of the games, and not wanting many of them to compete with one another, you end up with games on at odd times of the day. Joe 6-pack may have to work Wednesday - Friday of this week and not be able to see games that start at 1:30 each day.