Six Wins Required to get to a Bowl?

[Boca Vol]

lol I tried to talk my daughters out of being socialists the other day. Failed utterly. But I haven't given up yet. Just have to pick my fights. I might wait until they turn 30.

If they're still in school just tell them they HAVE to share their good grades with the students that sleep during class or do nothing...they'll disagree and you can then explain.

 

[jasonvol18]

I would like to think that Tennessee has enough pride to turn a bowl game if we get less than 6 wins in a season. Other schools can do what they like.
Those that get upset about "participation bowls" are just complaining to complain. No need to watch them or even think about them if you don't want to. I watch some lower bowls and while most are crap, some are better games to watch than some of the major bowl games.

I second this. Nobody is forced to watch those games, I do it because it's a game to watch. Plus some of those aren't any worse than some of the OOC games we see from power 5 conference teams. We really should never have to worry about 5-7 bowls or having to beat Vandy to get bowl eligible. That should rarely or never happen. But unfortunately it has way too much the last 15 yrs.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I know, but if you don't stop trying to take down the free market in fb, I'm gonna email them the link to this thread.
All the ammo they'll need for years to come. 😇

Haha, I don't mind the free market at all. I was just talking in another thread about how much I used to love the old, original ESPN. Before it became politicized and dramatized.

And ESPN is the love child of (1) free market and (2) late 20th century technology (satellites+computers==cable TV==200 channels --> ESPN).

And ESPN is THE catalyst for the modern bowl season.

Maybe what bugs me about bowls involving 6-6 and 5-7 teams is this: I am old enough, and do have a good enough memory, to recall vividly the excitement of being invited to a bowl back when it was far from a sure thing.

It was a prize back then. It was a trophy given, in exchange for laudable team play.

And it's not that any more.

So maybe I'm just being nostalgic.

*shrug*

But I ain't no damn socialist, mister.


(getting this on the record in case you send this to the girls)

 

[VFL-82-JP]

If they're still in school just tell them they HAVE to share their good grades with the students that sleep during class or do nothing...they'll disagree and you can then explain.

Haha, that sounds a LOT like the conversation we were having the other day. The whole "redistribution of wealth personified" and "parental ownership of the means of production" angles, and everything.

They're no longer college students, just graduated. Well, one starts Med school (UT Med, Memphis, woo!) in August, and the other is supposedly going back for a doctorate after a "gap year"...so they're kind of sort of still students, I guess?

But still, crashed and burned with those arguments. I'll bide my time before the next attack.

 

[njvols]

The schools get paid. The players get a trip. You get a couple of weeks of games. What's not to like?

paying for a ring for the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl championship?

 

[RavinDave]

Haha yeah...meff maff. God bless Behr.

Yeah, good Ole Behr.

Guess he's had some things going on today.

 

[Orangeredblooded]

As the discussion keeps focusing on what a mother did with her kid when he was 5, I keep appreciating this post more and more.

Because the kids in the bowl game did play. They did have to win a certain amount and still try to win the bowl game. They weren't out during football season with pneumonia.

I'm glad the lady raised her son right but the situations aren't a real comparison. The only link that can be made is that they've decided winning the minimum to make a bowl is = to a participation trophy. And frankly, they don't get to make that decision for everyone else.
Her son missing due to illness is a straw man to the actual discussion.

I guess I’m old school, I just remember the days when a team had to win at least 6 games to get to a bowl, now the rules are different with more bowl games and trying to get as many teams in to fill them, plus revenue from tv, that the bar has been lowered to some degree. I still enjoy watching any bowl game, just doesn’t hold the same luster it once did for me.

 

[jasonvol18]

Boca, you're right.

Objectively, the bar keeps being lowered.

Once upon a time, there was one bowl game. It wasn't even a regular thing, just a promotional. Then the Rose Bowl became annual. Then a couple others joined in. Before a generation passed, we were up to 8-12; it seemed to vary every year.

But one thing was true in all that growth: only good teams got invited. To any of them. Every team was a competitor in its own conference, if not an outright conference champ. Being invited to a bowl and being among the Top 25 were rough equivalents.

Then it expanded again. And again. It stopped being about bringing champions together, and became more about bringing all winners together. Winners meaning, you won more games than you lost.

Finally, we crossed the double barrier: the one into non-winning seasons (6-6), and finally the one into losing seasons (5-7).

So sure. It's just an objective fact. The bar continues to be lowered.

Whether you LIKE the existence of 39-40 bowl games a year, or NOT, that's an objective fact. The bar keeps getting lower.

I don't think it's the bar getting lowered. College Football has become a business with hundreds of millions of dollars and big corporations leading the way. It's all about making money and greed. Football Coach's are CEO's just as much as they are Coach's these days with the salaries changing with that. Big Corporations and Dot Com's paying to have their names on bowls and advertised at the stadium and during the entire game. Long as money is being made, these many bowl games will continue to happen yearly. Sports gambling also plays hugely into it too.

 

[Orange defense]

Unless you are a couch football fan like me. I love football, and all of the bowl games. It only comes once a year. Christmas and New Years is special for all bowl games to me.

 

[GAVol]

Haha, I don't mind the free market at all. I was just talking in another thread about how much I used to love the old, original ESPN. Before it became politicized and dramatized.

And ESPN is the love child of (1) free market and (2) late 20th century technology (satellites+computers==cable TV==200 channels --> ESPN).

And ESPN is THE catalyst for the modern bowl season.

Maybe what bugs me about bowls involving 6-6 and 5-7 teams is this: I am old enough, and do have a good enough memory, to recall vividly the excitement of being invited to a bowl back when it was far from a sure thing.

It was a prize back then. It was a trophy given, in exchange for laudable team play.

And it's not that any more.

So maybe I'm just being nostalgic.

*shrug*

But I ain't no damn socialist, mister.


(getting this on the record in case you send this to the girls)

I can also remember us getting bowl games at 6-5 30 years ago when I knew we were just there to sell tickets. .500ish teams getting a bowl game happens routinely now, but it's not necessarily a new thing.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I don't think it's the bar getting lowered. College Football has become a business with hundreds of millions of dollars and big corporations leading the way. It's all about making money and greed. Football Coach's are CEO's just as much as they are Coach's these days with the salaries changing with that. Big Corporations and Dot Com's paying to have their names on bowls and advertised at the stadium and during the entire game. Long as money is being made, these many bowl games will continue to happen yearly. Sports gambling also plays hugely into it too.

Yeah, all absolutely true, when you look at college football through the prism of economics. Remember when cotton was king? Remember when steel was king? Remember when tech was king? Today, entertainment is king. And college football is 100% a part of the entertainment industry, when observing it through the lens of economics.

But when you look at college football as a social phenomenon, almost anthropologically, the bowl expansion is a completely different thing. It's a watering down of a rite of passage. One formerly reserved for only the best 15-30 teams is now open to the best 80 or so. It is, almost literally, the lowering of a bar so that more can leap over it.

*shrug* it all just depends on the lens you're using.

 

[chargervol]

Haha, I don't mind the free market at all. I was just talking in another thread about how much I used to love the old, original ESPN. Before it became politicized and dramatized.

And ESPN is the love child of (1) free market and (2) late 20th century technology (satellites+computers==cable TV==200 channels --> ESPN).

And ESPN is THE catalyst for the modern bowl season.

Maybe what bugs me about bowls involving 6-6 and 5-7 teams is this: I am old enough, and do have a good enough memory, to recall vividly the excitement of being invited to a bowl back when it was far from a sure thing.

It was a prize back then. It was a trophy given, in exchange for laudable team play.

And it's not that any more.

So maybe I'm just being nostalgic.

*shrug*

But I ain't no damn socialist, mister.


(getting this on the record in case you send this to the girls)

But what you keep overlooking, getting invited to THOSE bowls is still a big deal.
That hasn't changed.
Everyone knows the reason for the rest of the bowls. It's for people like me that can't ever get enough college football and a way for networks to make money by providing that service.

No one is giving a team SugarBowl status for playing in the Ben's hair care bowl down at Big Ed's Tire and football arena. It just gives Wichita State or whoever something to play for and football fans a little something extra to watch. It doesn't take away from the status of the real games.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Gotta be honest, I didn't Think the story applied here either.

Because it didn’t.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

But what you keep overlooking, getting invited to THOSE bowls is still a big deal.
That hasn't changed.
Everyone knows the reason for the rest of the bowls. It's for people like me that can't ever get enough college football and a way for networks to make money by providing that service.

No one is giving a team SugarBowl status for playing in the Ben's hair care bowl down at Big Ed's Tire and football arena. It just gives Wichita State or whoever something to play for and football fans a little something extra to watch. It doesn't take away from the status of the real games.

Oh, you're right. I'm not saying my perspective is the most logical on the planet. *shrug* it's just how I feel.

As an example: I try to watch every single bowl game, every year. Even if I get distracted, it's playing on the screen. And as others have pointed out, some of the bottom-tier bowls turn out to be very interesting football games!

How's that for idiosyncratic?

 

[GAVol]

Oh, you're right. I'm not saying my perspective is the most logical on the planet. *shrug* it's just how I feel.

As an example: I try to watch every single bowl game, every year. Even if I get distracted, it's playing on the screen. And as others have pointed out, some of the bottom-tier bowls turn out to be very interesting football games!

How's that for idiosyncratic?

Lol... You and I are clearly part of the problem. ESPN is like our crack dealer.

 

[jasonvol18]

Yeah, all absolutely true, when you look at college football through the prism of economics. Remember when cotton was king? Remember when steel was king? Remember when tech was king? Today, entertainment is king. And college football is 100% a part of the entertainment industry, when observing it through the lens of economics.

But when you look at college football as a social phenomenon, almost anthropologically, the bowl expansion is a completely different thing. It's a watering down of a rite of passage. One formerly reserved for only the best 15-30 teams is now open to the best 80 or so. It is, almost literally, the lowering of a bar so that more can leap over it.

*shrug* it all just depends on the lens you're using.

I can definitely see arguments for both sides. I admit I'll watch the bowls because I know the season is winding down and getting that last little bit of college football left. I also play in these College bowl challenges that makes some of the games more watchable because I can pull for someone. I personally would rather see maybe 16 teams added to the CFP and do away with a few of the really bad bowls. But not sure that expansion would do it either. They have taken away what innocence college football used to have and turned it into a greedy business. Have a feeling it just gets worse, especially if/ when they start paying the players. Which they deserve because of the money being made off kids in college.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Whatever your opinion, welcome to it, but I stand fully by what I said. I believe I was referring to my 5 year old son, you know, informative years, not a high school, college or pro athlete. It was a story on how I chose to raise mine.

The principle is the same no matter what the age, and I never said anything about whether someone was a high school, college or pro athlete.

 

[UTwick]

The schools get paid. The players get a trip. You get a couple of weeks of games. What's not to like?

Agree. Sometimes crappy competition is better than no game at all.

 

[JacketVol]

Sure it did, that wasn’t the only time we taught him this lesson or others, at least that was a start. He had a lot of glory in football in his school years and earned them. He also had chores and learned to follow through on things he started. He also had the loudest mother at all his sporting events, cheering him on in everything he did.

I bet. Part of the reason I stand out by the fence away from the stands is to get away from all the yelling social baseball moms who have no clue of what’s going on.

 

[Orangeredblooded]

The principle is the same no matter what the age, and I never said anything about whether someone was a high school, college or pro athlete.

I think that people have different opinions on the whole debate, seems I stirred the pot some on this one. It was just my opinion on what I thought, not to change minds, and yes I know what you posted.

 

[JacketVol]

Sorry if you are having a bad, truly am, but I grew up part of my life In a group
Home, so yes there are children that appreciate every bit of kindness and help that is given to them. That being said, I wanted my son to learn to not wait around for someone to give him something but to work hard and be proud of what he earned. It doesn’t matter to me what some poster questions my parenting and I never had to resort to spanking to do it. Sorry, JP, lost my cool a little.

By the way, it sounds like you are/were a great parent. However, it was a lot of things over and above this one instance when your child was five that did it. Making him do chores and learn responsibility impacted his work ethic way more than not getting a trophy when he had been sick.

 

[Orangeredblooded]

I bet. Part of the reason I stand out by the fence away from the stands is to get away from all the yelling social baseball moms who have no clue of what’s going on.

Oh, I guess I asked for that one.

 

[Orangeredblooded]

By the way, it sounds like you are/were a great parent. However, it was a lot of things over and above this one instance when your child was five that did it. Making him do chores and learn responsibility impacted his work ethic way more than not getting a trophy when he had been sick.

Believe me I know, won’t say I was a great parent, but did the best that we all try to do. It was just one story out of many, that all parents share. Wasn’t meant to imply that was the start to his achievements, just a story.

 

[JacketVol]

Oh, I guess I asked for that one.

I like your sense of humor. Glad your a VOL fan. If your one of those who actually does understand the game, then you can stand along the fence with me.

 

[Orangeredblooded]

I like your sense of humor. Glad your a VOL fan. If your one of those who actually does understand the game, then you can stand along the fence with me.

Believe it or not, couldn’t stand listening to some of the same yelling (but got to give them credit for showing up for thier children), Thank you, just liked paying attention to the game.