NCAA Issues Merciful Moratorium On Adding College Football Bowl Games
By Ty Duffy
The NCAA did something right, for once. The governing body has enacted a three-year moratorium on additional college football bowl games. This is an NCAA ban we can get behind.
Six new bowls were added the last two years after a previous moratorium expired. That brought the total to 40, with 80 teams involved in the college football postseason. The NCAA was considering another three for 2016.
In theory, there is nothing bad about more college football on TV. But, even wonderful things like sex and barbecue have saturation points. Three 5-7 teams filled out the field in 2015. That’s really 4-7, when you factor out the FCS game.
Fans remain at least a technical consideration for these games. The present setup had San Jose State, 4-7 vs. FBS during the regular season, travel to Orlando to play Georgia State in the Autonation Cure Bowl less than a week before Christmas on Dec. 19.
San Jose State’s athletic department was on the hook for 5,000 full-priced tickets to that game. This is the same athletic department receiving more than $18 million in revenue (62 percent) from student subsidies.
There’s a point where enough is enough. That was reached last year. If you’re someone who cares about the “college football bowl experience,” reaching one should mean something. Forbid a team have to maintain a .500 record against FBS teams for coaches and ADs to get bonuses.