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The REAL way to fix bowl games.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 8:40 am
Posted on 12/10/25 at 8:40 am
Go ahead and expand to 16 teams and use one home game and some lowly level bowls for the playoff venue.
However like the NIT (I’m just saying that so we understand what we are talking about) have a second tournament of teams that also get a home game and some utilize some of the lesser bowls with that tournament concluding somewhere around New Years Day or so. BUT have special incentives such as:
1. “NIT” tournament winner gets 5 million additional NIL money for your school. This is approved above the CAP.
2. Each player gets $XXX on the winning team.
3. Winning team gets a play-in game for next year to the playoffs regardless of record. (That may seem unfair but it makes it worth watching and worth playing for. Even if that team horrendously sucks the following year, they’d have to play in to get a slot.)
Incentivize the football “NIT” to make it worth something.
Otherwise just do a 16 team playoff and don’t have bowls period. Use the existing bowls as playoff locations and call it a day. Having meaningless bowl games, penalizing teams that opt out, yet no penalization to players who do is ridiculous. But the fact that teams are getting fined for choosing not to play in a game that means absolutely nothing is dumb. As ridiculous as my stupid idea is, you have to admit, it makes more sense than what we have.
However like the NIT (I’m just saying that so we understand what we are talking about) have a second tournament of teams that also get a home game and some utilize some of the lesser bowls with that tournament concluding somewhere around New Years Day or so. BUT have special incentives such as:
1. “NIT” tournament winner gets 5 million additional NIL money for your school. This is approved above the CAP.
2. Each player gets $XXX on the winning team.
3. Winning team gets a play-in game for next year to the playoffs regardless of record. (That may seem unfair but it makes it worth watching and worth playing for. Even if that team horrendously sucks the following year, they’d have to play in to get a slot.)
Incentivize the football “NIT” to make it worth something.
Otherwise just do a 16 team playoff and don’t have bowls period. Use the existing bowls as playoff locations and call it a day. Having meaningless bowl games, penalizing teams that opt out, yet no penalization to players who do is ridiculous. But the fact that teams are getting fined for choosing not to play in a game that means absolutely nothing is dumb. As ridiculous as my stupid idea is, you have to admit, it makes more sense than what we have.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 8:48 am to Flyingtiger82
While I’m not a fan of further playoff expansion, it’s not the worst idea.
A lot can be solved by capping NIL, holding players to an actual contract, enforcing penalties/paybacks if the contract is broken, and getting rid of FA transferring. Bring back the sit out a year for moving schools
A lot can be solved by capping NIL, holding players to an actual contract, enforcing penalties/paybacks if the contract is broken, and getting rid of FA transferring. Bring back the sit out a year for moving schools
Posted on 12/10/25 at 8:52 am to Pistols Firing 12
They should adopt the world football (soccer) model. Players sign contracts. The contract can only be broken if the team the player is joining pays a transfer fee to the school the player is leaving. Both schools would have to agree upon the contract.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 9:02 am to Flyingtiger82
I think you may see them move towards something similar to the Players Era Tournament in basketball where each school gets at least $1M in NIL contributions for participating. Some of that money will be funneled to the players who participate in the game.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 9:17 am to Flyingtiger82
I love the idea of having bowls as the first game of the season. You qualify if you won 6 games in the previous season
Posted on 12/10/25 at 9:55 am to Flyingtiger82
quote:
3. Winning team gets a play-in game for next year to the playoffs regardless of record. (That may seem unfair but it makes it worth watching and worth playing for. Even if that team horrendously sucks the following year, they’d have to play in to get a slot.)
Do you know how many teams are great one year and awful the next?
2023 and 2024 Michigan
2019 and 2020 LSU
2010 and 2011 Auburn
You weren't good enough to make the CFP, but good enough to win the NIT, and then somehow the next season you are going to be good enough to play in the CFP automatically?
Posted on 12/10/25 at 10:04 am to Flyingtiger82
frick it make it 64 like basketball
Posted on 12/10/25 at 10:10 am to Boodis Man
quote:
I love the idea of having bowls as the first game of the season. You qualify if you won 6 games in the previous season
Why would teams want to schedule a game that could potentially hurt their chances of making the playoff so early in the season? See Notre Dame for example
Posted on 12/10/25 at 10:16 am to Flyingtiger82
I can't imagine a world where a team like Notre Dame, who isn't up for playing in any other bowl game, is going to want to play potentially four more games.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 10:24 am to Flyingtiger82
quote:
Go ahead and expand to 16 teams
Geez! You don' fix this ever-worsening problem by continuing to do what's made it worse to begin with.
A 4 team playoff was perfectly fine. I would somewhat be on board with 6 teams. But 12 already sucks arse, in no world does adding MORE teams fix anything.
Let me ask you this in all seriousness...if after 13 games of play a team is only ranked 16th, what reason could there POSSIBLY be for them to claim they have a right to be called national champion?
Posted on 12/10/25 at 10:31 am to Flyingtiger82
What a terrible idea, we don't need to play all those extra games.
The right idea is to just get rid of bowl games. They are a dated concept and all the ones that mattered are now just playoff games.
The right idea is to just get rid of bowl games. They are a dated concept and all the ones that mattered are now just playoff games.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 10:52 am to Boodis Man
quote:
I love the idea of having bowls as the first game of the season. You qualify if you won 6 games in the previous season
There's multiple problems with this...
Is this "bowl game" an extra game in addition to the normal 12 game schedule? Or is this just going to be part of a 12 game regular season?
If its an extra game, what a great reward.....making the bowl eligible teams play an extra game to get players banged up in before their regular schedule starts.
If it replaces the season opener in a 12 game schedule, then how do you handle the fact that non-conference games are usually scheduled years in advance? Say goodbye to good non-conference games at home because most schools won't schedule more than 1 quality non-conference opponent a year....and with bowls being the season opener, now your best non-conference game every year will be a neutral site bowl game in some NFL stadium.
For non-bowl teams, now they have to scramble to find a week 1 opponent on short notice and agree on who gets to host. Since they won't know who will be bowl eligible for the following season, they can't schedule a home-and-home.....so scheduling becomes difficult.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 11:01 am to Alt26
I was going to say, I think that the ONLY way traditional bowls don't die outright, is if the bowls start paying players directly to participate- or at minimum start stroking checks that are earmarked for a schools NIL fund
Posted on 12/10/25 at 11:15 am to Boodis Man
Week 0 bowl games, they’re not an exhibition either. Every school gets assigned one.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 11:36 am to Flyingtiger82
Just cut the majority of bowls and raise the threshold to 9 wins, backfilling with 8 win teams if necessary. Make bowls a reward again and not a burden. Also, move the transfer window to a January or February signing day, or the summer, and eliminate early signing day entirely. That being in the middle of bowls and playoffs is ridiculous. Finally, like someone above said, have the bowls payout in cash to the participants. All that combined would fix bowls.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 11:58 am to Flyingtiger82
The NIT is a waste of time in basketball, and it would still be a waste of time in football.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 1:10 pm to Tiger Prawn
quote:
There's multiple problems with this...
It would be apart of the 12 game schedule, not an extra game... No different than the current annual chik fil a kickoff game .
As for teams that didnt qualify and scheduling concerns...it needs to be baked into the system..eg the bowls and non bowl matchups for next season get announced on selection sunday at the end of the current season when the playoffs are set. Non bowl P5 team would be matched up against each other snd same for the G5 teams. The nfl schedules their season every year, I dont see why the conferences cant come together to do this
Posted on 12/10/25 at 1:41 pm to Boodis Man
quote:
No different than the current annual chik fil a kickoff game
There's only like 5 of those types of games. And most fans I know hate them because its almost always your biggest non-conference game of the year....at a neutral site. Takes away the gameday atmosphere and experience on campus or opportunity for a bucket list road trip to an away game against a team your school might not play again for decades.
quote:And at whose house? Home games are big money for schools. When P4 schools schedule OOC games with other P4 schools, the deal is typically for a home-and-home series. Or when P4's schedule a G5 or FCS team, its usually involving the P4 getting the home game (and gameday gate / revenue) and the G5 / FCS team just collecting a check. But if you don't know what teams are going to be "bowl eligible" from year to year, you can't schedule home-and-home series, so it'll all be one-off's. And for one-offs, everyone is going to want to be the home team.
Non bowl P5 team would be matched up against each other snd same for the G5 teams.
quote:The NFL also has 32 teams.....not 130. And the NFL scheduling format is a pretty simple rotation based on your division and prior year standings. There's no practical way to copy that format with 10 conferences, 130+ teams, and half the teams playing neutral site games while the other half play each other on campus and have to settle disputes on who gets the home game.
The nfl schedules their season every year
This post was edited on 12/10/25 at 1:43 pm
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