Late to the party here, but I find it quite ridiculous that the winners of the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, and Peach Bowls will advance to the Orange and Cotton Bowls. That's just messed up. Why do we keep these bowls alive? Are stadiums completely incapable of staging these events without the bowls getting their hands in it? CFP should be all played at home venues and/or bid out to the highest bidders.
4 teams will play in 2 bowl games this season?
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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The problem is, if given the option, no school is ever going to pass on another home game regardless of the logistical and infrastructural nightmares that would be caused. If this applied last year then you would've been playing the title game in Ann Arbor in mid January. I'm assuming the whole bowl system is already organized and figured out, so it's just easy to keep using them.
Does that mean there will be 4 less teams going bowling this year? If so, then I'm all for letting 4 teams that deserve to make bowls games play in two of them.
The bowl committees are basically the people who own/operate the stadiums and visitors bureaus, they're all interconnected. I think once the next negotiating window opens up for host cities you'll see places with new stadiums in the works like Nashville and Jacksonville try to jump into the mix, Vegas could too since everyone is way way more ok with having big sports events there compared to a few years ago.
Bowl committees do not own stadiums. They rent them just as the CFP can do themselves. If the CFP rented the dome in Indy or Houston or Orlando, the game would still go on without a hitch and revenue would not have to be shared with a bowl game.
The people on the bowl committees are connected with the stadiums, that's why the bowl game racket has been going on for 100 years. You don't think the CFP crunched the numbers and saw that it was better for them financially to contract out the operation of the quarterfinals/semifinals and then running the whole show for the championship game? That's why the final game isn't a bowl.
It is absolutely not better financially for the CFP to outsource their quarterfinals and semifinals. They only do so for 2 reasons:
- they feel the need to keep the bowls alive for tradition
- the bowls have a strong lobby and are likely giving out kickbacks to the power players
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Because those bowls have brands and people still associate those brands with prestige and there is money to be made off of that.
So you think that if the CFP had a semifinal game at Sofi in Inglewood and kept 100% of the revenue minus the rental fee instead of sharing revenue with the Rose Bowl, they'd make less? Granted, there's 19K more seats at the Rose Bowl but they also dont have the amount of high priced luxury boxes that Sofi has. I think you are underestimating how much of a cut these bowl games get. I am saying cut them out completely and people will still watch and go to the games. The fact that its called the Rose or Orange Bowl is completely insignificant now.
No way is the SEC agreeing to a scenario where they could even potentially play in a cold weather environment.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
They get a cut because they have power and prestige. The CFP is a TV entity. They really don't care about running venues or being promoters so the bowl people do it for them. It's actually a pretty sweet deal for them.
They already did. 1st Round are on campus. I am suggesting either playing the quarterfinals also on campus OR have them at neutral sites which are not affiliated with bowl games. Also, the semis would be at neutral sites. I just think its stupid that the Rose Bowl is a quarterfinal game and if you win that, you go to the Cotton Bowl. Do fans get to buy Rose Bowl Champs and Cotton Bowl Champs shirts? The whole thing is wonky.
If it is so lucrative to outsource the quarterfinals and semifinals, why dont they outsource the final also?
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Because venues trip over each other and pay butt loads of money for the championship. It's not like some of these quarterfinal matchups are going to be compelling matchups so you let the bowl committees sell the other stuff that goes with a major bowl game and run the whole thing. You do realize that the people who do these things are pretty smart, right?
Of course I dont think these people are smart. It took them 100+ years to figure out you need to do what every other major sport does to decide a champion.
Let me ask you this, if this year's quarterfinals were in Nashville, Charlotte, Indy, and Houston would those games sell out? I know we dont know the matchups but lets be realistic and say they are your usual blue bloodish teams
Why not have them affiliated with bowls, the quarters and semis would still be played in stadiums that host bowl games. The schools playing the games want to sell travel packages to their fans, no one wants to goto a non-bowl city like Indianapolis or St. Louis in January. The big money and medium money donors don't want to spend New Years on campus, they want to go somewhere warm get drunk and maybe golf.
Do they want to go to Atlanta or Dallas, which can be 35 degrees?
If they need a warm city, why not Tampa, Orlando, the new Jax when its done, Houston, Vegas, Santa Clara?
I think this goes back to "will the game sell-out?" Will a game in Indy or Detroit featuring a B10 team or ND sell out? A million times yes. So if it sells out, what does it matter to the CFP that it has a bowl affiliation? You get to keep the entire purse.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
I don't know if the quarterfinals are anywhere else if it matters. It's really a who cares for just about everyone but for you to say that the people in charge aren't smart, is precious.
So far as the games themselves, even blue blood semifinal matchups have sucked in the CFP era. Most of the time there have only been two legit contenders. The rest of this is just set up to milk another game or two worth of revenue out of the cult-like fan bases, and the occasional outsider, that get selected.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Saint Louis is the most boring city on the planet. Literally nobody on the street at night because there is nothing going on.
No one has suggested St. Louis. The Rams moved out because that dome is decrepid. If there's a quarterfinal in Indy, it would involve a Big Ten team and would very very easily sell out.
Ok, so you are on record saying you arent sure if those quarterfinals would sell out. So if you arent sure, then you obviously think there is a chance they do. So how can you be so sure there is more money to be made by outsourcing to bowls?
Has any city/stadium not currently hosting a playoff game shown any interest in hosting one? Even if a city like Indianapolis wanted to get into the mix they'd create the Penske Bowl and the CFP would let local people handle all of the logistics like they already do in the NY6 towns.
Why do they have to create a bowl? Why is the CFP incapable of renting a stadium and keeping all the ticket TV/revenue like they do for the national championship game and like the NCAA does for the NCAA Tournament?
pittdan77
Athletic Director
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Here we go with the wild-ass hypotheticals. Look, I don't care where they hold those games. The smart people with all of the money think this is the way to go and smart people with money don't screw around and take stupid losses. Ask them.
Again, why did these smart people take 100+ years to figure out a playoff?
They would very obviously make more money hosting the games without bowls but the bowl lobby is extremely strong and is very likely paying individual kickbacks to the power brokers. You have made no case as to why the CFP can make more money by outsourcing, instead saying smart people dont take less money. You ignore the power of lobbyists and bribes.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
The playoff is a made for TV event. 100 years ago, it took four to six days to get to the Rose Bowl from Pittsburgh and nobody owned a television. Even the notion of TV making massive profits off of college football games and paying exorbitant fees to televise them is a very recent phenomenon. I don't need to make a case for why things are done the way they are. Just because you're willing to commit a dozen logical fallacies per thread doesn't mean you're right and pretending to be smarter than the people who are making billions of dollars is actually pretty funny.
I am smarter than the people running this. I said for years there should be a playoff and they couldn't figure out that was the better way to do it. I told you why they are outsourcing:
1. The bowl lobby
2. Bribes
There is simply no way, no chance that the CFP can make more money by outsourcing games and sharing revenue with a bowl when that isnt going to lead to more viewership or butts in the seats. No freaking way.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
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