How the “Too Many Bowl Games” Refrain Has a Long History in College Athletics & Higher Education Circles -- and Continues to Thrive in 2021
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How the “Too Many Bowl Games” Refrain Has a Long History in College Athletics & Higher Education Circles -- and Continues to Thrive in 2021
Executive Summary
Going back to the 1920s, college athletics administrators and coaches expressed concerns with the number, timing, and location of Bowl Games
The Carnegie Report in 1929 criticized Big Ten Schools for amplifying the importance of college football
The emergence of ESPN and other sports-friendly tv networks coinciding with strong college football viewership sustain the demand for college football bowl-game TV inventory
NCAA rules permit FBS teams to participate in 12 regular-season games while also exempting from this limit certain types of contests including bowl games
NCAA defines a “deserving team” for bowl purposes, a designation which could include a .500 team
NCAA recently approved a blanket waiver to accommodate additional FBS teams seeking bowl-eligibility who otherwise don’t meet the “deserving team” criteria.
The history of people believing there are too many bowl games almost matches the history of bowl games themselves. Bowl games have been in existence for over a century, with the Rose Bowl beginning in 1902 and other landmark bowls like Sugar, Orange and Cotton having histories exceeding 80-plus years.
“The commercial exploiting of any form of college athletics through intersectional contests and championships is reprehensible,” wrote the authors of the Carnegie report, a 1929 academic assessment of college sports. “Such interests as are involved in the California Tournaments of Roses can work only injury to college athletics. [...] The dangers to individual athletes that national, intersectional, or regional competitions breed arise from the exploiting of teams to increase gate receipts and the undue publicity lavished upon them.”
By the late 1940s, as the Tampa Tribune reported, even college coaches were pushing back on the volume of bowl games:
University of Maine Head Coach Tad Weiman served as President of the American Football Coaches Association and that group, in 1949, “…argued that colleges were merely building profits for commercial enterprises, in some of the bowls.” At the time, “unofficial sources” said the NCAA might limit the number of bowl games or even consider banning all bowls. How times have changed.
By the 1970s, the debate on bowl-gluttony continued including from the bowl representatives. Gator Bowl Executive Director George Olson said, “Yes, there are too many bowls. But there would even be more if all the bowls, ours included, had not got together a few years ago and told the NCAA to be more selective in allowing new ones. Before they put in a moratorium, if somebody applied, they were allowed to have it. The criticism stopped after that until this past year when things sort of backfired.”
Although the NCAA doesn’t control bowl games, it does govern football playing season rules including the types of games that Division I FBS teams may play in each year including in the post-season. NCAA bylaws set the criteria by which a team may participate in a post-season game including bowl games. The NCAA “Contest Status” bylaw reads as follows:
“A (bowl game) contest shall serve the purpose of providing a national contest between deserving teams. A 'deserving team' shall be defined as one that has won a number of games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents that is equal to or greater than the number of its overall losses. Tie games do not count in determining a team's won-lost record. Further, if forfeiture of a regular-season football victory is required by the Committee on Infractions, Independent Resolution Panel or a conference, or is self-imposed by an institution as a result of a violation of NCAA rules, neither of the competing institutions may count that contest in satisfying the definition of a 'deserving team.'"
Division I playing season rules permit 12 regular season football contests while exempting certain contests (e.g., conference championship games; non-conference games at Hawaii; bowl games) from the 12-game limit. Doing the implied math, a 6-6 FBS team would be considered a “deserving team” and fill one of the many bowl spots.
From this December 17 through January 10, 44 different bowl games will have been played including the college football semi-final games and championship game. Plotting the bowl game history from the past 40+ years, we see a hockey-stick upward trend line in the number of bowl games. In 1980, there were 15 bowl games, by 1985 there were 18 bowl games, and by 2000 there were 25 bowl games.
Fast forward to 2021, with so many bowl game slots to fill; the NCAA, at the behest of the Division I Football Oversight Committee, recently approved the following blanket waiver of NCAA Division I Bylaw 18.7.2.1 in the event that an insufficient number of institutions could meet the definition of a "deserving team" to participate in postseason bowl games during the 2021-22 season.
Per the waiver press release, an institution that meets a condition set forth below shall be eligible to participate as an alternate in a bowl game provided all available deserving teams have been selected.
The terms of participation in the postseason bowl game applicable to the originally contracted conference participant shall be the same for the alternate. All institutions that meet the first condition below must be selected before an institution that meets the second condition may be selected and so forth in descending order:
An institution that would have met the exception in Bylaw 18.7.2.1.1 but for the fact that one victory was against a Football Championship Subdivision opponent that had not averaged 90% of the permissible maximum number of grants-in-aid per year in football during a rolling two-year period and the institution's waiver request, per Bylaw 18.7.2.3, was denied.
An institution that participated in 13 regular-season contests and finished the season with a record of six wins that count toward meeting the definition of a "deserving team" and seven losses.
An institution that is in its final year of reclassification from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision and meets the definition of a "deserving team" pursuant to Bylaw 18.7.2.1 or the exception in Bylaw 18.7.2.1.1.
An institution that finished its season with a minimum of five wins that count toward meeting the definition of a "deserving team" and a maximum of seven losses but achieved a multiyear academic progress rate (APR) that permits postseason participation. Alternates identified pursuant to this condition shall be identified as eligible in descending order based on the institutions' multiyear APRs. If multiple institutions achieved the same multiyear rate, the institution with the highest single-year APR, beginning with the most recent reporting year and continuing until a higher rate is found, shall be identified as eligible first. An institution that is identified as an alternate must declare whether it will participate in a bowl game. An alternate institution that declares an intention to participate shall select an available bowl game in which to participate.
In approving the blanket waiver, NCAA staff noted the blanket waiver is only applicable for the 2021-22 season; and the Division I Football Oversight Committee will examine data from the 2021-22 postseason and consider recommending a legislative change during the 2022-23 legislative cycle.
Interestingly, the last criteria includes emphasis on an FBS team’s APR achieved to help prioritize otherwise equal candidates.
This blanket waiver to green-light teams with losing records to play in bowl games isn’t novel. The NCAA has approved a semblance of postseason bowl waivers in recent years so teams not meeting the “deserving team” criteria could be deemed eligible to participate in a bowl game.
These legislative accommodations will ensure bowl games are sprinkled through the winter break and well in to the New Year for college football fans to enjoy.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
