Expanding Already?

     The New Year’s 6 Bowl games started on December 31 and ended on January 2nd. The games overall were in one word, “disappointing”. Things got kicked off at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. The two teams that partook were Alabama and Michigan State. This game was not suppose to be close and that turned out to be true. How badly things went for Michigan State were even worse than what the skeptics had predicted. The game ended with Alabama winning 38-0. Something that should never happen between two teams in the top four. The next game that was played was the Capital One Orange Bowl. The was between number one Clemson and number four Oklahoma. This game was more entertaining to watch than its predecessor but still didn’t have the feel of a real competitive game at any point past the second quarter. That may sound fine but in a new years six bowl that is unacceptable. After that was the Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl which was an exciting game but due to the university of Houston being in it not much attention was brought to it. Houston pulled a really big upset which is great for such an up-and-coming program but new year’s six bowls are not the place for up-and-coming. They are the place for here right now.  On a side not e Houston has one of the best recruiting classes in the nation coming in and they are fourth best in the state of Texas. Only trailing Baylor, TCU, and Texas A&M. So we should start getting used to them. Next up was the Battlefrog Fiesta Bowl between Ohio State and Notre Dame. The game had a cast of NFL prospects including The projected number one overall pick, Joey Bosa of Ohio State, who ended up getting ejected for targeting. The game ended in a 44-28 victory for Ohio State. The score was mildly close but it was one of those games where the score was deceptive and Notre Dame never felt truly in it. The Rose Bowl was where it was truly cemented in that this was a disappointing bowl season. Number six Stanford pounded on number five Iowa 45-16. Not a Rose Bowl that anybody was hoping for at all. It was a fantastic way for Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan to end his tenure but the game was noncompetitive right from the get go as Iowa state did not look ready. Ending things off was the Sugar bowl where there was in my opinion the most inconsistent team in the nation in Ole Miss and a flat-out overrated team  in Oklahoma State team took the field. This game may have been the worst of the group as everybody knew this was going to be a beat down. Oklahoma State was very cold at the end of the year and Ole Miss was hot winning 4 of their last 5 SEC games only losing in triple overtime to Arkansas. This was a recipe for disaster and Ole Miss had a dominating performance winning 48-20.

The issue with all of this? Ratings were down and there was an extreme lack of drama. Nobody wants to see a drudging. They do not keep anyone watching. What can you do about this? Expand to 8 teams. Clearly there are teams that are not on the same caliber if you do this. Teams such as Ohio State and Stanford looked like teams that should have a chance even if they stumble a couple times. A rematch of Ohio State and Alabama? Who would not want to see that? Ratings for that game would be through the roof and that is truly what matters. Not some tradition of Rose Bowl games and Sugar Bowl games that now feel less important since there is a lower quality of play since the better teams are in the playoffs which. Do I want those to be cut? No way! I will watch regardless but find another time for them other than New years as they are not nearly as important as they use to be. If they were to expand from 4 to 8 teams than this would help with the lower ratings tremendously as I believe that a higher quality of play would come out of this. No it may not be a guarantee but anything is better than what happened this year.