Bowling for Dollars

Note of welcome to folks coming over from Buckeye Planet.
We're honored to have you here and to be listed with others in the community of the "Affiliates" list.

Couple of thoughts, now that the Bc$ is out and the bowls are full...

Item 1: 34 games. 68 schools. There are only 120 schools in Division 1 A (FBS), so somehow 57 percent of the teams are bowl elegible. Really not that much of an honor anymore, is it. So, Irish fans, keep that in mind.

Item 2: In case you forgot- the BCS is about MONEY and not "great matchups". The goal was to have the top two teams play, not to create amazing games across the board. This year's lineup should be proof positive, as evidenced by Vegas' odds:

• OU +3 vs Fla
• Alabama -10 vs Utah
  
• Texas - 10 vs tOSU
• U$C -10 vs Penn State
  
• Cincinnati -1 vs Va Tech
  

So other than the Championship Game and the "Really? We have to let these guys play because they won their conferences?" game, it's a bunch of double digit spreads.

And why is that? Money. The Fiesta Bowl selected Ohio State to give them their fourth visit to Tempe ("Columbus West") since 2003 purely because Buckeye Nation travels and spends well.

The Rose Bowl won't set aside their conference affiliations, and wants a home game for the Trojans. And the Sugar Bowl didn't exactly stretch itself in giving the Crimson Tide a virtual home game as well- close fan bases equals money spent on tickets and the like.

Can you imagine what might have been? With one minor tweak, changing one of the bowls to tOSU and Utah, you would have had three games with one loss teams, including matchups of at least four of the top five (Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, U$C, Alabama). Instead- double digit spreads, and possible blowouts across the board.

If it seems that bowls are being short sighted, remember that they (host committees or host citys) don't make money off of TV revenue. As such, they don't care if a blowout makes people turn the channel- they're invested in "butts in the seats and dollars out on the streets".

Item 3: MACh1gAAn has big plans for bowl season. They're going over to coach's house to watch (those who haven't quit, that is).

Item 4: OK, a bit of Big T1e1n homerism. Every year, ESPN does this stupid "Bowl Challenge", where they compare conference wins and losses in the post season. And, of course, they make huge assessments about programs and conferences based solely on the numbers, without also considering home field advantage and other issues.

Well, let me say this up front: This year, the Big T1e1n got hosed in all of their matchups. Even Vegas agrees:

• Florida State -4.5 vs Wisconsin
• Missouri -13 vs Northwestern
• Kansas -10 vs Minnesota
• Iowa - 3 vs South Carolina (I think that may change as we get closer to gametime)
• Georgia -7 vs Michigan State
• U$C - 10 vs Penn State
• Texas -10 vs tOSU

Seriously? We send seven teams to the Bowls, and they are ALL underdogs? Crap, even the ACC and Big lEast don't have that difficult of a run, and it's well documented that those conferences suck this year.

Item 5: We'll be looking at the "Because Chuck Said so" starting later this week, with the matchups that would result from my evil plan to... um... perfect idea to fix college's post season.

Item 6: It's Bowl Challenge Season! As always, we use ESPN and their "Confidence Points". Our group name is "Where's Michigan??, and the password is "Franklin", our regular season winner.

Here's the link- ESPN College Bowl Mania