What’s the way forward for bowl video games? Bowl Season director talks influence of CFP, opt-outs and extra

College soccer’s 41-game bowl schedule kicked off Dec. 13 with Washington beating Mountain West champion Boise State 38-10 on the LA Bowl. The sport featured two extensively recognized applications at SoFi Stadium, and Nielsen rankings knowledge confirmed 4.1 million viewers tuned in.

But the six-day turnaround from choice to kickoff led to an introduced crowd of 23,269. The LA Bowl is prone to expire after 4 video games, which was first reported by On3’s Brett McMurphy. And the swirl of teaching information, participant motion, groups declining bowl invites and potential College Football Playoff growth discussions dwarfed any dialogue concerning the sport’s consequence or any non-CFP consequence.

The bowls are in a precarious place in at the moment’s school soccer. The CFP operates by them within the quarterfinals and semifinals, however the recognition of first-round on-campus matchups and potential CFP growth to 16 groups, mixed with participant and workforce opt-outs, might result in an extra devaluation. But Bowl Season govt director Nick Carparelli sees coexistence between the bowls and a rising event by a transition period.

“We certainly have our issues that need to be resolved, but there’s probably not one issue that college athletics faces in general that doesn’t need to be reevaluated,” Carparelli stated. “At this point in time, we’re going through a major transition in the sport, and we’re excited to talk to our conference partners once bowl season’s over to work with them to decide, what does bowl season need to look like in the future?”

Carparelli spoke with The Athletic on quite a lot of bowl-related subjects because the postseason takes root all through vacation week. The first pertains to how the bowls can survive alongside CFP growth.

When the four-team College Football Playoff started in 2014, the game’s hierarchy decided that 12 groups would comprise the upper-level New Year’s Six bowls. Then, when the CFP included all 12 groups, these six bowl video games operated within the quarterfinals or semifinals, which modified little within the exterior bowl system. However, extra growth takes away 4 groups from the higher tier of non-CFP bowls. How a lot will that detract from bowl video games?

I feel it’s inevitable that it goes to 16 — and I feel it needs to be — however let’s get to a quantity that is smart and stick to that for a time period and actually consider how that works for faculty soccer. I feel something past 16 appears a bit of far-fetched to most individuals. Sixteen goes to require each workforce who needs to win a championship to win 4 video games. Even the NFL doesn’t play greater than 4 postseason video games. So, I feel 16 is the place we in all probability will find yourself, and the bowl system will alter simply advantageous.

There are nonetheless greater than 16 groups in any given season which have earned the best to play within the postseason and to have a good time a profitable season. Because let’s not overlook, the definition of success could be very totally different, relying on the soccer program.

After it was snubbed for a CFP spot, Notre Dame selected to not compete in a bowl sport. Kansas State and Iowa State opted out after dropping their head coaches and cited gamers’ accidents as a serious concern. The bowl system already wanted two transitional groups (Missouri State and Delaware) to fill all 82 bowl slots, then the dropouts pressured a mad scramble among the many bowls to land three 5-7 groups. In the present local weather, are there too many bowl video games?

The bowl system is a market-driven system. Through the 100 years of bowl video games, nobody has ever dictated what number of bowl video games there are. They’ve been strictly a perform of host communities that wish to host them and groups that wish to take part.

If at any time limit, the establishments resolve as a lot as we love the bowl system, we could wish to take part at a special stage, then the bowl system will alter accordingly. But nobody’s able to say what the quantity is, or to make any of these choices. The market will dictate it.

Should the ultimate variety of bowl video games alter annually primarily based on curiosity and availability? In 2021, a separate bowl sport was arrange in Frisco, Texas, to make sure each bowl-eligible workforce obtained a postseason vacation spot. 

I feel it will possibly, for certain. We’ve confirmed that may be the case. The drawback is we go into every season guessing what number of bowl-eligible groups there are and what number of groups need a postseason alternative. You get to the top of the yr, and the chances are that the numbers aren’t going to match up precisely. I feel that’ll be one of many dialogue subjects that we’ve with the conferences within the offseason. How can we accommodate all of the groups that wish to take part within the postseason with out having to emphasize over the groups that don’t?

Bowl contracts expire after this cycle and the game has modified extra in that six-year stretch than at every other in school athletics historical past. There was a pandemic on the entrance finish, sweeping adjustments permitting athletes to obtain fee for companies, a College Football Playoff that tripled in dimension and 45 FBS convention affiliation adjustments.

The bowls have stayed in place because the world has modified. Former Pac-12 groups within the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC stay underneath that league’s contract. Texas and Oklahoma at the moment are a part of the SEC’s alignment, which adjustments what groups the Big 12 can present to its bowl companions. What can the bowl system put together to do for the 2026-27 cycle, or does all the things nonetheless hinge upon the CFP format?

Their conversations about school soccer’s postseason so far has strictly revolved across the College Football Playoff. They have to make that call first, after which they’ll transfer on to the remainder of the bowl system. And we’re excited for that chance to speak to them about it.

Even although no choices have been made, conversations have been ongoing between bowl video games and their present convention companions, in addition to some potential future convention companions. If the commissioners are to make a long-term choice on the CFP, then I feel each the conferences and the bowl video games want to put long-term partnerships in place. But even at this late date, lower than a yr away from the 2026 bowl season, there’s nonetheless too many unknowns to make any definitive choices.

All the bowl video games that had a partnership with the previous Pac-12 have needed to juggle rather a lot the final couple of years, and I’m certain they want to be out from underneath that association as quickly as potential.

Despite all the chaos and public discourse over bowl video games, there’s nonetheless an curiosity. Last yr, 9 bowl video games picked up greater than 4 million viewers, with BYU-Colorado hitting eight million within the Alamo Bowl, Iowa State-Miami selecting up 6.79 million for the Pop-Tarts Bowl and Michigan-Alabama reaching 6.55 million within the ReliaQuest Bowl. Which bowls do you assume have an opportunity to garner comparable public curiosity?

I feel the ReliaQuest Bowl (Vanderbilt-Iowa), for certain, goes to get plenty of eyeballs. You have two actually motivated groups which have had profitable seasons, although they haven’t made the Playoff. And two groups that love taking part in soccer, which is one thing that will get misplaced in all of this, the chance to play yet another sport collectively as teammates is de facto worthwhile to these two groups.

The Pinstripe Bowl is an intriguing matchup. You have Clemson towards Penn State, two groups that have been within the preseason high 10 that lots of people thought would possibly meet within the Playoff that didn’t work out.