College football postseason bowl games have been pretty lackluster for the better part of the last decade. Bowl season used to be an award to teams with successful seasons. They used to be the pinnacle of the season, but now they are just another event in December. Mr. FishDuck took some time away from his fun with Fibonacci system for roulette to lament with me how the CFB Bowl season has changed.
Sadly, they may even be the least interesting thing in an already overly busy month between early signing day, the transfer portal, the coaching carousel, and at the end of the month, the playoff. Non-playoff bowl games seem to be the last thing on anyone’s mind, including the players.
Now, players routinely sit out of bowl games, including New Year’s Six non-playoff games. Last season Oregon’s star wide receiver Troy Franklin opted to sit out of the Fiesta Bowl in order to prepare for the draft, or to put it more bluntly, he opted out to avoid an injury that could hurt his draft stock. He isn’t the first to do so, as the risk of injury in a non-playoff bowl game feels too great to potentially lose standing within the NFL Draft.
Players opting out in preparation for the draft aren’t the only problem for rosters. As bowl season begins, the transfer portal opens and a great deal of the top talent from the Group of Five or lower Power Four schools will dive into the portal with the hope of finding a better team or a better NIL deal. This leaves bowl games feeling more akin to spring games rather than the climax of a season.
There are, however, ways to fix bowl season.
De’Anthony Thomas set records against Wisconsin in the 2012 Rose Bowl.
(Photo By Amazing Moments Photography)
Pay the Players and Pay the Winners More
Bowl games come with big sponsorship money, and in the era of NIL it’s time they pay the players in order to ensure a better product.
In men’s basketball there is an NIL-driven tournament where each participating team is given a million dollars and the winner gets a second million. Basketball rosters are much smaller than football, so the amount of money would be greater — but this should be a part of each bowl game. The bowl game can use all the players’ names, images, and likenesses to advertise the game and then pay the players for participating.
Some players may not see these payouts as enough of an incentive to keep themselves from opting out of the game before the NFL Draft, but this could realistically curtail some players from entering the transfer portal so early. They might opt to play the bowl game and then enter the portal. It is only reasonable that these payouts go to players actually participating in the game, because the bowl game wouldn’t benefit from promoting players who aren’t going to appear in their game.
Change the Timeline
The reality is that what remains of bowl season cannot compete with the expanded College Football Playoff. The first round of payoff games will begin on December 20th, so the lesser bowl games should be scheduled in the first half of December.
Additionally, players will be antsy to jump into the transfer portal, even if they are paid for their bowl game. They will want to get in contact with interested programs and see what their NIL is worth. For some players it won’t matter when they jump into the portal because their star power will carry them to whatever team they want. However, there are some players on the bubble who need to get into the portal early enough to secure a spot on another team’s roster before someone of equal talent gets it.
Putting all the non-playoff bowl games in the first half of December would enable those teams to properly prepare and play in their bowl game. Players could then enter the transfer portal after closing out the season.
Oregon’s defense dominated Liberty in the 2023 Fiesta Bowl
(Photo By Tom Corno)
Fewer Venues and Games
If this restricted calendar is going to work, there needs to be a change in how bowl season operates. For starters, the amount of bowl games needs to be reduced and teams that go 6-6 should not be included in bowl games. The standard for these postseason games needs to be higher than two teams that managed to finish the season with six wins, especially when you consider one or two of those wins likely came against an FCS school or a lesser Group of Five school.
The floor for bowl games needs to be better.
Furthermore, televised bowl games have become quite depressing, looking at rather empty stadiums. Bowl season should consider a handful of venues and host multiple games at the same site — and those games should be played over the course of two to three days. Bowl season would take on a feel more akin to the March Madness hub locations where fans could go to multiple games.
This could potentially increase the value of these games, which would help enable paying players to participate in these games.
Bowl season used to be special and between the playoff and transfer portal, it has become a shell of its former self. What other changes should come in order to preserve this postseason tradition? Or should bowl season be done away with entirely?
David Marsh
Portland, Oregon
Top Photo By Tom Corno
Natalie Liebhaber, the FishDuck.com Volunteer Editor for this article, works in technology in SLC, Utah.
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David Marsh is a high school social studies teacher in Portland, Oregon. As a teacher he is known for telling puns to his students who sometimes laugh out of sympathy, and being both eccentric about history and the Ducks.
David graduated from the University of Oregon in 2012 with Majors in: Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, and Geography. David began following Ducks Football after being in a car accident in 2012; finding football something new and exciting to learn about during this difficult time in his life. Now, he cannot see life without Oregon football.