Academic

College Football Bowl Season

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

College football may have the best regular season of any sport, but the worst post-season imaginable. The bowl system is utterly boring. After a long break, many teams play sloppy football, and even more teams, disappointed with their season, play uninspired football. Moreover, most of the matchups are completely uninteresting. Ticket sales reflect the low quality of the product, even at the supposed elite bowls. The University of Utah is going to a BCS bowl, and they cannot sell their allotment. Other schools are also having problems:

Ohio State held a rare public sale for tickets to the Fiesta Bowl where the Buckeyes will play Texas. Normally its bowl tickets go to season ticket holders, faculty, staff, donors and any others deemed important enough to be on a priority list. No need for such exclusivity this year.

Texas also had a public sale. Perhaps the matchup of the teams wasn't that appealing to fans since they've played in recent years or maybe fans decided the $155 they were expected to shell out for tickets could be better spent elsewhere.

Other schools are in even worse situations. Wisconsin, which traditionally travels well, reportedly has sold only about 3,000 of the 12,000 tickets it was alloted for the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, and that includes tickets for Wisconsin's traveling party.

Tickets for the Orange Bowl between Cincinnati and Virginia Tech can be had for $15 on the internet.

Blame the economy for the slow ticket sales, or the lack of a playoff system or the NCAA's policy that basically any entrepreneur who wants to start a bowl game can, which has made going to a bowl game not that big of a deal anymore.

Certainly, fans are saying, the games aren't worth the price of admission.

Of course, there is a simple solution to this problem. It's a solution endorsed by our President-elect and every other right-thinking fan of the sport. Playoff.

I have been saying this for a long time, but I just felt the need to say it again.

Full post as published by Conglomerate on December 29, 2008 (boomark / email).