2011 Bowl Season Lineup

The Sugar Bowl is the rotator for the national title game this year. All 35 bowls, including the five BCS ones, will be dispersed as follows, all times Eastern:

Sat. December 17

New Mexico Bowl (2:00 pm) — MWC vs. Pac-12
uDrove Humanitarian Bowl (5:30 pm) — MAC vs. WAC
R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (9:00 pm) — Sun Belt vs. C-USA

Tues. December 20
Beef O’Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg (8:00 pm) — Big East vs. C-USA

Wed. December 21
San Diego Co. Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl (8:00 pm) — MWC vs. WAC

Thurs. December 22
MAACO Bowl Las Vegas (8:00 pm) — MWC vs. Pac-12

Sat. December 24
Sheraton Hawii Bowl (8:00 pm) — WAC vs. C-USA

Mon. December 26
Advocare V100 Independence Bowl (5:00 pm) — ACC vs. MWC

Tues. December 27
Little Ceasar’s Pizza Bowl (4:30 pm) — Big Ten vs. MAC
Belk Bowl (8:00 pm) — ACC vs. Big East

Wed. December 28
Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman (4:30 pm) — ACC vs. Navy (if eligible)
Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl (8:00 pm) — Big 12 vs. Pac-12

Thurs. December 29
Champs Sports Bowl (5:30 pm) — ACC vs. Big East
Valero Alamo Bowl (9:00 pm) — Big 12 vs. Pac-12

Fri. December 30
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (noon) — C-USA vs. BYU (if eligible)
New Era Pinstripe Bowl (3:20 pm) — Big 12 vs. Big East
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl (6:40 pm) — ACC vs. SEC
Insight Bowl (10:00 pm) — Big 12 vs. Big Ten

Sat. December 31
Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas (noon) — Big Ten vs. Big 12
Hyundai Sun Bowl (2:00 pm) — ACC vs. Pac-12
AutoZone Liberty Bowl (3:30 pm) — C-USA vs. SEC
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (3:30 pm) — Pac-12 vs. Army (if eligible)
Chick-fil-A Bowl (7:30 pm) — ACC vs. SEC

Mon. January 2
Ticket City Bowl (noon) — Big Ten vs. C-USA
Capital One Bowl (1:00 pm) — Big Ten vs. SEC
Gator Bowl (1:00 pm) — Big Ten vs. SEC
Outback Bowl (1:00 pm) — Big Ten vs. SEC
Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO (5:00 pm) — Big Ten vs. Pac-12

Tues. January 3
Allstate Sugar Bowl (8:30 pm) — SEC Champion vs. BCS

Wed. January 4
Discover Orange Bowl (8:00 pm) — ACC Champion vs. BCS

Thurs. January 5
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (8:30 pm) — Big 12 Champion vs. BCS

Fri. January 6
AT&T Cotton Bowl (8:00 pm) — Big 12 vs. SEC

Sat. January 7
BBVA Compass Bowl (1:00 pm) — Big East vs. SEC

Mon. January 9
Allstate BCS National Championship Game (8:30 pm) — BCS No.1 vs. BCS No. 2

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NCAA Looking to Get a Handle on Bowl Games

With the anticipation of the draft last week, one super-big story that seemed lost in the shuffle was the actions that the NCAA finally seems to be taking to reign in control over the bowl games. It was announced that college football's governing body would place a three-year moratorium on new bowl games and would look at revamping the certification process of all bowls. What could have motivated the mouse to roar is anyone's guess, but the best bets for an impetus with them are usually money and congressional oversight.

This issue was moved to the forefront of the agenda after the trouble with the Fiesta Bowl, which is in danger of losing it's status as a BCS bowl after it's president resigned in March. Improper expenses and questionable write-offs were found to have been charged to the bowl foundation, including reimbursement for employees' political campaign contributions. How this bowl (or any other one for that matter) keeps it's 501(3)(c) tax-exempt status is way beyond my finance degree knowledge and understanding.

That a bowl game is run like a local fiefdom should be no surprise to anyone, but these allegations are serious and could possibly result in criminal charges. I feel that the NCAA is right to examine the Fiesta Bowl, even if there does seem to be a glaring conflict of interest with the fact that some of the NCAA decision makers have been treated to various events by Fiesta Bowl officials. Glendale may be north of the border, but things like this reek of banana republic shenanigans. I suspect just a scare job from the NCAA, with no real consequences.

If it was up to some Auburn fans, leaving tumbleweeds blowing through Glendale would be a pretty simple choice, given the spartan hospitality found at the BCS title game back in January. Already, a movement is afoot to replace the Fiesta on the BCS roles with the Cotton Bowl. That is a change I think I could get behind and besides, who's going to bet against Jerry Jones, college football's closest thing to Donald Trump? If the Cotton Bowl did supplant the Fiesta, you'd still have two BCS Bowls east of the Mississippi and two west of it. The only loser in that equation would actually be Mississippi, Ole Miss, who would no longer get the Cotton Bowl bone thrown at them once a decade or so.

But while the Fiesta holds on, perhaps the biggest news to come out of all this is the moratorium on new bowl games for at least three years. What took you so long, NCAA? You got bowl games multiplying like Appalachian share-cropper families the past decade or so and these country cousins are about as radiant. I laid it out at the beginning of the year what you should do to reign in this infestation of johnny-come-lately bowl games so I recommend that link as required reading before they start. Crappy bowl games are diluting our college football product nationally and that's a fact before you even start diving into all the questionable financial practices and patronizing you're likely to find with some.

And what exactly is this bowl re-certification revamping the NCAA is supposed to be doing? Details are scarce, but already, all 35 bowls except for three have been granted certification and had their licenses renewed through the 2013 season. Only the Fiesta, the Insight Bowl (which also is played in Glendale) and the TicketCity Bowl (played in Dallas at JerryWorld) are still pending. They should know their fate within a month.

Why the NCAA is attempting to re-assert some measure of control over one of it's most valuable assets is still a mystery. While they run the post-season in all it's other sports, including lower division football, the NCAA just sets up a few guidelines and then lets the bows run themselves--a $270 million venture that many are starting to view as the wild west. Maybe the want control in an attempt to begin the implementation of a playoff, maybe they just want a cut of the action. If they know what's good for the sport, they'll start to throw some of these dirtbag bowls out on their ears as soon as possible by implementing some minimum standards other than TV contracts. We'll see.

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Quick Easy Steps to Revamp the Bowl Season

What could make the impossibly long interval for the BCS title game a little easier to endure would be some entertaining bowl games on the slate. In case you didn't catch the riveting Humanitarian or New Mexico Bowls--never mind. I think TBS's 24-hour A Christmas Story marathon was more entertaining. I'd rather stick my tongue on a frozen pole than watch most of these match ups. The bowl system needs a total reworking from top to bottom because it's becoming a mockery of itself and is seriously diluting the product. Bowls have ceased being extravagant post season rewards for deserving teams and have morphed into something resembling pre-packaged sub-prime mortgages sold to Fannie Mae, or in most cases, to ESPN. And all the foreclosures are about to tank the whole neighborhood.

I've got a few ideas about how to rework the bowl system and contrary to my statements above, it doesn't necessarily begin with contraction. Bowls need to be basically split into two groups--one for mid-major teams and one for BCS schools, with little cross contamination, if any. Yes, I know, it sounds exclusionary, but the same current 'rules' will apply with deserving non-AQ teams who rank high in the BCS polls getting their due and playing in the big four BCS bowls. I'm talking about The Little Caeser's Pizza Bowl, which featured Florida International and Toledo, or the upcoming GMAC Bowlwith Middle Tennessee State and Miami of Ohio. All enlist mid-major teams. Why not keep it that way until a bowl can move it on up? And by the way, GMAC Bowl, do you really think that playing your sawed-off bowl this Thursday will garner more viewers than if it were the week before Christmas? Why does ESPN let them get away with scheduling it so late? There should definitely be a scheduling hierarchy that follows the prestige of the bowl itself, dollar for dollar, day for day.

You want your bowl affirmative action? Then make the new bowl kids on the block and the ones who change names every year service mid-major teams exclusively. They're the teams who can have great seasons but may never crack the BCS top 50. Let them have their just desserts and choose to go to these games if they want to and if they can afford to. Travelling is expensive and hard for some of these teams, hence the propensity for taking marginal BCS teams. If that's the case, then maybe we should just cut the number of bowl games. But we should try it and have roughly half of the bowls be off limits to BCS teams. I'm tired of these major programs with a .500 record getting into bowl games. They should be held to a higher standard and should just sit home rather than phoning in a half-ass result, like Georgia did with UCF on Friday.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a capitalist and if the networks, the prime enablers of these crappy bowl games, can make a profit, then I understand what they're doing, but there is still the law of unintended consequences. There's little doubt that many of the local insider bowl organizers make plenty of loot by putting on their unsold-out events, and get major  press for themselves, but that's another story. The question is should we be allowing lucrative television contracts and these puny bowl fiefdoms to dilute our college football product with unattractive match-ups and empty stadiums just for the sake of a few dollars and an ego boost? The cameras during these games rarely show crowd shots in an attempt to hide all the empty seats, but they're still visible if you know when to look. What if they threw a bowl game and nobody came? Does a bowl game being played in the woods with nobody around make a sound? Only ESPN knows for sure.

Thirty-four bowls plus the BCS title game. Does 60% of FBS teams really deserve to go to a bowl game? And if so, haven't we just seriously diminished the very meaning of the term bowl game in this brave new everybody wins, yaysociety of ours? So, for the sake of sanity, here is my list of quick, simple changes that need to be made to the bowl process STAT, in order to restore some sense of prestige and honor to this storied portion of our sport before we commercialize it to death.

Establish a name and stick to it: Chose a specific name for your bowl and then choose your sponsor. They can't be the same. If you were always called the Tangerine bowl, or you want to call yourself the Las Vegas Bowl, then that's what you are. That way, it's easier for fans to keep track of you years down the road even when your sponsorships are going to the highest bidder every year. "Oh, the 2007  Peach Bowl. I remember that. Auburn and Clemson went into overtime." Your sponsor can change, and who cares if no fan can remember who it was years down the road. Yea, it'll be less money for the organizers, but we're pimping out our sport to the highest bidder as it is. The sponsors get enough attention by not having to name the entire bowl after themselves. Right now, we're lucky that the bowls are just named for the company itself and not specific products: The Little Caesers Cheesy Bread and Wings Combo Pizza Bowl. TheGeico Save Half Your Income By Switching to Us Bowl. The Glad Quart-Size Zippable Sandwich Bag Bowl. Don't tell me it's not coming. Wait until they require coaches to mention the sponsor every third sentence. We'll start to look like NASCAR before you know it.

Raise the minimum win eligibility requirement to 8: We had the 6-drink GAME minimum back when we only played a 10-game season. With a 12-game season currently the norm, (13 if you play Hawaii in Okinawa or play in a conference championship game) requiring a team to have only won two thirds of their games to get a end of season cookie is about the least we can do--literally. It just is such a buzz-kill to have teams go to a bowl, lose, and finish with a losing record. It instantly makes you wonder why they were in a bowl in the first place. Certainly Georgia isn't the only bowl team the past few years to finish 6-7, but what would be so wrong at making them the last? We just have to eliminate this mentality of bowl entitlement in our sport. It cheapens what the real good teams accomplish.

Minimum ticket sales: Want to start a new bowl or keep your existing one? You must demonstrate the ability to sell a minimum number of annual season tickets to locals, say 25%, and then sell out at least two thirds of the remaining seats for a pre-determined interval, say 5 years. I'm tired of television rights being the life support that keeps these crappy games breathing. If a bowl game is such a cool thing for your community, then people other than fans of the two schools should support it. If they don't, then stick to other things that sell tickets like gun shows, circuses and Dragon/Fantasy Con.

TV Ratings: Okay, I plead ignorance of the ratings of most of these smaller bowl games. Perhaps I need my own Fanblogs intern to do basic research for me. Any volunteers? Naturally, with TV money being the sole existence of most of these bowls, maybe we should examine which bowls attract a large enough TV audience and axe those that don't perform well over a certain time period, regardless of what the networks value them at. I admit, I'm torn about cutting a network off  if they're making a profit off of something, but the NCAA must safeguard it's brand here. To do otherwise, I feel, is devaluing and destroying the sport.

Git-R-Done: The regular season is basically wrapped up even with the conference championship games after the first week in December, (with the exception of Army-Navy, who like to have a whole weekend to themselves, which is permissible) so why not start to get these bowl games knocked out in quick order? You can't blame academics, as most students are out for break around the same time. The only general rule is don't interfere with the NFL, which isn't a good idea as that turf war has pretty solid distinctions set in stone. Since everybody takes so much time off in December, the chances of them catching the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl on a Tuesday night are pretty good.

The heirarchy of bowl games should dictate who has to be completed by which date certain. The lower tier have to be wrapped up by a few days before New Year's, the middle tier has to be completed by January 1st, and the four BCS bowls have to be within 2 days of January1 st unless it falls on a Sunday. Then the BCS title game comes one day after the last BCS Bowl game, again unless there's a conflict. Under that system, we'd have knocked out the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, and Rose by this past Saturday or last night, and have Auburn and Oregon tonight. Waiting another week makes no sense and I believe makes casual fans lose interest in the title game.

Next step: getting someone to appoint me College Football Czar.

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Fanblogs Open/Holiday Edition /Meaningless Bowl Complaint Thread

Nothing says 'holiday' like nail-biting bowl games like the Humanitarian Bowl or last night's Beef 'O Brady's Bowl. Have you guys seen the crowds in some of these games? Neither have I, because apparently no one is attending.

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