College Football Bowl games NEED fixing, but what can be done?

[OSU_Sports_Nut]

So what would you recommend? Here are my thoughts.

1) Get rid of the committee making the playoff selections and go back to using the BCS ranking system. It was a numbers driven analytics system that removes many of the biases. Use the BCS system to rank the top 50 teams, but only seed the top 40 teams into bowls. For teams to be eligible for a bowl, a team must finish with at least 7 total wins AND have at least a 44% winning percentage in league play. The selection of the top 40 teams could be done like the NCAA basketball tournament unveiling. The BCS unveiling could start with the 40th team and end the show with the top 12 teams making the playoffs. A week later a committee would put together all of the bowl matchups.

2) Remove all conference bowl alliances and affiliations, then seed the top 40 teams for the best possible matchups (only 20 bowls instead of the current 42 bowl games). Also make sure these seedings keep teams facing each other within a rankings score of 3. For example, you would NEVER see the 8th ranked team facing the 23rd ranked team (i.e. Oregon vs Liberty in 2023). Instead, the 25th ranked team could only face teams ranked 22nd to 28th (ranked within 3). This would also add more excitement by seeing more evenly matched teams, add more excitement by seeing new matchups (without the conference affiliations), and add more excitement for the fans wanting to visit new venues they've never been.

3) Add an incentive to play in these bowl games by PAYING THE PLAYERS! Have a portion of the bowl money divied out to the players. Potentially, the bowls could pay the winning team starters 4x-10x more than the losing team starters. This would provide even more incentive to win the game and put INTERNAL TEAM PRESSURE ON ALL PLAYERS to play these games and not opt out. In other words, imagine being a first-round QB talent and having to make the decision on whether to play this game knowing that most of their friends and teammates will never make it to the NFL, but knowing if they played and helped win the game their teammates could get $100,000 each. Wouldn't you want to play in a bowl game for your teammates if you were in this position? That's the internal pressure and dilemma that would be created using these types of payouts. Additionally, some playoff teams playing 4 playoff games could end up paying starters a total of 4 payouts totaling $400,000.

 

[OSU_Sports_Nut]

The bowl payouts would be adjusted based on each teams BCS ranking. Below some examples of how these payouts could be structured.

TEAMS RANKED 1-12
WINNING team starters get $100,000 x 25 players (11 OFF + 11 DEF + 3 ST) = $2,500,000

LOSING team starters get $10,000 x 25 players (11 OFF + 11 DEF + 3 ST) = $250,000

ALL scholarship players at the bowl games receive $1500 x 85 players x 2 teams = $255,000

The total bowl payout to players of both teams would be $2,500,000 (winners) + $250,000 (losers) + $255,000 (all) = $3,005,000 TOTAL

TEAMS RANKED 13-20
Starting players on winning teams ranked 13-20 would get $80,000 x 25 players = $2,000,000. Therefore, the total bowl payout to players of both teams would be $2,000,000 (winners) + $250,000 (losers) + $255,000 (all) = $2,505,000 TOTAL

TEAMS RANKED 21-30
Starting players on winning teams ranked 21-30 would get $60,000 x 25 players = $1,500,000. Therefore, the total bowl payout to players of both teams would be $1,500,000 (winners) + $250,000 (losers) + $255,000 (all) = $2,005,000 TOTAL

TEAMS RANKED 31-40
Starting players on winning teams ranked 31-40 would get $40,000 x 25 players = $1,000,000. Therefore, the total bowl payout to players of both teams would be $1,000,000 (winners) + $250,000 (losers) + $255,000 (all) = $1,505,000 TOTAL

For clarification, the 3 starting players listed for special teams (ST) would be split among all special team players and based on snap counts of total special team plays. For example, 3 x $100,000 = $300,000 / 5 special teams (kickoff coverage, punt coverage, kick return, punt return, field goal & XP).

CONCLUSION
This setup might be the death of the rest of the bowls, but I wouldn't be upset about it because it would make all of these other games a lot more exciting. These stipend checks could be paid by the bowl sponsors to players like NIL money with the stipulation the players can be asked to be used in commercials and other advertisements of their products over the next 3-4 months.

 

[OSU_Sports_Nut]

After the 2023 season, there were 51 teams that would have qualified if the team eligibility criteria was 7 wins with a conference winning percentage of at least 44% (9 conference games 4/9 = 44% or 8 conference games 4/8 = 50%). In 2023, there would have been 51 quality teams to pick the 40 teams for the 20 bowl game matchups.

POWER 5 CONFERENCES
SEC = 7
PAC 12 = 7
BIG 12 = 6
BIG 10 = 6
ACC = 6
TOTAL = 32

OTHER CONFERENCES
Mountain West = 5
AAC = 4
C-USA = 4
Sun Belt = 3
MAC = 2
Independents = 1
TOTAL = 19

 

[OSU_Sports_Nut]

Kirby Smart seems to think the bowl games need fixing and here is what he had to say after Georgia's 63-3 blowout win against Florida State.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart calls for change after 60-point bowl win over Florida State: 'They need to fix this'

Smart railed against the modern state of bowl games following his team's win

www.cbssports.com

 

[OSU_Sports_Nut]

The portal is something else that needs to be evaluated. A player should only be allowed to enter the portal 2x without ramifications, but there needs to be a limit so they don't keep testing the waters each year.

However, once they transfer they only get 1 transfer their entire career without having to sit out. This means the graduate transfer rule would need to be removed to limit players to 1 free transfer before having to sit out a year.