🏈 Football bowl eligibility is likely staying at 6 wins

[BAMANEWSBOT]

College football plans to keep 6-6 records, not 7-5, the benchmark to qualify for a bowl once a four-team playoff starts in 2014. Last winter, conference commissioners discussed increasing bowl-eligibility standards, a change that would kill some of the 35 postseason games. The status quo seems to have won.

"I see it staying at 6-6 for the foreseeable future," said Wright Waters, the new executive director of the Football Bowl Association. "When commissioners went back to their conferences, they found out there's an awful lot of support for 6-6. That's 35 athletic directors who get an early jump on selling season tickets and 35 coaches who are talking to recruits about winning a bowl game."

SEC Executive Associate Commissioner Mark Womack, whose conference supports six-win eligibility, also no longer hears discussion of switching to a 7-5 standard. "Thirty-five bowl games can be a lot, but certainly those games provide an opportunity for a lot of student-athletes to experience the postseason," Womack said.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and his league's athletics directors had supported a seven-win requirement so bowl teams would need a winning record to qualify.

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[TerryP]

WANTED:

Any example where Delany has agreed with the majority on any decision at first.

 

[rocknthefreeworld]

With the number of bowl barely turning a profit or actually turning a loss, I hope the number of games drops due to economics soon just to force this issue. The only bad thing about that is some of the biggest bowls are the worst performers.

 

[TerryP]

With the number of bowl barely turning a profit or actually turning a loss, I hope the number of games drops due to economics soon just to force this issue. The only bad thing about that is some of the biggest bowls are the worst performers.

I've said on numerous occasions we have far too many bowl games as it is. Honestly, this is one situation where I agree with the B1G pinhead; we should move to a seven win minimum.

There really isn't a better example of how watered down the bowl system is today when you have a handful of six win teams playing on New Years day.

Since we're looking at the major playoff games falling on New Years, how can there not be a shift in bowls? It makes me wonder how many games we'll end up seeing the weekend following the conference championship games.

 

[UAgrad93]

To me, rewarding a team for finishing .500 for the season, is like giving every kid a participation trophy and not keeping score in t-ball. There are way too many bowls. I can think of a few that are run by ESPN that need to be chunked. On a side note, I saw a tweet from Joe Schad last night about the Big Least trying to put themselves in a BIG BOWL game like the SEC and BIG 12 have done. My response to him, Do they still play football?

 

[Bo]

To me, rewarding a team for finishing .500 for the season, is like giving every kid a participation trophy and not keeping score in t-ball. There are way too many bowls. I can think of a few that are run by ESPN that need to be chunked. On a side note, I saw a tweet from Joe Schad last night about the Big Least trying to put themselves in a BIG BOWL game like the SEC and BIG 12 have done. My response to him, Do they still play football?

I agree 100%. A bowl game should be a reward for having a good season. I wouldn't even mind it if they went with having to have a minimum of 8 wins to go to a bowl game.

 

[CrimsonVette]

6-6 can be done by most teams and the bowl games these teams make stink for the most part. It becomes a game of who stinks less. I'm all for 7 wins to get a bowl game.

 

[rocknthefreeworld]

Maybe they should do the minimum records like they do eligibility. A 6-6 team with a top ten strength of schedule gets into a bowl but a 10-2 team with a bottom ten strength of schedule gets left home.

 

[psychojoe]

Maybe they should do the minimum records like they do eligibility. A 6-6 team with a top ten strength of schedule gets into a bowl but a 10-2 team with a bottom ten strength of schedule gets left home.

^ This ^.

I remember three or four years back when it seemed like most of the ACC went 4-4 in conference and won three or four of their OOC games, thus being bowl eligible. They went something like 2-7 in their bowls.

One game that sticks out that year was Vanderbilt (6-6) playing Boston College (8-4) in a bowl (Music City I think) and winning.