Congrats, You've Been Invited to the Beef 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg Bowl

It doesn't matter what side of the fence you fall on, pro BCS or longing for the NCAA FBS to go to a playoff system, you can't argue that the point of college gameday is to represent your school and your conference come bowl season.  Whether you're Oregon, Auburn or TCU fighting for a bid for the National Championship; or a school like Northern Illinois trying to earn your conferences top bid, bowl season is a reward for giving your all throughout the regular season, well, at least it used to be.

Over the past two decades, the college bowl system has fallen victim to a constantly growing bottom line, a sponsorship buzzsaw.  Fans crave as much football as they can get and the NCAA is quick to oblige, creating a new bowl game any time there is a sponsor that is a big enough player waiting in the wings.  As it stands right now there are 35 bowl games, 70 teams that have the honor of playing December or January football.

But how much of an honor is it to make a bowl game when nearly 60 percent of the 119 teams playing receive an invitation? 

Back when I first became enamored with bowl season, it was necessary to win more games than you lost in order to become bowl eligible.  As the amount of Bowl games expanded, the requirements loosened as well.  It became a matter of simply having a .500 record to earn an invite.  Further expansion meant the NCAA would allow teams to begin counting games against non-FBS opponents towards your eligibility.

After the 2009 season ended, there were only 71 teams that were eligible to participate in 34 bowl games.  In other words, only 3 teams that earned a record of .500 or better did not get invited to a bowl game, one of which was Notre Dame who opted not to play in a bowl game at all. 

Now that the TicketCity Bowl is in the fold, the NCAA may actually have to allow a team with a losing record to play in a bowl game for only the fourth time ever, at least the previous 3 were because of mandatory tie-ins.  Funny to think that as little as 20 years ago, there were only 19 bowl games.  Now if this dilution of talent and competition isn't enough of a cause for concern, this same sponsorship expansion is ripping the soul from Bowl season as well.

Every Jan. 1, the Big Ten and SEC send their No. 2 teams to Orlando to compete in what used to be the Citrus Bowl.  Then Capital One stepped in as its most recent sponsor, shortly thereafter electing to remove the title of Citrus Bowl and call it the Capital One Bowl.  Even smaller bowls like the Motor City Bowl celebrate it's 10th year in existence by changing its name to the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.

There is no need for this to happen. The importance of a bowl game should be placed on the teams involved and the traditions they are continuing.  Go back to the days where the bowl itself takes center stage and not the company sponsoring it. Let the fans watch the Tangerine Bowl and not the Champs Sports Bowl.

If these sponsor's feel the need to be present in the name of the bowl game, one simple suggestion: The bowl game should be in front of the sponsor - like the Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio.  We may never be able to return to the competition level of yester year, but at least we can give the bowl system its integrity back.

Checking In on the Ole' Soap Box

If you have been in the Bleachers at all this college football season, it's safe to say that you've noticed I have a particular topic I'm fairly passionate about.  I have gotten up on the soap box and gone to bat more than a couple times for the Boise State football program, follow me on twitter if you want to see the entire Guiding Lights routine (@ToTheBleachers).

Now I know I've been away for a little bit and my blog has suffered, as has my ability to watch football on the weekends, so I figured I'd go ahead and check in on my favorite topic as sort of a easing back into the whole blogging thing.

In Idaho, the sky is falling and everything has gone to hell at Smurf Village.  The Boise State Broncos started the year ranked Number 3 in the AP Top 25 college football poll.  Since then, they have done nothing but been stellar.  Prior to today's match up with Hawaii, the Broncos boast a perfect 7-0 record and have climbed to the 2nd spot in the AP poll.

Led by Quarterback Kellen Moore, who has the nations best QB Rating at 188.3, the Bronco offense finds itself in the top 5 rankings for both Yards and Points per Game.  Boise State's average margin of victory in its 7 games this year, a whopping 36.3 points, a number that is limited by a 3 point season opening victory against then number 10 Va Tech.

The Bronco defensive unit has been even more impressive.  Led by a monstrous Defensive Line that has racked up a robust 24.0 sacks, the D has pitched two shut outs and held a third team to under 10 points.  In games against teams not named Va Tech and Oregon State, Boise is only allowing 8 points a game.

Despite these impressive numbers, the Broncos find themselves actually going in reverse when it comes to the BCS rankings.  When the end all be all here's your champion poll was released, Boise debuted at number 3 behind Oregon and Oklahoma.  The following Saturday, Boomer Sooner comes up short losing to Mizzou.  Thanks to a Tuesday night match-up with Louisiana Tech the Bronco's spent that Saturday watching Auburn earn an impressive win against LSU instead of playing.  Coincidentally, a day later, the Broncos watched the War Eagle leap frog Boise in the BCS.

The Smurf Turf was rocking that Tuesday as Kellen Moore throws for two touchdowns and actually catches a third en route to a 49-20 victory.  That mid week game, however, meant that Boise would again be dormant on college football Saturday.  Now, a sane man would not expect that a home victory over a 3-5 team would be enough for Boise to knock either Oregon or Auburn down a peg, but that same sane man wouldn't expect TCU's 48-6 victory over a 1 win UNLV team to be enough for the Horned Frogs to over take Boise either.

Unfortunately for the fans in Idaho, there's absolutely nothing the Broncos can do.  The debate throughout the preseason was can Boise do enough to earn a spot in final two.  There were a couple of things that needed to happen in order for Chris Peterson's team to get a Championship Bid.  First and foremost, win all the time and win big, check.  Then you'll need a little help along the way, in other words, someone has to beat Alabama or Ohio State.  Double check there, both South Carolina and Wisconsin gave Boise an early Christmas present in a pair of October wins.

Even though all of this has happened, Boise still finds itself on the outside looking in.  It's not the Bronco's fault that the Hokies laid an egg against James Madison and is only ranked 20th in the nation.  Boise also wasn't on the field two weeks ago when Oregon State lost in double over-time to Washington, a game they have yet to recover from in the rankings.

And while it appears the fates of two other teams is damning the Broncos, the Horned Frogs seemed to be unphased by it.  It's understood and agreed upon that after today, TCU will have played an opponent much better than Boise has.  But the simple fact of the matter remains, to date, the Broncos have played a schedule that is more difficult than the Horned Frogs.  TCU's biggest win of the year was a 9 point win against Oregon State, the same Beaver squad that Boise beat by 13 points two weeks later.

It's not even an issue anymore as to whether or not the pollsters want a non automatic qualifier in the championship game.  If there's one thing the BCS rankings have shown this year, it's that one big game makes all the difference.  In other words, should TCU beat Utah today, the Frog's will most certainly find themselves ranked in one of the top two spots.  Even more frustrating for Boise fans, should Utah beat TCU, Utah will probably find themselves moving into TCU's potentially vacant spot, if not the Number 2 spot in the BCS.

As we enter the final quarter of the college football season we're exactly where we started at.  If Boise has any shot of making the Championship, they need to win out and win big as well as finding a little help along the way.  About the best thing that can happen for the Broncos is for TCU to win tonight.  The Horned Frogs will have reached the apex of their BCS ranking and will require total destruction of San Diego State and New Mexico to maintain that ranking.

One could argue that a Utah win would do more for the Broncos, but they don't realize that the Utes still have three games, two of which against Notre Dame and BYU.  And if there's one thing thing the media likes to do, it's pay tribute to the tradition of big named schools, no matter how bad they are.

Cough, Cough, Notre Dame, Cough, Michigan, Cough, Cough

Boise will also need both Va Tech and Oregon State to win out.  The Hokies would find themselves ending up around number 15 in that scenario but Oregon State would be the key.  The Beavers final two games of the year are against Stanford and the Civil War against Oregon.  Consecutive wins against highly ranked teams will surely boost the Beaver's credibility, and, in turn, boost Boise's credibility, especially in the computer polls.

After all, the computers are the reason Boise is even in this position to begin with.  Wait a minute, maybe Skynet really does exist.