College Football Bowls Aren’t the Cash Cows They’re Made Out to Be

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The fans would love a playoff system, but coaches prefer the cozy relationship with the bowls. The down side for them is everyone in the playoffs eventually loses, except for the national champions. They would rather go bowling where half of them will win.

Imagine trying to persuade college basketball to go to a bowl system. All teams with winning records would get to go to a fancy arena and play a game. Half would win and then the polls would decide a national champion. Kind of lame, right?

But these silly ticket guarantees need to stop. Let the sponsors guarantee, and if the bowl cannot make a profit, discontinue it. We have too many as it is. If the schools were not guaranteeing these monsters, maybe they would have more money left for running their athletic departments. Then maybe they could skip the annual dropping of a men's sport. This practice is killing minor men's sports almost as fast as Title IX.

Mark of CA 7:45PM December 21, 2009

So fans currently don't buy enough tickets to support bowl games, but ARE going to buy tickets to a series of playoff games? Please explain.

ROLL TIDE! - We never seem to have a problem selling tickets...

Lewis Golden of AL 2:00PM December 21, 2009

College football should have playoffs... They would surely generate more revenue than these "BOWLS." Why wouldn't basketball have "BOWLS" if they were such big revenue generators? Whoever is in charge of the way that college football is setup needs to grow a pair and make some changes (e.g. add playoffs) instead of acting on tradition. EVERY SINGLE PERSON I KNOW would rather have playoffs, I know the teams and coaches would like a chance to prove themselves as well...

Andrew Pavelski of WI 1:39PM December 20, 2009

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