#811 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday December 6)
Good morning,
A WISTFUL REMEMBRANCE OF BOWL GAMES
We are embarking on an annual tradition of college football known as “bowl season.” In the “olden days,” this was an opportunity for a bunch of young, (relatively) innocent young men to play one last game before the depths of winter sunk in. For most of the seniors, this was their swan song, the last game that would fuel stories of glory to be shared at family gatherings for decades. These kids would play their hearts out in a series of meaningless games, which would result in multiple claims of being “number one” and an off-season during which fans could debate what-ifs and who really was the champ.
These bowl games were scheduled in the warmer climes of California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida, where players, cheerleading squads, and fans could pack up and head to a locale not previously visited (and, in the case of games played in San Antonio or El Paso, often not even considered!). The players loved it. Their parents and friends loved it. The fans loved it. And the local chambers of commerce, business leaders, and boosters (think the character “Buddy” from Friday Night Lights…) scheduled and supported these games. The committees organizing these events tried to schedule interesting match-ups, often of teams that typically would not meet in the regular season.
Emerging from this randomness, quaintness, and light-heartedness came match-ups that pitted conference champions against each other. The first of these was the Rose Bowl, but eventually included a number of others. Who didn’t love the Rose Bowl, which brought together the “Hollywood glitz” of the Pac-12, of blessed memory, with the solid, stocky, corn-fed boys of the Midwest’s Big-10?! Strangely, the Big-10 consisted of only ten teams at the time. Imagine that. Some of us still think of the Pac-12 as the Pac-10 or the Pac-8, before the DNA of that once-mighty conference was altered by moving from the Pacific to inland states like Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. But at least the Pac-12 (now, of course, the Pac-2) has a geographical rationale, as the mightiest of the western conferences (which included the “lesser” Mountain West and Big Sky conferences). Back in those days, most conferences quickly could be categorized by geography (e.g., Big East, SEC, Northeast, Southern, Sun Belt, even Missouri Valley!).
But that was when life was simple, when the players longed for a fun match-up, when there wasn’t a transfer portal, and when players didn’t tell coaches that they would just sit out the game…
MAKING IT “COUNT”
It became clear that the powers that be (meaning, the sports broadcasting fraternity and the advertisers that eventually would power the entire enterprise with out-sized influence) wanted a championship game. The NCAA started to figure out that TV dollars trumped the simple system of yore. “What if the two best teams in the country don’t meet in a bowl game,” the football aficionados asked. So they instituted the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, which pitted the computer and poll-determined #1 and #2 teams to play in a championship game after the four traditional “big” New Year’s Day bowls (Fiesta, Rose, Sugar, Orange). Increasingly, the other bowl games would contractually bind themselves to fixed determination of the competitors (e.g., the #4 PAC-12 team plays the #5 SEC team at some random bowl game), without regard to the science of matching teams up that might prove interesting, and without regard for the local marketability of the game.
But people weren’t happy with just one game, chosen by the committee of cognoscenti. So, beginning with the 2014 season, it was decided there needed to be a “fairer” and more scientific way of getting to the “best” team through a playoff. So a tournament-type structure was imposed, comprising yet another nail in the coffin of the fiction of the “student athlete.” Two semi-final games are played, sited at one of the (now) six New Year’s bowl games, with a championship game played in January.
Now, we’re headed for a 12-team playoff system beginning next season, further professionalizing and monetizing what used to be a fun post-season system. While the “lesser” bowls continue, most with cute little names tied to commercial enterprises, these bowls presumably will take on less and less significance/visibility over the years. I predict some of these minor games will cease to exist ten years from now, as the “playoff atmosphere” takes center-stage and crowds them out.
BUT THERE STILL ARE USELESS GAMES THAT PROMISE A FUN TIME
As anyone watching has noted, USC had a disappointing regular season, notwithstanding the greatest college quarterback of his generation (among the very top of all time). And yet, with a 7-5 record, they qualified for a bowl game. They will be playing an over-achieving Louisville team in San Diego in an unimportant game that many will embrace for the excitement, fun, and warm weather. The chatter around the college football world is tallying how many of the best players will choose to jilt their teammates and fan bases by electing not to play. So, it will be two teams that are shadows of their regular season teams. For many of the players, it will be their first opportunity for important playing time before the break until Spring training begins. Louisville probably deserves better.
There was a time when there wasn’t an absurd “transfer portal,” that currently boasts over 1,000 players! The transfer portal now ensures that players no longer are playing “for their school” but for themselves and their potential NFL careers (never mind that most college football players will never set foot in an NFL game).
WISDOM OF THE AGES
All of this is, of course, meaningless in the greater scheme of things. With the assault on American democracy, the rise of nationalism globally, and wars raging in Europe and the Middle East, not to mention climate change, who plays in what bowl hardly matters.
The immensely successful Trojan coach John McKay famously put college football in perspective years ago, “There are over 750 million people in China who don’t even know this game was played.”
But for those who care, these silly games will offer us some fun football for the next several weeks. I long for the days when all of the bowls never really counted for anything other than sport, travel, celebration, and bragging rights.
Have a great day,
Glenn