The Hawkeyes won a pinstripe bowl in new york city .

what I am wondering is,
if there are 35 bowl games ,and 70 teams play in them , does that mean that these "winners"
are in the top 35 college football teams in the nation ?

and isn't anything farther down than , say the top 9 teams, well aren't they just , pretty much , participation trophies ?

do n.f.l. scouts actually even go to look at the bottom 40 schools?

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do n.f.l. scouts actually even go to look at the bottom 40 schools?

Most of the NFL scouts and coaches attend the Senior Bowl in Mobile every year to check out the talent.

Bowl games bring people to town, if they are popular enough. Good for business, usually. San Diego folks complained when the Holiday Bowl featured BYU several years in a row, that BYU alum came to town with a $20 bill and a copy of the Ten Commandments, and didn’t break either one.

Bowl games give teams an extra month or more of workouts, practices. Coaches like that. More TV time, good for recruiting.

Bowl games are tremendous fun for the students. I was in the Texas Longhorn Band in my day. The trip to the Orange Bowl in January 1965 to beat Namath led Alabama was a never to be forgotten adventure in my life, and several hundred other young musicians. The two Rose Bowls a decade ago, and a National Championship, must have been even better for the band those years.

There is good money in it at least for the top games. Texas is a marketing machine, hats, sweat shirts, bumper stickers, little Bevo bobble heads, decals, zillions of alums. It’s not just a t-shirt, it’s a way of life! The better to shake down wealthy alums for more money!

That said, I anticipated last nights game with dread. I hate it when the ‘horns struggle through a barely mediocre year, somehow end up bowl eligible and go off to some relatively minor bowl game. We often get beat, not just beat but wasted, by some other relatively mediocre team looking to make its mark against a big time football program. In the event, it proved my observation that the secret to winning football was to always play an opponent even lousier than you. Poor Missouri had a terrible game, penalties, mistakes, turn overs, just awful.

A bowl game? I vaguely remember those ...

For me the college bowl game system is beyond repair. I like the tradition that the bowl games used to have; Rose Bowl was always the best team in the Pac10 vs. best in the Big10, Sugar Bowl was always best in the SEC, etc.

Having gone to a Pac10 school, the Rose Bowl was always a big deal. Now there's just so many bowl games that they have lost all relevance.

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Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
For me the college bowl game system is beyond repair. I like the tradition that the bowl games used to have; Rose Bowl was always the best team in the Pac10 vs. best in the Big10, Sugar Bowl was always best in the SEC, etc.

Having gone to a Pac10 school, the Rose Bowl was always a big deal. Now there's just so many bowl games that they have lost all relevance.

Well, it’s not about relevance, it’s TV and the money.

I’m with you, though. The old Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl was grand. The Joe’s Corner Garage Lake Woebegone Bowl isn’t.

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Now there's just so many bowl games that they have lost all relevance.

So you're saying you don't want to watch the Poulan Weed-Eater/BOA Shreveport bowl?

Fine!

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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

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do n.f.l. scouts actually even go to look at the bottom 40 schools?

Most of the NFL scouts and coaches attend the Senior Bowl in Mobile every year to check out the talent.

Well, I don’t watch the NFL ,but...

I think scouting for the NFL draft is much more businesslike than window shopping bowl games. There are certainly NFL prospects playing in the minor bowls, but NFL teams have been watching film on these guys for some time. I believe a scout would attend to see how a player from a non-Power 5 conference plays against a higher caliber opponent. Not the best example, because they went undefeated, but UCF against Auburn will reveal to scouts how a given UCF player might do in the NFL.

There’s always the Cinderella story too. College coaches or NFL scouts attend a game to look at a specific player and see another who wasn’t on their radar. Happens a lot, I think.

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
For me the college bowl game system is beyond repair. I like the tradition that the bowl games used to have; Rose Bowl was always the best team in the Pac10 vs. best in the Big10, Sugar Bowl was always best in the SEC, etc.

Having gone to a Pac10 school, the Rose Bowl was always a big deal. Now there's just so many bowl games that they have lost all relevance.

Agree on everything.
I used to love when Ohio State won the Big10 and then went to the Rose Bowl. This year kinda pissed me off.
I'll be watching tomorrow night for sure but it isn't the same as going to the Rose Bowl.

Hate the bowl games. Absolutely nothing for the teams outside the top 4 to play for. Besides there being no incentive, a lot of the players hoping to make it to the NFL may not even play their final game if they’re on the ‘outside’. Caught the first few minutes of the Arizona/Purdue game last night, maybe a couple thousand people there?
Out of all the bowl games I’ll actually watch, maybe, 3 or 4 all the way through.
And no college ball on New Years Eve? Come on, man!

I think there is a lesson to be learned -- perhaps not the one the organizers intended -- that driven by greed, you can dilute a time-tested "product" into irrelevance. A lesson that the NFL might do well to heed as well. Too late now, for me anyway, but I seem to recall a time when football meant something, or was at least entertaining to follow.

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Originally posted by stkfox:
Caught the first few minutes of the Arizona/Purdue game last night, maybe a couple thousand people there?

Attendance in Santa Clara about 28,000. Weird time slot, maybe. Most bowl games so far are poorly attended.

Texas-Missouri drew 67,000 in Houston.

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Originally posted by stkfox:
Hate the bowl games. Absolutely nothing for the teams outside the top 4 to play for. Besides there being no incentive, a lot of the players hoping to make it to the NFL may not even play their final game if they’re on the ‘outside’. Caught the first few minutes of the Arizona/Purdue game last night, maybe a couple thousand people there?
Out of all the bowl games I’ll actually watch, maybe, 3 or 4 all the way through.
And no college ball on New Years Eve? Come on, man!

I think that within 15 years we will have a 16-team college football playoff, with 2 or 4 “play-in” games. It may be that some bowl games act as quarterfinal or semifinal games...but there will be a playoff.

Bowl games now are glorified exhibition games with *nothing* on the line. The bowl process is struggling to remain relevant, while ignoring the writing on the wall.

Why not take the two worst teams and have them play in the Drano Toilet Bowl?

Might as well since it seems everyone else gets to play in a bowl game.

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Originally posted by JALLEN:
...The Joe’s Corner Garage Lake Woebegone Bowl isn’t.

Well, unless you're in the band...

I usually have the bowl games on in the background

When I was growing up, I used to watch the bowl games on New years Day with my dad. It was a great marathon and by the end of the night your eyes were screaming.

Since we moved to NC, we don't have cable so I cannot watch any of the games. I will try and see if I can get the OSU vs USC game on at the Medical Examiners Office on Friday .

I was discussing this very same topic with my dad the other day, there are toooooo many bowls games now. Plus everyone is on ESPN and only a couple are on regular tv.

I hate ESPN and I have boycotted them for the last couple of years.

My favorite team is Texas AM and they are playing in Charlotte this Friday. I was going to get tickets but I am a whimp and hate the col
Plus I have to work and we are short handed due to everyone having the crud.

The vast majority of this years bowl games involved 6-6 and 7-5 teams. Not top 35 by any stretch.

I'm still waiting for one more bowl game to be added.

Only teams with zero wins can be invited.

The winning team will get a trophy and the losing team will be declared the "worst team in the country."

The bowl will be called the Toilet Bowl of course.

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Originally posted by Yellow Jacket:
I'm still waiting for one more bowl game to be added.

Only teams with zero wins can be invited.

The winning team will get a trophy and the losing team will be declared the "worst team in the country."

The bowl will be called the Toilet Bowl of course.

Scouts look at every player. Look at Carson Wentz, who until he got hurt was leading the Eagles to the best record in the NFL. He went to North Dakota State, not even an FBS school. A great FCS school, sure.