(08-16-2021 01:09 PM)Wedge Wrote:  [quote='Cyniclone' pid='17558749' dateline='1629136762']
There will be 5-7 teams who could have been 6-6 if their 12th game was a 4th non-con game that was an easy buy game

Scheduling to maximize revenue (i.e. sell tickets and please TV partners) is going to overtake scheduling to ensure bowl eligibility in the very near future.

(08-16-2021 02:00 PM)RUScarlets Wrote:  

(08-16-2021 12:05 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(08-16-2021 12:01 PM)RUScarlets Wrote:  Doesn't work... what if it's a bowl game featuring Mississippi State vs Auburn?

Then it's Mississippi State (SEC West) vs Auburn (SEC East).
Unless it's the one year in seven that they play in the regular season, then pick a different matchup.

Quote:Most years it will be an SEC lite matchup.

No, every year it would be an SEC lite matchup. The point is that, when Auburn is 7-5, their fans would rather travel to Nashville (or wherever) to play a 6-6 Mississippi State or Arkansas than travel to Nashville to play a 7-5 Minnesota or Maryland or Iowa.

My point was, sometimes you'd get a non-trivial bowl matchup like OU/UT vs SEC East. But after a few years of conference play involving those two, the given matchups would be less trivial and more familiar. It doesn't make sense to make it a Bowl.

Would they be "less trivial and more familiar"? Cyniclone looked at the 2019 and 2018 schedules and results.

In 2019 you'd have Texas A&M vs Kentucky or Tennessee. A&M had played Kentucky in 2018, but hadn't played Tennessee since 2016.

In 2018, you'd have Auburn vs Missouri, South Carolina or Vanderbilt.
Auburn-Missouri in 2017, Vanderbilt 2016, South Carolina 2014.

Is that "less trivial and more familiar"? MAybe there's some magic to playing a team from far away in a bowl. I respect that, I don't know.

Quote:With an 18 team conference model, geographically split divisions, and only 1 crossover every year (sans CCG) then this Bowl model would make perfect sense. But not with 16 (I do not expect an East/West division split in the SEC although it is likely). I expect pods or 3 protected rivals, making this Bowl model redundant.

With pods, a 9 game schedule and no divisions, you play each other more often, and an SEC East-West Bowl makes less sense. but if it's 2x8 with one protected cross-division game then you're looking at a 7 year rotation.

(08-16-2021 12:54 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Honestly all but a handful of bowls need to die. I'd rather see the top 4 finishers in each conference in a 16 team playoff than a bunch of piss poor clap trap venue games. And I know, I've been to them.

What would make the season more meaningful for all would rotating challenges for all. If all 4 conferences are at 16 then take positions 5 through 12 and let the B1G match up against the PAC and SEC against the ACC with games at home venues. Odds would play at one conference's home sites and evens at the other and a cup could be awarded to the victorious conference.

Everyone gets extra playing time, extra revenue, and finish determines opponent. The next year you rotate SEC vs PAC, B1G vs ACC and then ACC vs PAC and B1G vs ACC. The networks have better content than with crappy bowl pairings where somebodies #6 may be playing somebody else's #3. Fans would buy in and attend and all gate revenue stays with the hosting conference's team and all TV revenue split.

You play half on a Friday (odds) and half on a Saturday (evens). The 16 team playoff for the 1-4 finishers holds prime time.

I agree, this would be a big improvement over the current situation. With about 6 or 8 exceptions the bowls are all pretty boring.

(08-16-2021 02:48 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  With pods, a 9 game schedule and no divisions, you play each other more often, and an SEC East-West Bowl makes less sense. but if it's 2x8 with one protected cross-division game then you're looking at a 7 year rotation.

I just feel the novelty wears off after enough years of the newer teams (OU/UT) round robining through the other half of the conference. Mizzou and A&M vs SEC East doesn't excite me all that much anymore either. It may for fans of those schools, but not me and perhaps not the casual fan. We've seen them in SEC play long enough.

You need the divisions in the super conferences to start behaving like two distinct conferences first. If the ACC expands and you have Original Big East vs Old ACC bloc, then you have an Orange Bowl lite in the making.

Let's say the B1G takes 6 teams from the ACC and the L8 and Remaining ACC combine. There, you have another intra-conference Bowl in the making.

We just aren't there yet. We don't even know what the new SEC setup will be as of yet.

(08-16-2021 02:04 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  

(08-16-2021 01:09 PM)Wedge Wrote:  [quote='Cyniclone' pid='17558749' dateline='1629136762']
There will be 5-7 teams who could have been 6-6 if their 12th game was a 4th non-con game that was an easy buy game

Scheduling to maximize revenue (i.e. sell tickets and please TV partners) is going to overtake scheduling to ensure bowl eligibility in the very near future.

If it was only about this year's revenue, that would already be true, because even an average conference game nets a lot more money for the home team than participating in the Weed Eater Bowl or Potato Bowl some other fourth-tier bowl.

IMO the difference between 6-6 and 5-7 is more about head coach and athletic director job security than game revenue. Just making a bowl game might get a head coach one more year on the job.

(08-16-2021 03:36 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(08-16-2021 02:04 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  

(08-16-2021 01:09 PM)Wedge Wrote:  [quote='Cyniclone' pid='17558749' dateline='1629136762']
There will be 5-7 teams who could have been 6-6 if their 12th game was a 4th non-con game that was an easy buy game

Scheduling to maximize revenue (i.e. sell tickets and please TV partners) is going to overtake scheduling to ensure bowl eligibility in the very near future.

If it was only about this year's revenue, that would already be true, because even an average conference game nets a lot more money for the home team than participating in the Weed Eater Bowl or Potato Bowl some other fourth-tier bowl.

IMO the difference between 6-6 and 5-7 is more about head coach and athletic director job security than game revenue. Just making a bowl game might get a head coach one more year on the job.

There are several coaches every year whose teams go 6-6 or 7-5 — and we see that "bowl-eligible" school playing in late December under an interim boss because the head man got fired.

Any bowl games outside the playoff format — most of which generate little revenue for the participating schools — are going to become even more insignificant going forward.

Media rights holders are going to want more meaningful regular-season games — conference or non-conference — to create more excitement (i.e. revenue).

Think we'll see less and less of the $1M-plus buy/bodybag games as time goes on and College Football settles into its new reality.

How those non-P5 programs that rely heavily on those checks fare without that income will be worth watching.

(08-16-2021 04:33 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  

(08-16-2021 03:36 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(08-16-2021 02:04 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  

(08-16-2021 01:09 PM)Wedge Wrote:  [quote='Cyniclone' pid='17558749' dateline='1629136762']
There will be 5-7 teams who could have been 6-6 if their 12th game was a 4th non-con game that was an easy buy game

Scheduling to maximize revenue (i.e. sell tickets and please TV partners) is going to overtake scheduling to ensure bowl eligibility in the very near future.

If it was only about this year's revenue, that would already be true, because even an average conference game nets a lot more money for the home team than participating in the Weed Eater Bowl or Potato Bowl some other fourth-tier bowl.

IMO the difference between 6-6 and 5-7 is more about head coach and athletic director job security than game revenue. Just making a bowl game might get a head coach one more year on the job.

There are several coaches every year whose teams go 6-6 or 7-5 — and we see that "bowl-eligible" school playing in late December under an interim boss because the head man got fired.

Any bowl games outside the playoff format — most of which generate little revenue for the participating schools — are going to become even more insignificant going forward.

Media rights holders are going to want more meaningful regular-season games — conference or non-conference — to create more excitement (i.e. revenue).

Think we'll see less and less of the $1M-plus buy/bodybag games as time goes on and College Football settles into its new reality.

How those non-P5 programs that rely heavily on those checks fare without that income will be worth watching.

That's because those teams you reference are teams whose administrators and boosters think they should be doing much better than 6-6. But there are many other teams where a coach can buy himself another year by going 6-6.

(08-16-2021 07:09 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Clearly my modest proposal is not nearly crazy enough for the hungry CSNBBS masses.

It's not crazy because we're used to Darwinist Capitalism in college sports. ESPN making an SEC West vs SEC East bowl and shoving it down everyone's throats as "the SEC is so good, they need their own bowl game because there's not enough bowls to send all these great teams to" is totally in character for both ESPN and the SEC.

The #ItJustMeansMore Bowl, sponsored by the SEC on ESPN.

BTW, my crazy idea is a rule that every school has to have a nickname that is unique in Division I. No duplicates.

None of this "Well, 28 of us are the Bulldogs or Tigers" non-sense. Modifiers ARE allowed. Oldest use gets to keep it, everyone else much change.

Your SEC Bowl can feature the Auburn War Eagles vs the LSU Bayou Bengals.

(08-16-2021 10:24 PM)JSchmack Wrote:  

(08-16-2021 07:09 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Clearly my modest proposal is not nearly crazy enough for the hungry CSNBBS masses.

It's not crazy because we're used to Darwinist Capitalism in college sports. ESPN making an SEC West vs SEC East bowl and shoving it down everyone's throats as "the SEC is so good, they need their own bowl game because there's not enough bowls to send all these great teams to" is totally in character for both ESPN and the SEC.

The #ItJustMeansMore Bowl, sponsored by the SEC on ESPN.

Hogwash! When the SEC landed Texas and Oklahoma the slogan changed. Now it's:
"It Just Means A Lot More!" and a contingency was prepared ahead of time for the announcement of Notre Dame and Florida State joining: "It Means More Than You'll Ever Know!"