[NU Sports] NU Needs your help - pass the word

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> You are making me depressed.

Sorry about that - in the Christmas spirit, remember that NU has now been to the Rose, Citrus, Outback, Alamo, Sun and Motor City bowls in the past 15 years! I think if we get to the Insight, we get a free sub sandwich or something.:)

> Now I am thinking we should eliminate everything except for
> the Rose Bowl and go back to the rules where only the Big
> Ten champion goes to the Rose Bowl to play the Pac-10

I don't think we need to do THAT, but we could certainly stand to eliminate 10-20 of the bowl games out there. It's really become a joke how many of these things there are and a reason I limit the bowl pool to 20 (and even at that we were stretching it for interesting games this year!).

I would also be for more Big Ten vs. Pac 10 bowls!

> But under no circumstances would I be for a playoff. 

Well, it won't come soon, but it will come. The bowl system you and I grew up with is dead and gone - the B(C)S has killed it. I won't go all Ross Perot again and drag out charts, but the only bowl that has benefitted from the B(C)S is the Fiesta Bowl. And the only bowl that consistently fills seats and draws crowds and still has held on to tradition is the Rose Bowl - and the B(C)S is targeting that to force them to invite non Big Ten and Pac 10 teams more in the future instead of runners up from the traditional leagues (the only time I recall empty seats in Pasadena in recent years was that year Wazzu and Oklahoma played because the Rose folks couldn't invite Iowa).

Because of our ties to Pasadena, Big Ten fans are in much the same position Notre Dame is with the question of independence - clinging to the past. At least in our case it's more of a reality than mere memories because the Rose Bowl tradition is still mostly alive and in tact -- and this year will be a classic as Big Ten and Pac 10 champ square off for only the fourth time in a decade. But it's fading. A decade or so ago, when Bo said winning the Rose Bowl was more important than a national championship, people believed him. Now it would draw gasps of disbelief among even most Big Ten crowds.

A playoff is coming somewhere down the road. Like Irish independence, we'll keep hanging on to the bowls for a long time and it will take years of humbling before reality sets in. But we're getting there, as the B(C)S has decimated attendance and ratings of most bowl games. Once they ruin the Rose, it will be just about complete. The bowl system is already dead - we just don't realize it yet.

I would love to go back to the olden days, but it ain't gonna happen ... so a playoff is preferable to the current B-C-Mess. But I do think there's a way for bowl games to survive ... sort of, and we're already seeing it happen in Atlanta.

Bowl games will become matching grounds for the mega-games of Septembers future. The Peach Bowl will become the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff classic and match up ACC and SEC powers. The Cotton Bowl will become the Dr. Pepper Kickoff Classic and match Big XII and Big Ten or something.

It could actually be a good thing for college football, as ratings and attendance for the mid-level bowls would increase in these "kickoff classic" formats, college football fans would get big-time games at neutral sites in September and all those host committees, sponsor parties and volunteers the chamber of commerce loves at these bowl games could survive in a new format. They also could revive every 3-4 years as host sites for the 16-team tournament at the end of the season.

It won't be soon, I agree, but right now we're seeing how this B(C)S era system is a house of cards ... the TV contracts won't keep growing if the ratings keep diving, and sooner or later schools will balk at eating all these tickets they must buy. 

But for now, eat drink and be merry in Tampa as the Cats go for a win. And keep fighting to keep Pasadena and the Rose Bowl special. As NU fans who went there in 1996 know, it is a magical place and the best argument to keep the bowls. Unfortunately for those of us who grew up with the old bowl system, it's now the only one.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT