PicoBlog

My longtime friend and fellow broadcaster Mike Allegre has been a fixture in Oregon sports for decades—including 29 seasons broadcasting Willamette University football and basketball contests. He volunteered to write a commentary about an issue that has gotten under his skin—the over-saturation of the airwaves with “less than worthy” college football bowl games. My thanks to him for the contribution while I take this holiday break of mine. (By the way, pronouncing Allegre is easy to do…. it is [to borrow from A.A. Milne] “A-double-L-eh’-GUR!” Feel free to respond to Mike’s thoughts on the bowl issue.

I am glad to help out Mark with this commentary on the bowl game landscape. It’ll give him a break and it’s sort of my Christmas gift card to him (Chick-fil-A is in the mail).  If he takes this time off, he’ll be better rested and this gets printed.

Merry Christmas to you all, be blessed this holiday season. - Mike

[Commentary]

Aww, the new bowl season is set to kickoff and college football fans are deciding which games to watch or maybe wager on. Which reminds me, with the 43-game college football bowl season upon us, I’m asking Santa and the NCAA for two big changes soon to reduce the bowl glut.

First, to be bowl eligible, teams must win 7, not 6 games. This eliminates pretenders who are 6-6 or 5-7. Time to make bowl games improve their worth and value for colleges and fan bases whose teams ended their seasons above .500. Minnesota, which finished 5-7, and 20 other teams who recorded 6-6 marks don’t make the bowl schedule enticing.  But the NCAA won’t have any of that.

At some level, bowl games have seemingly become an adult commerce-sanctioned participation trophy at season’s end for a generation of players, some coaches and even fans who got rewarded as kids for “doin a good job”. Be a 6-win team and you may go to a bowl where their fams and fans need them to play to celebrate the end of an otherwise mediocre season.

Mandate a 7-win bowl eligibility at minimum and No. 2 of my wishes is accomplished—a reduction in the number of bowl games on the airwaves. It takes away those 20 teams and then we can dump 10 bowls. But which ones?  After taking some time reviewing and evaluating the bowls and their history, I found 10 to remove.  Some newcomers in the last 10-20 years have gotta go. Is it a business tax write off for corporate sponsors to own bowl rights or have it named for them?  And when they don’t draw crowds or media interest to pay the bills, then that corporation claims a big tax write-off - right? Is that bowl still a community investment?

For nearly 30 years, too many bowls have been on the TV sports schedule.  So, it’s time for these bowls to be released from the post-season especially if they host 5 or 6 win teams. In no particular order they include:

Pinstripe and Fenway (Because NYC and Boston need a bowl played in a baseball stadium?); Frisco, Myrtle Beach, Gasparilla, Famous Toastery, Quick-Lane, Camellia, Boco Roton and Ventures. And who’s sponsoring the always festive LA Bowl this year?  Gronk?

There are some other iffy bowls out there too, but by dropping these 10, it’d put those 6-6 teams on the post-season bench at season’s end. The First Responder Bowl, Armed Forces and Military Bowl, Cure Bowl and several other smaller bowls seemingly have a purpose to raise awareness to fighting disease or to honor and thank our first responders, military and veterans for their service.

That’s true heartfelt Americana.

The key is convincing the always-hungry-for-a-buck NCAA to change the bowl eligibility rule to seven wins minimum. Even after the 12-game post-season playoff format starts in 2024, there will always be good bowls for teams like a Florida State who was dissed by the “selection committee”.  The Orange Bowl stepped up by providing a great match up with former #1 Georgia.

Not all bowls have the history, allure or pageantry associated with the originals like the Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar, Liberty, Gator and others. That group of bowls have been celebrated cornerstones for 50-80 years. And not all bowls must be like the classics, but NCAA, help out a bowl-weary nation here. Don’t reward a 6-win season with bowl eligibility.

According to renowned former Oregonian sports writer/reporter/columnist John Canzano, “The bowl landscape may get some consolidation when the partnerships are renegotiated in 2025 and beyond.” That said, TV needs to take some college football inventory in December.  ESPN Events owns and operates 17 bowl games all by itself. The network isn’t going to fold those up.”

They’re making money. So, which of the bowls is in the toilet financially? Could be time to flush.

There are too many college football bowl games, but as long as the powers-that-be allow a 6-6 or 5-7 team to participate, there will be a Toilet or Famous Toastery Bowl for them.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you! -Mark

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