Bowl Games

[Erie Warrior]

The WR from W. Mich looks legit. The only player on their team, and the dude still blows up. Granted it was Purdue, but still.

Louisville should be decent the next few years, they ran 10 freshman out there last night and really made some good adjustments in the second half.

I'm up slightly so far, lost a bunch on W. Mich/ Purdue, won it back on NC State/ Louisville.

Leaning Toledo and Cal in today's tilts. Love watching the service academies in bowl games, but Toledo will be good enough against the run to come out on top.

[skatingtripods]

The whole bowl games have been like one giant turd that swirls around the bowl and never goes down. Just a massive collection of suck and stupid football.

Louisville broke my string of six straight bowl winning bets. Mostly totals. Almost played back at Purdue yesterday after everybody on their brother was on WMU.

Bowl eligibility needs to be changed to 8 wins. Most of these teams have no business playing in the postseason. Can't wait for Monday so I can actually see some decent football.

As for Jordan White, cat's a player. Browns should look him up in the 4th round. I had a prop bet on him at over 127.5 yards on Bovada. He doubled that. Easiest money of the year. That early facemask on the first play scared the shit out of me.

Lean Toledo and under, Cal and under tonight. Already locked in Cal/Texas u48 and u24 1H. There will be no winner in that game. Two awful teams.

[noles1]

The Under in the Holiday Bowl takes balls.

I actually like the complete opposite on all those bets. Not going to touch anything though.

Good luck...

[Erie Warrior]

This Tol/AF game is ridiculous. Both D coordinators need fired. Awful tackling and secondary play.

And then the X-point fake. Really? Kick it and go to OT.

[furls]

These bowl games have been some of the worst football I have seen in 10 years, and that is after a season of watching Jim Bollman "coordinate" the OSU offense! Awful tackling, terrible QB play, bad coaching, really really bad tackling, bad officiating (even the spots have sucked), bad empty venues with lathargic disinterested crowds and even worse announcing.

When is enough enough with the bowl games? There is no way these games are making money. I think the dillution of the bowl system may actually drive us into a playoff. After watching this awful mess, I can't help but believe that we are going to see some changes soon because the $$ can't be there on most of these games. I have long said that a playoff will not happen because of bowl $$$, but after what I have seen, I have to think the economic environment may finally be conducive to pushing the playoff.... in 5 years once the NCAA and bowl fat cats catch up with me.

In all honesty, I have not checked the ratings #'s and I am not interested enough to pull them and compare them to last year, but I bet we are seeing a down tick.

[furls]

ND +3.5 is like stealing. The ACC is terrible (but still light years ahead of the Big Least).

[furls]

Man, you would think that by this point in my life I would have learned to shut the fuck up.

[danwismar]

Man, you would think that by this point in my life I would have learned to shut the fuck up.

When you learn how to do that, be sure to let me know.

Agree with you completely though about the dilution of the bowls. Did you see the "crowd" at that game in Hawaii? Ridiculous. There couldn't have been more than a couple thousand people there.

Even the Buckeyes, who travel as well as any program in the country, can't sell more than about half their ticket allotment, and like many schools, they are going to lose money by playing in this bowl game. Like you said, the quality of play has been awful and the games are just completely meaningless. 34 games is just way the hell too many.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Forced ticket allotments are criminal.

"We got our money, if you can't sell them, fuck you" - Official NCAA Spokesperson.

[JCoz]

I feel like the bottom half of the bowls have been like that as long as I have been watching CFB. Never in my life do I remember high interest in the shit half of the bowl schedule, and honestly only the top 10 have seemed to ever matter at all to most people I know.

I seriously have no clue why some people think that you couldn't continue the practice of having these POS bowls that nobody ever gave a fuck about anyways if there was a playoff. You cant care less about them then you do now, so what the hell is the difference between the BCS bowls being the only thing most care about now or the proposed playoff games that everyone would only care about in that scenario.

Go ahead and keep having these bowls if you want. The playoffs and bowls are not mutually excusive.

[furls]

Forced ticket allotments are criminal.

"We got our money, if you can't sell them, fuck you" - Official NCAA Spokesperson.

Its all about the student athlete :)

[furls]

I feel like the bottom half of the bowls have been like that as long as I have been watching CFB. Never in my life do I remember high interest in the shit half of the bowl schedule, and honestly only the top 10 have seemed to ever matter at all to most people I know.

I seriously have no clue why some people think that you couldn't continue the practice of having these POS bowls that nobody ever gave a fuck about anyways if there was a playoff. You cant care less about them then you do now, so what the hell is the difference between the BCS bowls being the only thing most care about now or the proposed playoff games that everyone would only care about in that scenario.

Go ahead and keep having these bowls if you want. The playoffs and bowls are not mutually excusive.

Don't want to sound like I am gnitpicking you here Jcoz, but the growth in numbers has made this absurd. Here are the numbers over the years from Wikipedia (so the accuracy may not be perfect):

1930: 1 game
1940: 5 games
1950: 8 games
1960: 8 games
1970: 11 games
1980: 15 games
1990: 19 games
2000: 25 games
2010: 35 games

This year there are 35 games, so there are 70 teams competing in bowls. If you let me cut it back to the 2000 numbers, I could cut the 20 least interesting teams. If I could cut it back to the 1990 numbers I could cut 1/2 of the least interesting teams.

The quality of play has been atrocious. Last nights game between Baylor and Wash. should have been an embarrassment to both team's defenses. It was worse than a fucking arena league game. It was comically bad. I would have preferred to watch St. Ignatius play St. Eds, at least that would have been football.

[JCoz]

I'm relatively young furls, and was into NFL for a long time before I really got into CFB, so for me there has always been more than 20 bowl games.

But yeah I'll give it to you that 10 extra bowls from 2000 brings a special level of suck to the CFB postseason.

[noles1]

When 2 and 3 MAC teams are making bowls games you know the system is completely broken.

Bowl games this year have been pathetic sans additional gambling opportunities. The actual game play has been atrocious.

[YahooFanChicago]

I agree that there are a ton of bowl games these days...That said, there have been a lot of very close games that have come down to the wire...lot's of very entertaining games and only a few blowouts so far this year.

I agree that when there are 5 MAC schools in bowl games we may have one or two too many bowls(Ohio U, Temple, Toledo, Western Michigan, N. Illinois). All of the MAC bowl games have been very entertaining games though.

[peeker643]

Forced ticket allotments are criminal.

"We got our money, if you can't sell them, fuck you" - Official NCAA Spokesperson.

Its all about the student athlete :)

Ha! Just like our interest in recruiting. We're all thrilled when a 5-star D-Lineman or WR decides to pursue an academic degree at tOSU for their own personal (as well as the global) enrichment it will provide. While they also entertain us for three hours on fall Saturdays.



Busting balls because that was easy, but I have a far smaller issue with the NCAA than the BCS. I think, overall and encompassing absolutely everything, the NCAA does a fairly decent job of administering over dozens of sports and thousand of kids.

It could, howver, clearly be more defined and consistent with it's rules, applications of rules and punitive measures and they should try and improve on it all.

I think of the bowl ticket allotment as when we needed to raise money for Little League. Here's your chocolate. You paid for it, everyone benefits and what you don't sell you buy and eat.

[Fire Marshall Bill]

All of the MAC bowl games have been very entertaining games though

If you enjoy watching paint dry, maybe....

I swear, I see those games and the lack of speed and rag ass arms puts me to sleep

The only game that hasn't sucked is Air Force

...and some supposed #1 draft picks have looked like absolute freaking garbage

See: Coples, Quinton. Brown, Zach. Floyd, Micael

[neoleo]

The quality of play hasn't been great, but I've enjoyed watching most of these games. The Ohio and Toledo games had great endings, last night's crazy Wash-Baylor game, today's BYU-Tulsa and ISU-Rutgers games have all kept my interest while I do nothing on my vacation.

Guys are slower, defenses play like pussies, but whatever, it gives me something to watch.

[noles1]

I've played flag football games better than that Baylor-Washington game last night.

That game was a joke and it was comical hearing the narrative on the radio and on tv today. That was not football. The Arena league has better defense.

Here I wanted to see more of Griffin after watching a handful of times already this year and last night was a complete waste of time in that regard.

Baylor should have been playing a far better team than that last night.

[Erie Warrior]

Some real stinkers on today as well.

I'll catch some of the UVA game to watch some local kids, but other than that, yikes.

Xbox and booze I guess.

[furls]

I've played flag football games better than that Baylor-Washington game last night.

That game was a joke and it was comical hearing the narrative on the radio and on tv today. That was not football. The Arena league has better defense.

Here I wanted to see more of Griffin after watching a handful of times already this year and last night was a complete waste of time in that regard.

Baylor should have been playing a far better team than that last night.

That game was a complete fucking turd. The narrative was about the great offensive shootout.... if by shootout you mean, blown coverage after blown coverage followed by lousy tackling and poor gap discipline, then yes, I agree it was the greatest shootout I have ever seen.

This has just been BAD football, almost the entire bowl season. I have hopes for the TAMU vs. NW game today. It will not be great football, but I have a feeling it will be the closest thing to football we have seen thus far.

I am also optimistic that UVA vs. Aub. will be decent as well.

UCLA vs. Illinois (with a lame duck staff) is going to be ugly.

GT vs. Utah might be OK, but I am guess it will be the opposite of a shootout. I am anticipating really bad offensive football.

Vandy vs. Cincy? Ewww... stick a fork in my eye.

[furls]

I've played flag football games better than that Baylor-Washington game last night.

That game was a joke and it was comical hearing the narrative on the radio and on tv today. That was not football. The Arena league has better defense.

Here I wanted to see more of Griffin after watching a handful of times already this year and last night was a complete waste of time in that regard.

Baylor should have been playing a far better team than that last night.

That game was a complete fucking turd. The narrative was about the great offensive shootout.... if by shootout you mean, blown coverage after blown coverage followed by lousy tackling and poor gap discipline, then yes, I agree it was the greatest shootout I have ever seen.

This has just been BAD football, almost the entire bowl season. I have hopes for the TAMU vs. NW game today. It will not be great football, but I have a feeling it will be the closest thing to football we have seen thus far.

I am also optimistic that UVA vs. Aub. will be decent as well.

UCLA vs. Illinois (with a lame duck staff) is going to be ugly.

GT vs. Utah might be OK, but I am guess it will be the opposite of a shootout. I am anticipating really bad offensive football.

Vandy vs. Cincy? Ewww... stick a fork in my eye.

JUST DON'T MISTAKE COMPETITIVE GAMES FOR GOOD GAMES

[noles1]

Yeah I agree on the games today, only I would say that Virginia-Auburn should be the best.

UVA starts a ton of seniors on defense and will be interesting to see Auburn's youth and speed on offense matchup with them.

But for the most part, today's games are still blah. Thank God for gambling.

[furls]

OK, this NW vs. TAMU game is pretty good. There has been reasonably good tackling and everything!

They are even playing defense! Best game so far.

[furls]

Turf at Meineke car care bowl is so bad it is criminal. It is as bad as Baylor's defense. My front lawn is more suited for football right now.

[leadpipe]

Bad teams would create bad games on their own.

Add 6 weeks for bad teams to cock around and it's basically a guarantee.

I'll give em one thing, they aren't all that predictable, cause you don't know who's going to suck more.

[Erie Warrior]

The 6'8" TE from UCLA looks decent. Would be better if he had a mean streak.

The Mercilus kid from Ak Garfield showing out. Good for him.

[Spin]

So Mr. Gee, how did that money grab Gator Bowl work out for ya? Most losses since the 1800's? Ticking off the NCAA resulting is tighter sanctions in the future?

I hope it was worth it.

[jb]

So Mr. Gee, how did that money grab Gator Bowl work out for ya? Most losses since the 1800's? Ticking off the NCAA resulting is tighter sanctions in the future?

I hope it was worth it.

For a months worth of extra practice beginning to install Meyer's systems (I hope) ?

You're as serious as believing that Akron could be relevant in football, aren't you?

[e0y2e3]

So Mr. Gee, how did that money grab Gator Bowl work out for ya? Most losses since the 1800's? Ticking off the NCAA resulting is tighter sanctions in the future?

I hope it was worth it.

For a months worth of extra practice beginning to install Meyer's systems (I hope) ?

You're as serious as believing that Akron could be relevant in football, aren't you?

Meyer had zero to do with Bowl prep and his system was not installed.

He has openly stated that he wasn't going to the bowl and seemed even non-commital re: watching it.

[peeker643]

Meyer had zero to do with Bowl prep and his system was not installed.

He has openly stated that he wasn't going to the bowl and seemed even non-commital re: watching it.

Good. No blood on his hands for that botched abortion and it proves he's smarter than any of us who wasted time watching it.

But to JB's relevant point: Akron has as much a shot at a bowl game next year as OSU.

[e0y2e3]

We all know where I stand on that University. It's the genital warts of Ohio.

[JCoz]

So Mr. Gee, how did that money grab Gator Bowl work out for ya? Most losses since the 1800's? Ticking off the NCAA resulting is tighter sanctions in the future?

I hope it was worth it.

For a months worth of extra practice beginning to install Meyer's systems (I hope) ?

You're as serious as believing that Akron could be relevant in football, aren't you?

I think a lot of people assumed this would be the case when UM's name started to get very solidly attached to Ohio State this season, but that turned out to not be the case as Meyer focused on recruiting instead.

And I cant say that I disagree with Meyer's choice in that regard but I think that decision was made (focusing on recrtuiting -coaches and players) with the assumption that there would be no bowl ban next season.

I think had Meyer known from the start that they would have a bowl ban, that approach would be reconsidered at the very least.

[jb]

Meyer had zero to do with Bowl prep and his system was not installed.

Then it was a complete opportunity lost. HE didn't have to do the installation. They could have sent Bollman on sabbatical and had someone do it for Meyer.

[e0y2e3]

Meh, it would have opened doors of firing people, hiring active coaches could have ruined his ability to put a staff together and not coach the bowl, etc. Let's not forget he had to get the NCAA waiver to be able to have the extra coaches hired while not coaching the bowl.

[jb]

Meh, it would have opened doors of firing people, hiring active coaches could have ruined his ability to put a staff together and not coach the bowl, etc. Let's not forget he had to get the NCAA waiver to be able to have the extra coaches hired while not coaching the bowl.

I'm just talking about terminology changes, formations, and plays. May have been able to hit the ground running better in spring?

[e0y2e3]

Meh, it would have opened doors of firing people, hiring active coaches could have ruined his ability to put a staff together and not coach the bowl, etc. Let's not forget he had to get the NCAA waiver to be able to have the extra coaches hired while not coaching the bowl.

I'm just talking about terminology changes, formations, and plays. May have been able to hit the ground running better in spring?

Meh again. Who was going to do it, Sciliano, Dick Tressel or Bollman?

Kids will get playbooks ASAP and will have to familiarize themselves before Spring Ball. And having the offensive staff fully assembled was kinda necessary before finalizing the playbook.

[Spin]

For a months worth of extra practice beginning to install Meyer's systems (I hope) ?

Extra practice for senior starters who won't be here next year? Prolonging a dismal season? For the prestige of playing another .500 team in a limpdick bowl game?

They screwed the future for a few dollars, believing it wouldn't piss the NCAA off. In the end, the people who caused this are either cashing NFL checks or playing in a bowl game while sophomores and juniors who had nothing to do with it pay the price.

All for a wad of cash.

You're as serious as believing that Akron could be relevant in football, aren't you?

Compared to Kent?

Yeah.

[jb]

For a months worth of extra practice beginning to install Meyer's systems (I hope) ?

Extra practice for senior starters who won't be here next year? Prolonging a dismal season? For the prestige of playing another .500 team in a limpdick bowl game?

They screwed the future for a few dollars, believing it wouldn't piss the NCAA off. In the end, the people who caused this are either cashing NFL checks or playing in a bowl game while sophomores and juniors who had nothing to do with it pay the price.

All for a wad of cash.

You're as serious as believing that Akron could be relevant in football, aren't you?

Compared to Kent?

Yeah.

Guess yer right and I'm wrong and there was no value in playing a bowl game other than money.

And the U will be a football juggernaught compared to Kent.

Cheers.

[mattvan1]

For a months worth of extra practice beginning to install Meyer's systems (I hope) ?

Extra practice for senior starters who won't be here next year? Prolonging a dismal season? For the prestige of playing another .500 team in a limpdick bowl game?

They screwed the future for a few dollars, believing it wouldn't piss the NCAA off. In the end, the people who caused this are either cashing NFL checks or playing in a bowl game while sophomores and juniors who had nothing to do with it pay the price.

All for a wad of cash.

Yeah.

Certainly Gene Smith is an idiot, but really not sure how this "screwed the future"????

Any link to show that the 2A would not have tacked on a 2012 bowl ban, even if tOSU had self imposed this year?

[e0y2e3]

Most people in the know believe there is no way OSU would have gotten essentially a two year bowl ban. That's a pretty damn brutal sentence when you consider their punishment already was definitively more severe than any previous.

[furls]

The penalty was completely out of line with the precedents for similar infractions. It really was not even close. In the end, we had players sell their own crap for money and tatts totalling less than 3k and a coach that lied about it. You also had the summerjob overpayments totalling 2K and 200.00 handouts from the fundraiser. That is it. I don't blame anyone that for not foregoing the bowl game this year; could they have guessed the fucked up NCAA sanctions, sure, but by that same token, why stop at one year?

I think the NCAA was trying to show some teeth at OSU and I honestly believe that if they had foregone the 2011 bowl, then they would have still received one for 2012. In retrospect, I don't the tOSU should have self imposed anything. The punishment was always going to be about the NCAA sending a message and they were going to add to anything tOSU gave themselves just to look like they are in charge.

[furls]

Tressel got a 5 year show cause for signing a document saying he knew nothing about violations. What should Chip Kelly get for scrambling to actively deceive the NCAA with regarding the 25K pay out to cover up the Willy Lyles thing?

He didn't just sign a document saying that he didn't know about violations, he called a guy and told him to throw something together to justify the payoff. How long of a ban should he get?

I can tell you how much he will get....-0

[Bayou Tribe]

These two teams, two coaches, and Holly Rowe all do nothing for me. Just a big fucking bore.

[noles1]

I pounded the under and Va Tech tonight. Mostly cause I have thought all year long that Michigan sucks. Throw in the OSU performance and it reminded me how bad BOTH the teams were this year and further solidified my position.

That said, Va Tech has absolutely wasted a golden opportunity in the 1st half to be up 10+ pts. They have dominated this game and have a 6-0 lead (maybe) to show for it.

[pup]

Everyone, please remember, at the time tOSU decided to not self impose a bowl ban this year, they had just beaten Wisconsin and were truly in the drivers seat for a B1G 10 Championship Game and possible Rose Bowl. Of course they fell flat on their faces and that did not happen, but it was certainly a plausible outcome at the time.

Sure, looking at it as going to the Gator Bowl and playing a 6-6 UF they should have. Had they won out and that ban cost them the above...what would everyone think?

And I am pretty sure they could not have waited until they found out what bowl they were going to before imposing the ban.