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SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE
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Pirate Notebook No. 293
Monday, January 8, 2007
By Denny O'Brien |
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Status quo for
bowl system best for ECU
By Denny O'Brien
©2007 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
The PapaJohns.com Bowl produced a
television rating of 1.4 according to Nielsen, which is the equivalent of
1.53 million homes. That was good for last among all ESPN-owned bowls, but
still not bad for an inaugural postseason game.
Care to guess what those numbers would have
been if tonight's Bowl Championship Series title game was the culmination of
a Division I-A playoff?
The short answer to that hypothetical
question is worse. Much worse. And if it didn't occur during the first year
of a playoff, you can bet Birmingham's Pizza Bowl would eventually draw a
0.0 TV rating.
Zilch!
That's because it will eventually die off
if the BCS decision makers ever adopt plans to launch an eight or 16-team
playoff. So would several other bowls involving schools from leagues that
currently don't receive automatic bids to the BCS.
The damaging result in that scenario is the
probability that schools like East Carolina and Southern Mississippi will
spend the holidays at home unless their regular seasons end with perfection
or close to it.
Just why many bowls wouldn't survive in a
playoff scenario is simple. In Birmingham's case, Papa John pulls all of his
pepperonis and slaps them all over the BCS's exclusive little postseason
tournament.
And we've seen how bowls can't survive
without a title sponsor.
The bowls that would survive are the ones
that have existed since before the Kennedy Administration and have
agreements with BCS leagues. Even then you're likely to see the level of
interest from fans and sponsors plummet in what would quickly become college
football's version of the NIT.
It wouldn't take long for bowls to make the
transition from being largely irrelevant to becoming an all-out insult to
many programs. Just ask Dave Odom.
While it no doubt has its flaws, the
benefits of a bowl system far outweigh the pitfalls for ECU. Even in a
structure that is dominated by BCS money, a plethora of bowls is much better
for the Pirates than a playoff in the current climate.
That's because bowls at least give East
Carolina a chance to reach the postseason on a yearly basis. And given what
Pirates coach Skip Holtz has accomplished in just two seasons, there is no
reason that ECU's expectation shouldn't be an annual bowl berth.
The same can't be said about a playoff.
Because the NCAA has and always will take a
hands-off approach to the Division I-A postseason, any playoff that is
launched will be done so unfairly. The same cast of characters that controls
the criteria for BCS bids will do so for a playoff as well.
In a best-case scenario, only one school
from a non-BCS league makes the dance. Meanwhile the rest of the bunch hits
the recruiting trail and bides its time until spring drills.
No trip to reward players for a seven or
eight-win season. No bowl banner or gear to help sell the program. No
television exposure. No extra practices to develop personnel.
Makes tonight's mythical national
championship sound not so bad.
Over-bowled solution
Still stewing over the idea that college
football has too many bowls? Well here's a solution that you might find
appealing:
Don't watch them. It's called the power of
choice.
Seriously, I've never understood the angst
of many fans who constantly complain about an oversized, overdrawn bowl
schedule. Hey, nobody is forcing you to watch Troy and Rice get after it in
the New Orleans Bowl.
In fact, if the NCAA wants to approve more
bowls, I'm for it. As long as the town and sponsors will support it, I'm
sure someone with a .500 or better record will attend it.
The beauty is, I don't have to watch it.
But I willingly do.
Quick fix
If Fox is seriously interested in improving
the BCS, it should sell the television rights back to ABC. And quick.
While the BCS games, for the most part,
have been competitive and entertaining, Fox's coverage of them has been
anything but. Much of that can be attributed to the sub-par roster of
talking heads that populates the booth and roams the sidelines.
Instead of the familiar sounds of Keith
Jackson and Brent Musburger, we've been treated to Marv Albert's boy and
Matt Vasgersomething. And if they think adding Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long
spiffs up a broadcast, Fox execs should chain themselves in front of the
tube and watch.
A relative newbie to the college gridiron —
save for the Cotton Bowl — Fox should consider one of two options if it is
serious about making its BCS coverage a hit. Either make a season-long
commitment to college football and hire full-time broadcasters or put Joe
Buck and Troy Aikman in the booth.
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O'Brien's Bonesville archives.
02/23/2007 02:05:24 AM |
