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Bowl Season is a Joke

colperm

colperm

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Let me start off by saying that it's possible that next year's CFB playoff expansion has a positive impact on the post-season product.

Honest question, does anyone really give a **** about bowl games anymore?

Maybe I'm just a casual fan nowadays, or perhaps it's just because we've stunk for 20 years and I've become numb to our inevitable bowl losses... but I absolutely did not care about the Pinstripe Bowl yesterday. I don't care about bowl games enough to critique coaching decisions, personnel decisions, offensive play calling, refs, etc... it all feels trivial now. When you subtract the players who will be selected in the top 3-4 rounds of next years NFL draft as well as transfer portal casualties, the games lose some degree of meaning. Even some of the high-profile bowls have begun to feel more like spring games than conference championship games. It has become common to see third-string QBs facing off against each other! Guys on the field are auditioning for PT and NIL, willing to go anywhere that will throw them a bone.

Again, maybe I'm just numb. Maybe this is copium. Maybe I'm wrong.

But, if the players don't care about a bowl game, why the fvck should I?
 
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colperm said:
Let me start off by saying that it's possible that next year's CFB playoff expansion has a positive impact on the post-season product.

Honest question, does anyone really give a **** about bowl games anymore?

Maybe I'm just a casual fan nowadays, or perhaps it's just because we've stunk for 20 years and I've become numb to our inevitable bowl losses... but I absolutely did not care about the Pinstripe Bowl yesterday. I don't care about bowl games enough to critique coaching decisions, personnel decisions, offensive play calling, refs, etc... it all feels trivial now. When you subtract the players who will be selected in the top 3-4 rounds of next years NFL draft as well as transfer portal casualties, the games lose some degree of meaning. Even some of the high-profile bowls have begun to feel more like spring games than conference championship games. It has become common to see third-string QBs facing off against each other! Guys on the field are auditioning for PT and NIL, willing to go anywhere that will throw them a bone.

Again, maybe I'm just numb. Maybe this is copium. Maybe I'm wrong.

But, if the players don't care about a bowl game, why the fvck should I?
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You shouldn't. It's a glorified exhibition game with swag bags. It's so unimportant that coaches leave before these exhibition games for other jobs and NFL hopefuls skip them. The only bowl games that matter are the playoff bowls.
 
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colperm said:
Let me start off by saying that it's possible that next year's CFB playoff expansion has a positive impact on the post-season product.

Honest question, does anyone really give a **** about bowl games anymore?

Maybe I'm just a casual fan nowadays, or perhaps it's just because we've stunk for 20 years and I've become numb to our inevitable bowl losses... but I absolutely did not care about the Pinstripe Bowl yesterday. I don't care about bowl games enough to critique coaching decisions, personnel decisions, offensive play calling, refs, etc... it all feels trivial now. When you subtract the players who will be selected in the top 3-4 rounds of next years NFL draft as well as transfer portal casualties, the games lose some degree of meaning. Even some of the high-profile bowls have begun to feel more like spring games than conference championship games. It has become common to see third-string QBs facing off against each other! Guys on the field are auditioning for PT and NIL, willing to go anywhere that will throw them a bone.

Again, maybe I'm just numb. Maybe this is copium. Maybe I'm wrong.

But, if the players don't care about a bowl game, why the fvck should I?
Click to expand...
I understand the point, but I’ll counter with a couple of my own.

Like @JHallCanes said in another thread, a lot of us aren’t necessarily mad about losing the bowl game. It’s more about how we approached it and called the game. The same issues that plagued Mario during the 2022 and 2023 season reared its ugly head again - undisciplined football, conservative play-calling on offense, poor clock management, woefully unprepared for a run-heavy team that only attempted 15 passes when we were missing just 1 starter in the front 7…that stuff drives me wild. If it’s a bowl game and we don’t care, why not try some new things out? Why not play more younger guys if Mario didn’t care instead of Lou Cristobal or Gore or Lichtenstein?

The other thing I’d say is it certainly matters to a lot of other teams. Watching Kansas St/NC State, Arizona/OU, USC, Boston College etc, they all absolutely cared. They played hard for their coach and battled. Even a USC that had a ton of opt outs took Louisville to the shed.

If we had won the game, people on here would be singing a different tune.
 
I think they matter as far as optics go. I get what OP is saying though 100%. We started a 3rd string qb. We had half our OLine opt out. We had our 2 safeties opt out. We had our best DLineman opt out. Young portaled out. That’s a lot of key components we were missing.

I think yesterday was just to see what holes we need filled the most. Pause.

Looks like we need some DBs, some interior OL, a stud WR, and a QB. If y’all were looking for a dominant performance from a team of backups, I don’t know what to tell you…
 
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Dgixxer252525 said:
I think they matter as far as optics go. I get what OP is saying though 100%. We started a 3rd string qb. We had half our OLine opt out. We had our 2 safeties opt out. We had our best DLineman opt out. Young portaled out. That’s a lot of key components we were missing.

I think yesterday was just to see what holes we need filled the most. Pause.

Looks like we need some DBs, some interior OL, a stud WR, and a QB. If y’all were looking for a dominant performance from a team of backups, I don’t know what to tell you…
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I think most would have been pleased with not being physically dominated by a 6-6 Rutgers team. We looked like we didnt belong and people are using it's a bowl game as the reason. Beyond pathetic.
 
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Fifteen extra practices help every player that will be on the team the following season and a little extra revenue is always nice. However, opt outs change the team tremendously. Other than the playoffs, bowl games are very often not representative of the team that played in the regular season. The more opt outs you have, the more meaningless it seems to appear.
 
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Y'all gotta stop making excuses for the **** product.

Let me tell you who cares about bowl games, Mario Cristobal. I guarantee if he'd won that game, he'd be parading around about it and how it is a stepping stone to next season. That game mattered to him and like he always does, he folded.
 
Mr. Dynasty1 said:
Y'all gotta stop making excuses for the **** product.

Let me tell you who cares about bowl games, Mario Cristobal. I guarantee if he'd won that game, he'd be parading around about it and how it is a stepping stone to next season. That game mattered to him and like he always does, he folded.
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The 2016 Russell Athletic Bowl must have been the only bowl game that mattered the last decade.
 
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