Even with the presence of a few teams with actual good records (10-1 TCU; 9-3 Boise State; 10-1 Oregon; 9-2 Miami; 10-2 LSU), the overall winning percentage of the 40 teams in ESPN's 20 bowls is only .643 — meaning they lost more than a third of their games but are still playing in the postseason.

In contrast, the eight games not on ESPN or ESPN2 feature teams with a combined winning percentage of .830 — and that includes CBS's coverage of the Sun Bowl, for goodness sake!

Wouldn't it be nice if postseason play actually meant something other than a way for ESPN to sell advertising time?

BY THE WAY, for those of you keeping track, 13 of the 56 teams (including Utah and BYU) in bowl games barely squeaked in with 6-5 records. Another 15 teams have only seven wins.

How many of you have jobs that reward you if you're successful less than 55 percent of the time? Or even 58 percent (the equivalent of 7-5)? Or even 64 percent (7-4)?

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com