Bowl Games Love ’em, Hate ’em?

Michigan+Played+in+the+Outback+Bowl+against+South+Carolina.

Nathan Feidner

Michigan Played in the Outback Bowl against South Carolina.

Are there too many college football bowl games? Many people would agree that there are multiple pointless bowl games, and that they are a lame attempt for schools and T.V. stations to get more money. As it stands right now, there are 41 bowl games, and there is a possibility of being more. Is this what people want to see? The contradicting argument is that there are games that are really enjoyable to watch and draw huge national audiences.

One major reason people are arguing about there being too many bowl games is because they crave more high-quality games rather than a large quantity of dull, predictable games. If the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which decides how many of games there are, had this in mind, this debate may not be a problem.

“I like having a lot of bowl games because I like watching football, but it does get boring after a while because of how many there are,” said junior Kevin Lopez.

Nathan Feidner
Michigan State played in the holiday bowl against Washington State.

With the amount of bowl games, it can be easy to lose interest quickly, even for those fans who enjoy watching all the games. If trying to keep these games more entertaining will give fans something to root for, maybe lowering the amount of games will create better matchups and increase fan interest.

Although lessening the amount of games may partly fix the problem, there are some games which are strictly untouchable due to the amount of people who watch them. There is one part of these games that many would agree is the best of all the bowls: the playoff bowl games. Not only are these games designed to be entertaining by putting the best teams against each other, but they also allow football fans to find a team and root for them to win it all.

“I definitely think there should be less bowl games. Generally they are pretty fun to watch, but I would rather there just be three huge hyped up games,” said senior Jarred McPherson.

As it stands now, there should be less bowl games since many people focus mostly on the three biggest games: the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, and the National Championship, because they always draw the most attention. It seems pointless to have such a large amount of bowl games that will not even come close to the same amount of viewers as the big games.

Despite the fact that the majority of the bowl games tend to put two schools that many people have never heard of against each other, the big games are always enjoyable to watch. Overall, it falls down to what the typical fan wants, whether it is a lot of football games with not a lot of excitement or a few big games that will keep fans on the edge of their seat.