(01-03-2019 04:47 PM)Gamecock Wrote: Also, Sorry JR, but I think Monday's game is going to another in a long line of steps that we look back on in ten years to explain why we changed the current paradigm. Ratings, attendance, and interest are going to be quite terrible I think and I think it's going to be a topic of discussion all offseason.
The Bowls (including the NY6 games) are dying all around us and eventually that rot is going to spread to all of college football as fan interest begins dwindling. Most programs just don't have a chance under the current system and other than perhaps a handful of schools with new coaches (Florida, Texas) you're seeing a lot of malaise and disinterest among even traditional powers.
Gamecock, I don't know what you think you are arguing against here. I just said it was an absolute network blunder and it is. Two East Coast teams flying to San Fran for the finals is just plain stupid.
I don't disagree about the bowls. The real lag on attendance however is just how much cheaper and time efficient, and amenities friendly it is to watch on TV. Why should anyone shell out $2500 a year for a pair of tickets (including athletic fund contribution to be able to buy them) to sit in rain, par boiling heat and humidity, in s scrawny metal seat where you are extorted to rent a $5 cushion because you can't bring your own, only to sit next to some damned obnoxious drunk, just for the sake of saying I was there when you are much closer to the action on your HD TV.
That is the dwindling interest. The ratings numbers are still pretty good. Young people just can't afford 4 tickets so their whole family can go. It's more costly than a trip to Disneyland.
The bowls I see a natural remedy for. Let every season begin with home and homes between the P5 and let the top 16 schools open in neutral sites against each other. Those host sites don't have to be former bowl sites, but may be in some cases like Miami, New Orleans, Atlanta, Dallas, etc.
Then you play 8 conference games, and 3 games against G5 schools, but at home only. That way the season is still 12 weeks long, and everything is over by the first week of December.
From there you can either have reduced the number of P conferences to 4 and have a champs only semi final to finals. Or you can expand to 8 because you have the time to do so. First round comes the second Saturday of December, the semis are played between Dec 30th and Jan 1st and the Finals follow at a site equal distance roughly between the finalists a week later.
The bowls have been dead for some time. And the G5 needs their own playoff.