Explaining College Football Bowl Games to my Cat
In keeping with my earlier post, I wanted to provide some more explanation for those UK fans who have just discovered College Football and are still picking up some of the basics. This post helps answer the question; what are college football bowl games?
Picture the Scene…
There is a scenario which is common for many UK fans of US sports each Winter. You spend countless hours in the middle of the night, alone in the living room, intently watching the sport that you love. Sometimes, you are blessed with some company and on an occasion a few weeks ago, I was joined by my cat
I was in the middle of watching the Rose Bowl and during a pause at halftime, I could swear I heard the cat whisper to me “What is a bowl game anyway and how does it fit into the wider structure of things?”. Fatigue might have been setting in, or even despair given I am a Ducks fan, but I decided to try and give him an answer. Here is what I said…
The Problem with College Football
If we think about the NFL, we have two conferences; the AFC and NFC. Then we have 4 divisions, helpfully called North, South, East and West. Each division has 4 teams and that gives a total of 32 teams. Through a relatively simple method the 32 teams get distilled into a 14-team playoff bracket.
That is all good and well when you have 32 teams but as I have mentioned before, the US college football setup is massive. The internet elders (i.e. Wikipedia) tell me that there are 134 teams in the top tier FBS alone, packed into 10 (including the PAC-12) conferences and with c10-18 teams each. It would simply not be possible to distill that number of teams into a manageable playoff bracket to offer a post season. It does not help that whilst the standard season is 12 games, only 8 or so are against conference peers.
We too are College Football Champions…
All conferences have a “Championship game” which pits the top two teams in a division against each other. A quick side-note to mention the Sun Belt Conference, which is now the only conference split into two divisions and where the East and West division winners face off to decide who is the champion. Also a little mention to what is left of the PAC-12 which didn’t have a conference championship this year as nearly everyone left. More on that another time.
The Championship games in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC conferences are played at a neutral stadium giving them that final-feel that we recognise from most UK sports. Championship games are great but only two teams get to play so it doesn’t extend the season for anyone else. Also, if we stopped there, we would never get to see how various teams match up against other conferences. Curiosity would kick in as to who really was the best.
Get me a Bowl!
“Not that kind of bowl!”
To offer up some sort of post-season to a wider number of teams, bowl games are quite a useful tool. They are not part of the regular season and participating teams are invited to join by the bowl organiser, who will have a tie-in/arrangement with particular conferences.
Normally, to be eligible for an invitation you would need to have won at least six games against FBS opposition and have a win record of at least 0.500 (meaning you have won 50% of your games). Although as the number of bowls has increased you do see teams with 5-7 records sneak into bowl games.
If you are not involved in the wider playoff system which I will come to later, a bowl game can represent a nice finale to the season. Much like a cup final, a team is likely to see a decent payday and some broader media exposure than you might normally get. For college athletes and athletic programmes it also allows the training window to be extended for a few more weeks.
Bowls are mainly the domain of the FBS as the FCS usually utilises a different season-ending playoff structure.
College Football Bowl Origins
The first bowl game was played in 1902 and was titled the Tournament East-West football game. The game was sponsored by the Tournament of Roses Parade, who run an Annual parade through Pasadena in California. It was part of a campaign to bring additional tourism to the local area.
The game itself featured Michigan Wolverines (East) vs Stanford (West) and Michigan routed Stanford 49-0. According to the organisers website the one-sided score put off the punters and chariot racing took the place of football until 1916 when they tried again.
The second attempt was more successful and the game became a permanent feature. It eventually moved to the newly-opened Rose Bowl stadium in time for the 1st January 1923 edition and the game became known as the “Rose Bowl”. It has been an annual date in the calendar ever since.
Embed from Getty ImagesFollowing the success of the Rose Bowl, other organisations recognised the benefit of such an event to promote tourism and set up their own version. The number of bowl games took off from there.
A Staple in the College Football Calendar
So whilst the initial idea was to play bowls as exhibition matches (normally in warmer climates) as a finale to the season, at some point people recognised that they could be used to match teams up across conferences to determine who might be the best team nationally.
What followed was various iterations of using bowls in this fashion.
The most recent, pre-the current playoff system, was organised but the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) whereby the four most prestigious bowl games (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange) were rotated to form a type of of national championship. A combination of polls and a computer system generated the teams to play in the BCS National Championship game alongside the other bowls.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Current College Football Playoff Era
The selection for these games, created many a controversy and in 2014 it was replaced with the College Football playoff system, whereby the rankings for the playoffs were made by a selection committee. In 2014 there were 4 teams selected into semi finals with a National Championship match acting as a final. The freshly completed 2024/5 season was the first that saw the playoff bracket extended to 12 teams.
There are six big college football bowl games which rotate to form the quarter and semi finals of the college football playoffs now. They are called the “New Years Six”: Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. Attendance at these will be as per the selection committee rankings. These six represent the oldest are played on or as close to New Years Day as possible.
Best of the Rest
During the 2024 season there were just over 40 bowl games and the majority still follow the same invitational format.
Most bowls have an affiliation with conferences- for example the Sugar Bowl, when it is not used for the national playoffs, usually pits the SEC no.1 vs the Big 12 No.1.
It could be argued that some of the shine has come off of the wider bowl games given the attention on the new playoff format. However, they remain a great source of revenue and fun for the playing teams and supporters, who never mind a little trip in early January to somewhere warm.
Embed from Getty Images”Who Fancies a trip to Florida in January??”
Sitting Out
Having an extra game to play is great for most but it is not without complications for some. If you are a college football athlete who wants to enter the NFL draft, it might be that an extra game that is not in the brighter lights of the playoffs is more of a risk to your health than you are willing to take. In such circumstances the temptation to sit out the game can be compelling.
It is not just the NFL draft either, with the way the transfer portal works now, some players may not want to impact their portal chances or not wait until after bowl games to jump ship. There was an instance this season where Marshall Thundering Herd of the Sun Belt conference had to withdraw from the Independence Bowl against Army as a large bulk of their players entered the portal following a coaching change.
It is fair to say that bowl games will continue to have a place but their prestige will continue to be tested as the playoffs grow in terms of their national attention. But to reiterate the first point made, the sheer number of teams will always make bowl games appealing as a mechanism for a post-season.
Is he even listening??
After explaining all of this to my cat, he looked at me (or through me – I am never sure), yawned and turned his back and went back to sleep. I assumed he got it but either way I was confident I had explained college football bowl games to him and I hope this helps you too!
