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.