🏈 🏈 🏈 2025 EVERYTHING COLLEGE FOOTBALL Dystopian Discussion Thread 🏈 🏈 🏈

[therealcjc33]

Originally Posted by Fenway55

It's hilarious how 2 bowl eligible teams opted out of bowl games this year and not a single word of criticism was levied - in fact I'd bet anything that no one in here even knew about it or could tell me the teams without looking them up.

But when Notre Dame does it, all the haters lose their minds....

Notre Dame opted out because they didn’t get selected. They threw a tantrum.

[Fenway55]

Originally Posted by therealcjc33

Notre Dame opted out because they didn’t get selected. They threw a tantrum.

6 teams opt out and that's perfectly fine. But when Notre Dame does it, it is horrible because reasons.

[Fenway55]

Originally Posted by Chris Lyle

Nope. Its ridiculous that these teams don't accept. There are some exceptions but not many...

You may have been right 20 years ago but not today. These days, a large part of your team enters the transfer portal and a large part of your team opts out on an individual basis.

Bowls just don't mean anything anymore. Even the players don't give a crap. They mean even less than an NFL preseason game. Their own gimmicky ridiculousness proves it.

[jkampis]

Originally Posted by Fenway55

6 teams opt out and that's perfectly fine. But when Notre Dame does it, it is horrible because reasons.

Don’t be ridiculous. Everyone knows ND opted out due to sour grapes. That’s not the case for the other opt-outs.

[Fenway55]

Originally Posted by jkampis

Don’t be ridiculous. Everyone knows ND opted out due to sour grapes. That’s not the case for the other opt-outs.

Yup. Like I said.... it's ok for everyone else, but sour grapes for Notre Dame.

Notre Dame has opted out of minor bowls several times in the past. I don't blame them one bit. Why should they help ESPN when ESPN has spent the past month or so actively campaigning against them?

Bowl games are beyond worthless. I doubt anyone in here could name a single score from a single bowl game last year without looking it up (besides the playoffs that is).

[BraveAtlanta]

1. There is too much bias with this committee. A certain team or maybe two get beneficial treatment that no other teams get.
2. If a player wants to transfer, fine but they sit for a year. No exceptions.

Maybe this will slow down some of this craziness.

[Siberian13]

Originally Posted by Fenway55

Yup. Like I said.... it's ok for everyone else, but sour grapes for Notre Dame.

Notre Dame has opted out of minor bowls several times in the past. I don't blame them one bit. Why should they help ESPN when ESPN has spent the past month or so actively campaigning against them?

Bowl games are beyond worthless. I doubt anyone in here could name a single score from a single bowl game last year without looking it up (besides the playoffs that is).

42-17 someone in the I Woke Up Feeling the Cheesiest Coach Bowl

[Fenway55]

Originally Posted by Siberian13

42-17 someone in the I Woke Up Feeling the Cheesiest Coach Bowl

ugh.... all these gimmicks only highlight the worthlessness of the game.... from dumping mayo on the winning coach to pop tarts galore, it's become just a joke. Now let's all get ready for the GRONK LA BOWL this Saturday night.

The only one of these jokes I genuinely enjoy watching is Christmas Eve in Hawai'i....

[Cracktoast]

Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl..... I hear the winner gets a big ass trophy shaped like a joint

[Siberian13]

Originally Posted by Fenway55

ugh.... all these gimmicks only highlight the worthlessness of the game.... from dumping mayo on the winning coach to pop tarts galore, it's become just a joke. Now let's all get ready for the GRONK LA BOWL this Saturday night.

The only one of these jokes I genuinely enjoy watching is Christmas Eve in Hawai'i....

Bowl eligible at 6 wins is the joke. Should be 8 minimum. We really don’t really need any bowl games except the college playoffs. I miss the old days when it was just called the Rose, Cotton, Orange, Sugar etc. It’s annoying every bowl game, field, stadium whatever has to be sponsored.

But money

[jkampis]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl..... I hear the winner gets a big ass trophy shaped like a joint

Give them actual joints and they’ll really play for the win.

[auctionjmm]

There would be zero "sour grapes" or "tantrums" if the committee had stated their position weeks ago... that head-to-head matters and that both Bama and Miami were clear front runners. ND isn't as upset about being left out as they are about the manner in which it happened. There is zero point in releasing those rankings week after week if you are going to flip them the night before it all matters because the media pressured you into it.

I stated this earlier but ND had been 4th or 5th in championship odds up until yesterday morning, so they were clearly the best team of the at-large group.

Maybe it's time to do away with automatic qualifiers and just let the playoffs be the top 12 ranked teams at the end of the year. Take a composite of the AP/Coaches poll and there's your playoffs. At least you wouldn't have first round playoff games with 3-TD spreads.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

LOL@Notre Dame refusing to play a bowl game because they got butt hurt


IMO if you are Bowl Eligible and get picked to play and refuse then you are disqualified from the Playoffs and/or a Bowl game the following season. Stop this 2 yr old hissy fit nonsense.

CFP, transfer portal, and NIL have rendered bowls absolutely irrelevant. No upside for the players. Only downside in injury.

CFP will expand and bowls will be gone within 5 years.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by auctionjmm

Maybe it's time to do away with automatic qualifiers and just let the playoffs be the top 12 ranked teams at the end of the year. Take a composite of the AP/Coaches poll and there's your playoffs. At least you wouldn't have first round playoff games with 3-TD spreads.

Should happen, but won’t.

Instead, you’ll get expansion to 16 teams and the pool will be diluted even more. Automatic bids to SEC, ACC, B10, B12, and two highest group of five. 10 at-large bids for the rest. That would have put Duke, ND, BYU, and Texas in. No doubt in my mind that the rankings were intentional so that the narrative going forward would be “well if we had 16 teams we’d be including ND and Texas”.

[auctionjmm]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

CFP, transfer portal, and NIL have rendered bowls absolutely irrelevant. No upside for the players. Only downside in injury.

CFP will expand and bowls will be gone within 5 years.

Hundreds, not dozens, but HUNDREDS of players sat out 2024. I was going to post the list here but these guys would have been annoyed by that because they would have been scrolling forever

[Chris Lyle]

Originally Posted by Fenway55

You may have been right 20 years ago but not today. These days, a large part of your team enters the transfer portal and a large part of your team opts out on an individual basis.

Bowls just don't mean anything anymore. Even the players don't give a crap. They mean even less than an NFL preseason game. Their own gimmicky ridiculousness proves it.

It's just my opinion not about being right or wrong, I've said forever there are way too many bowls, but there are sometimes when a team opts out. I only gave my opinion because you were attacking anyone that dare say anything negative about Notre Dame opting. So I gave my opinion that in general I think its ridiculous to me IMO that teams opt out for stupid reasons.

Get rid of the meaningless bowls, saves everyone in the long run.

[Big35Hurt]

Originally Posted by Big35Hurt

Maybe not....as of this post, the Birmingham Bowl doesn't have either slot filled according to the bowl lineup on ESPN. Miss State already accepted a bowl bid at 5-7 and with seven teams declining bowl invites it may not be as ludicrous as it seems.

Edit: Rice at 5-7 is also in a bowl.

The Birmingham Bowl is now filled....with two teams from the same conference and same division that already played each other earlier in the year. One is 6-6 and one is 5-7. That makes at least 3 teams in bowls that are 5-7. SMH

[Zauron]

Originally Posted by Fenway55

6 teams opt out and that's perfectly fine. But when Notre Dame does it, it is horrible because reasons.

Some of the teams opting out have lost coaching staff though and players going to enter the portal(ie Iowa State for prime example).

Notre Dame just being whiny because they didn't get their way.

Now, I will say this playoff committee is a piece of work. Don't know how you can rank ND 9th/10th all this time and just flip them out with Miami last ranking finally.

[Fenway55]

Originally Posted by Siberian13

Bowl eligible at 6 wins is the joke. Should be 8 minimum. We really don’t really need any bowl games except the college playoffs. I miss the old days when it was just called the Rose, Cotton, Orange, Sugar etc. It’s annoying every bowl game, field, stadium whatever has to be sponsored.

But money

Exactly. It’s about money and so that ESPN has programming in late December. They’ve created so many bowl games which no one cares about that they have to dip into 5-7 teams to fill the spots.

And I agree with you about the old days. Part of the reason bowl are meaningless is because none of them have identities anymore. Sponsors are constantly changing. The gimmicks are overshadowing the game.

I’ll come over your house later today so we can both yell at clouds and tell the neighborhood kids to keep off the lawn.

[oldgoldy97]

Bowls are becoming All Star games (in regards to players sitting them out).

[Fenway55]

Originally Posted by auctionjmm

There would be zero "sour grapes" or "tantrums" if the committee had stated their position weeks ago... that head-to-head matters and that both Bama and Miami were clear front runners. ND isn't as upset about being left out as they are about the manner in which it happened. There is zero point in releasing those rankings week after week if you are going to flip them the night before it all matters because the media pressured you into it.

+1 +1 +1 +1

I can handle Miami in over ND based on H2H but the process over the past month has been abysmal. And I know the ND haters are laughing their asses off but you won't be laughing so hard when it happens to your team. You would be just as outraged if the shoe was on the other foot.

The conflict of interest in this sport is beyond galling. But you certainly won't hear any complaining about it from the beneficiaries of this conflict of interest <cough> SEC fans <cough>.

Flipping the teams when neither team played is the ultimate weaksauce. If anything ND's resume was the one which got better this weekend as 1 of their opponents went out and won a CCG.

I used to enjoy the release of the rankings - both AP and PC. But now it is just a complete waste of time until the final release.

[Fenway55]

Originally Posted by Zauron

Some of the teams opting out have lost coaching staff though and players going to enter the portal(ie Iowa State for prime example).

Notre Dame just being whiny because they didn't get their way.

If you want to call it "whining," fine, but I don't blame them one bit. ESPN is one of the driving forces behind the obscene conflict of interest we see in this sport and after a month of lobbying for Miami (which network broadcasts the ACC?) and bad mouthing Notre Dame (which network broadcasts Notre Dame?) the PC finally caved.

Bowl games these days are beyond meaningless, so why should Notre Dame help ESPN's bowl ratings when ESPN has been actively working to screw them over for the past month? If someone smacks you in the face, are you being whiny if you smack them back?

[Boo]

I'm sure most of the third string scrubs that don't play or even dress would love to play in a bowl game.

[Fenway55]

Originally Posted by Boo

I'm sure most of the third string scrubs that don't play or even dress would love to play in a bowl game.

This isn't even remotely the flex you think it is. All you are doing is proving how completely meaningless and worthless bowl games are by admitting they are played by third string scrubs.

I wanted to play college football too. No one cried for me when I wasn't good enough to get in the game.

[Boo]

Originally Posted by Fenway55

This isn't even remotely the flex you think it is. All you are doing is proving how completely meaningless and worthless bowl games are by admitting they are played by third string scrubs.

I wanted to play college football too. No one cried for me when I wasn't good enough to get in the game.

Not a flex, they are on the team and should be able to play. No one shows up at 90% of the bowls anyway. Let them play! Let them play!