Remember when it actually meant something for a college football team to get a bowl invite? That seems like such a long time ago.
According to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, there are going to be a record 42 bowl games at the end of the 2015-2016 college football season.
NCAA certifies new bowls in Tucson (MW-CUSA), Austin (AAC-SB), Orlando (AAC-SB), sources tell @ESPN; record 42 bowls in 2015
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) May 6, 2015
While no one is going to argue with traveling to Austin, TX. during the winter, this has become absolutely ridiculous. It means that 84 of a potential 127 programs in Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) will be playing postseason football. That’s a ripe 66 percent of all programs in the nation.
McMurphy indicated that the Cure Bowl in Orlando will be on the CBS Sports Network. Meanwhile, reps from the Austin bowl game have met with FOX and plan to meet with CBS.
How many six-win teams will be participating in bowls this season? There were 14 last year, including the 6-7 Fresno State Bulldogs. Add six more teams to the slate, and it’s likely that this number will go up.
It’s all about money, as I indicated in a Forbes article during the 2014-2015 bowl season.
Over the course of the past few decades, the total of amount of bowl games have increased significantly. 30 years after less than two dozen bowl games took place on an annual basis, we are nearing four dozen…a total that could be reached by 2016. And nearly all of these games have a corporate name attached to them.
With an additional three bowl games this year, we are definitely inching to that 48-bowl game projection I made.
Fans are still going to tune in, but when is it all enough? It’s all about the bottom line for NCAA programs, the NCAA itself and ESPN. Once they start to realize fans aren’t going to pay for a mediocre product during the holiday season. it’s likely that we will see a reduction of the bowl slate.
Until then, enjoy Southern Methodist take on Louisiana Tech in the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl.
Photo: USA Today Sports