(09-07-2023 07:13 PM)tf8693 Wrote:  

(09-06-2023 10:12 AM)JRsec Wrote:  The College Football Playoff will be expanding. This situation takes a different turn in a couple of years as you will see BOWL CONSOLIDATION. The top bowls will be involved with the CFP, and many of the also ran bowls will simply be phased out. I would not be shocked to have outside of the NY6 with CFP tie ins, maybe a dozen other bowls tied to what we currently call P schools.

I respectfully disagree. Here's why.

ESPN is, in reality, a silent partner for many of those minor bowl games. The reason is quite simple. The week between Christmas and New Year's is typically a dead time for the NBA and NHL, and ESPN still has airtime to fill. A college football game, even between two G5 opponents, will outdraw the World Series of Poker or whatever else ESPN can air during that time. They're willing to take the losses on the front end in order to guarantee the advertising revenue on the back end.

What could change as a result of the expanded CFP is that you could see first-round CFP losers invited to non-playoff bowls. The first round of the CFP won't be in bowl games, the 5-8 seeds will host those games, and they will be played ahead of bowl season. If first round CFP losers are eligible to be invited to non-CFP bowls, that will mean that the six CFP bowls will account for only eight teams, as opposed to 12 teams now. That should mean that the overall quality of teams invited to non-CFP bowls should improve slightly.

What you suggest is possible. But what is the spirit of the times? Consolidation. It in part is due to a retrenchment of investments in advance of an expected financial contraction which is expected to be large in scale. It is due in part to governmental overspending, a dearth of savings by generations younger than Boomers, and downturn in birth rates which creates more stress in supporting social programs for a larger population of elderly, and the corporatization of wealth and deprivation of personal wealth. The confluence is rather dire and its advent is on the immediate time horizon and will crescendo by 2036.

Top brands are clustering getting ready for the downsizing of higher education and the streamlining of smaller schools' missions.

Therefore, the top bowls will be incorporated into the CFP and that will likely be the extent of the investment at the upper level. I would expect lower tiers to have their own playoffs and their games will likely fill lesser time slots and who knows they may utilize some mid-range bowls for semifinals and finals.

We'll see who is right soon enough, and of course I would be comfortable with either outcome because I can't change it either way.