From Deseret News archives:

ESPN's bowl dominance only hurts college football

Published: Friday, Dec. 16, 2005 10:16 a.m. MST
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
Check the batteries in your remote — the college football bowl season gets under way on Tuesday with (gasp!) the New Orleans Bowl matchup of (gasp!) 6-5 Arkansas State vs. 6-5 Southern Mississippi.

That kicks off a marathon of 28 games in 16 days, with at least one bowl every day but two — Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Really. No college bowl games on New Year's Day.

You remember New Year's Day, don't you? When I was a kid, Jan. 1 meant college football — Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar . . . and nothing else much mattered.

(These days it's Rose, Orange, Sugar or Fiesta — whatever the site of the BCS title game — and nothing else much matters.)

There will be football on New Year's Day, however — the NFL. Yes, the non-bowl oddity of 2006 is a function of the calendar, what with Jan. 1 falling on a Sunday. But the bowl season is also a function of ESPN trying to fill out its broadcast schedule.

Seven out of 10 bowl games — 20 of the total of 28 — are on ESPN or ESPN2.

Hey, ESPN owns the Las Vegas Bowl. Which, come to think of it, is a horrible precedent.

Story continues below
If ESPN, which wields its influence like a club over the college sports world, owned more bowls, we'd never get rid of the ridiculous system that's preventing us from having actual playoffs, an actual national champion and something resembling fairness in the world of major college football. You know, something far distant from the current BCS system.

All you have to do is look at the bowl schedule and you'll see that ESPN already has too much influence — that the bowl schedule, if not the entire system, is designed with TV in mind. And I'm not just talking about having the national championship game played on the oh-so-traditional Wednesday after New Year's.

ESPN has its one game (the Outback Bowl) on Jan. 2 (this year's equivalent of New Year's Day) and all three of the New Year's Eve games. But you don't think games are being played on every day of the week but Sundays to accommodate the teams and their fans, do you?

Obviously not.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of local fans, is there really a reason for 6-5 teams to be playing postseason games except to provide programming for ESPN? (That said, under the current system BYU and Utah are as worthy as a lot of the other teams.)

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

previousnext

Latest comments

What is a Zoobie? Is it suppose to be funny or are you trying to compare us...

Brad Rock: Rock on ...

Is Ari Fleisher really going to be the apologist for the BCS? Sounds more...

No doubt Majerus is a great coach and did great things here. Nonetheless he...

Take it from someone who knows. It destory you and those around you.

Williams' late jumper tops Spurs

Yes it would be a great trade for Utah. But I doubt Toronto would consider...

"Here, as everywhere else in the world, transit is subsidized so that the...

Dear Who cares? | 12:35 p.m. Dec. 8, 2009, Your apathy toward global sport...

Ronnie Price must have the worst sprained toe in the history of toes. I...

yea when was the last time CJ held Ginobli to 5 points for the game? who...

I didnt know you personally but I know someone who did. We really all do...

Advertisements