Posted this on the CUSA board, but the ideas also belong here:
(05-26-2016 02:12 PM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote: (05-26-2016 02:06 PM)Dawgxas Wrote: (05-26-2016 02:05 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: This is very good. We need less bowl games like the AZ bowl.
About 10 bowl games need to be completely dropped (maybe even 15). Then restore more p5 vs g5 match ups. At least make them a real reward by making the games somewhat meaningful again. Who really cares about playing one more SBC, MWC or MAC team anyway?
Or AAC team for that matter.
Yeah, we should all just stay home instead of playing bowl games when eligible. Makes sense to me. P5 vs P5 is now the norm. Does anyone know of a way to force a change in that?
Yes, most of us should stay at home. Tell me exactly how two 6-6 or 7-5 G5 teams playing each other in a meaningless lower tier bowl advances their programs vs the P5s? Those kind of middling bowls give exposure: they expose and reinforce that these schools
are not very good or desirable,
that they are less than the big time programs,
and they help establish further separation.
Going to those bowl games as a 6-6 or 7-5 (or last year, 5-7) G5 only hurts those programs in particular and G5s in general, if you really think about it.
Yes, it would be painful. But if only the very best G5 teams went to bowl, and only played P5 schools, they would have a much better chance of turning perceptions back around. Those games would mean something again.
There are a handful of G5-P5 matchup bowls still left. I'd just play those. Tell ESPN to go take a flying leap on the rest. Let them match two 3-9 or 2-8 P5 teams in those crap bowls instead. Purdue vs Kansas in the St. Petersburg Bowl anyone? I thought not. It will only make them look ridiculous, while you only see good G5 teams like UH and a few others were last year making an impact statement.
Sure, this would "hurt" Rice short term, but the truth is Rice football pretty much sucks right now, and when it has been 'good" in the last 10 years, it still sucks comparatively. That does nothing to help Rice football and change where we are as a program. It is a lie that makes us be able to forget about the truth. If we do this, it would begin to remove the facade of P5 dominance top to bottom. People would see there are better G5 teams than many of the P5s. It is not like those games are moneymakers for them, and most are breakevens at best and more likely money-losers for the G5 schools that go.
Of the good G5 teams, the few top ones, like UH last year, WKU, Boise and a couple of others, those are the schools that can play and the top games that can still draw general college fan interest, and establish some respect.
Then, the G5s should aspire to become the top G5 teams and help raise the bar of respectability again.
It's not like G5's are really making more money the way things have gone these last 10 years. Most all of them are losing more money on athletics, and football in particular, than ever before. What we are doing now by sending almost everyone with a pulse to a made-up bowl game is not working, it is dragging everyone further down. That is how it was designed. So, the answer is refuse to abide. Only play the top 5 to 8 g5 teams in bowl games and insist only playing P5s. About half will be upset wins, and in the next 10 years respectability and clout will start to return. Not to everyone. But really, did a 5-7 Rice team that beat no one of note really deserve a bowl game a s a reward for a losing season and years of mediocrity? The answer is no. Rice of all G5 schools should not be willing to promote its own mediocrity when that is the opposite of what the university stands for academically.
I'd be willing for Rice to self impose that no bowl invitations be accepted unless our record is 8-4 minimum each season. Some fans would scream (all 5 of them) but when we DID go to a bowl game, it would be way more meaningful, and we might have a way better chance of actually competing against teams who if we won a few of those in several consecutive years, would actually change the public perception.
Similar for any other G5 school that decided to set minimum standards of achievement on the gridiron for rewards rather than the current race to the bottom mentality that is hurting all of us.
It is counter-intuitive, but it might work a lot better than what we are doing now.