The Toilet Bowl

So I want to go on a little rant about a series of complaints I have with the College Football post season. My first complaint is with the ridiculousness of the names of these bowls. We have to settle for crap like the papajohns.com bowl or the Meinake Car Care Bowl. These are total crap. How can a team and a fan base be excited to go to a bowl which sounds like a billboard. And I understand the need for advertising, but there are other ways to go about it. The Rose Bowl does a pretty good job about it by also preserving tradition.

Also, how can a bowl game be about rewarding teams and having post season match ups when the bowls can pick randomly. Many bowl match ups will pick the team that is most favorable to them to make the most money, not who is most deserving. As an example, this year Iowa was picked over Northwestern when Iowa was ranked lower in the Big 10. Bowl match ups should be based solely on your ranking in a conference and not how many fans may come to see you and spend money.

Another gripe I have is with the location of some bowls. Bowls are supposed to be a neutral field where teams can see who is better. That can be pretty hard when one team has to cross the entire nation and the other has to cross town. It will be a practical home game, but will displayed as neutral. That's crap. Make teams travel to play and not cop out on home field advantage. As an example, instead of having us play USC in LA, have us maybe go to the Fiesta Bowl. I dunno, it just seems unfair considering USC doesn't even have to have a hotel room.

There are way too many bowls. Bowls are about rewarding a team for a good season, but it seems more like we are rewarding mediocrity. Make the eligibility 7-5 instead of 6-6. That ensures that you at least have a winning season, which could be rewarded. Or, make it even more strict so that there aren't so many games.

Lastly is the controversy of the BCS. I feel that most times the computers pick the right teams, but to call one a champion over another is a bit unfair. A playoff system would be nice. Have something like a 12+ team playoff. The contenders should be the champions of each conference. I'm tired of having conferences excluded and all these at large bids. It's up to the conference to decide who should be sent. If you didn't win your conference/division, too bad. Now, I also don't want this to extend the game further into January. It continues too long as it is. We could even preserve many of the bowls to host the playoffs. Time would have to be considered for travel, training, and injuries, but I feel it would settle a lot of controversy.