There were only 22 postseason teams in 1970, 30 in 1980, 38 in 1990. There were 82 in 2025.

[u/shouldajustsaid_yeah]

If a 24 team playoff kills bowls it might actually be closer to tradition than the recent decades of money grab bowl games. There were 35 non CFP bowl games last year meaning 82 teams, the majority with no tradition other than being relatively recent money grabs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_game#History has the number of bowls over the years.

[u/TonyWilliams03]

Old enough to remember when the Gator Bowl was a big deal.

[u/rageking5 → u/TonyWilliams03]

That was always the dream game to get for wvu when I was growing up. Although we almost never won it lol

[u/Lefthook16 → u/TonyWilliams03]

It's still to me

[u/OnlyZac → u/TonyWilliams03]

The taxslayer gator bowl?

[u/vmeloni1232]

I was listening to Mostly Sports talk about the new 24 team playoff and they ended the conversation by saying the real problem is the mega conferences. If we still have six geographical power conferences, we'd all be much more accepting of the new playoffs. Teams would still play every team in their conference or win the division to crown a champion and we'd have teams deserving to get in.

But now we'll have have 8 Big Ten, 8 SEC, 3 ACC, 3 Big XII, a G6 and Notre Dame every year like clockwork.

[u/OldGreggg69 → u/vmeloni1232]

Family

[u/ScaleCreepMinis]

Just your daily reminder you only need to go .500 to make a bowl. .450 if ypu're lucky.

[u/Hulkodium → u/ScaleCreepMinis]

There has to be somewhere between "5-7 teams can go bowling if there's not enough 6-6 teams" and "10-2 Northern Illinois with wins over ranked Maryland and Alabama doesn't get a bowl bid"

[u/chumer_ranion → u/ScaleCreepMinis]

APR has fed generations of Rice fans

[u/tomdawg0022 → u/chumer_ranion]

...and Minnesota fans too.

[u/dazzleox → u/chumer_ranion]

Love to see rice in a bowl

[u/Chuck_Phuckzalot → u/ScaleCreepMinis]

Now Alabama can go .500 and make the CFP!

[u/PartialDischage → u/Chuck_Phuckzalot]

You can't leave out a team with a gutsy last second win over 3-9 Auburn!

[u/freeball78 → u/Chuck_Phuckzalot]

To be fair, Alabama could lose 8 games and probably still be in the top 10

[u/Bubbay → u/ScaleCreepMinis]

Bowl games used to be for the teams that were really good. Now it just means you aren’t among the worst teams in the sport this season.

[u/jmac11281 → u/ScaleCreepMinis]

You only have to go .417 (5-7) to go bowling if you are lucky.

[u/PointBlankCoffee]

Blows my mind how much disdain some of yall have for bowl games

[u/p1ckledilly → u/PointBlankCoffee]

When the players stopped caring so much, and teams started to opt out, and corporate branding took over everything, yeah I stopped caring about 75% of them.

Quality>Quantity

[u/bduddy → u/PointBlankCoffee]

ESPN did it to themselves.

[u/spmartin1993]

People like to think bowls are traditional, but really bowls only mattered for like 20-30 years. They started out as showcase games after the final polls came out meaning national champs could have lost their bowl games and they did. The rose bowl didn’t allow the same team to play two years in a row until the 60s or 70s. I’d argue bowls mattered once national champs were named after and before the BCS. Ever since then they’ve been money grabs with less and less significance.

[u/Noy_Telinu → u/spmartin1993]

That is because most people here are between 18-40 years old.

It is nostalgia for when THEY cared most about CFB

[u/UCLA_FB_SUCKS → u/Noy_Telinu]

yeah i absolutely cannot fathom why someone would speak positively about a the bcs since it didn't allow undefeated team ranked #3 to not be able to play for the championship multiple times

[u/tSignet → u/UCLA_FB_SUCKS]

It was clear after 5 BCS seasons that they needed at least a 4 team playoff. Instead they tweaked the formula after every controversy and convinced us that we just needed to pick the correct teams out of three virtually identical resumes next time.

This was done entirely because the biggest bowls wanted hoard the money. The big bowls fought like hell to keep the G5 out.

The playoff is just a different money grab.

[u/UCLA_FB_SUCKS → u/tSignet]

still a money grab, but certainly less egregious than the Bull Crap System

[u/NorthwestPurple → u/tSignet]

For the second half of the BCS, they switched to the model where the NCG was a separate game, after the bowls. The fatal flaw was that they should've selected the team for that game from the winners of the bowls.

[u/NorthwestPurple → u/UCLA_FB_SUCKS]

If they had reseeded the winners after the BCS bowls for a single No. 1 vs. No. 2 game, it would've fixed all the problems. This is similar to a 14 playoff but better.

[u/Better-Temporary-146 → u/spmartin1993]

And in pre 1980 days, bowls weren’t necessarily a reward. Sometimes they just went to who they could contract to go.

Wasn’t unusual pre 1970, for good teams to decline a bowl invitation.

First TV - New Year’s Day as a mega tv event in the 60’s, especially in the Midwest, then the arrival of cable in the early 80’s, and networks needing live sports programming, especially in the week between Christmas and New Years.

 Add in the role of growing high school recruiting networks, and schools seeing tv exposure as important marketing - after the baby boom generation aged out of college. 

And bowls became essential to modern college football.

In a sense bowls aren’t going away. The legal owner of the College Football playoff is BCS Holdings LLC. Yes, that BCS.

And all but about 7-8 bowls are owned by ESPN Events, providing profitable, cheap programming during the holidays. 

[u/PeteF3 → u/spmartin1993]

Some programs had no-bowl policies for years. Army did until the '80s. Notre Dame did until Ara Parseghian got there. Until the mid-'70s only the B1G champ could go to the Rose Bowl.

This was why the Ten-Year War was so monumental. The winner went to Pasadena and the loser went home.

[u/IshyMoose → u/spmartin1993]

For the Big Ten the rose bowl game was more a free trip to California in the winter and a reward, winning was just the cherry on top.

[u/RatStore101 → u/IshyMoose]

There was a year that Michigan basically played an exhibition game at Hawaii before the rose bowl 

[u/ChangKai-Shrek → u/spmartin1993]

The Big Ten only allowed multiple teams to go to a bowl after the 1975 season.

[u/Agile_Land_9951 → u/spmartin1993]

Bowls still matter for G6. They’re just happy to be there.

[u/NorthwestPurple → u/spmartin1993]

they mattered during the BCS too

[u/Signal_Tip_7428]

The shit on bowl season is wild to me but then again I root for a team where 6-6 is a great season. I love the no name bowl games and more football with reasonably matched teams.

[u/Sir0inks-A-Lot → u/Signal_Tip_7428]

Same - it fills empty TV time with amazing things like comedically bad tackling, Pop Tarts being sacrificed, and this: https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/s/Th741XlCD4

[u/Careless_General8010 → u/Sir0inks-A-Lot]

F yeah that kind of shit is peak bowl season for me. I care about fun silly games, not the cfb equivalent of dodgers vs yankees

Snoop Dogg Gin n Juice bowl is a cool newer one too

[u/shouldajustsaid_yeah → u/Sir0inks-A-Lot]

Tbf I am very disappointed my team opted out of the poptart bowl, it would have been a ton of fun regardless of how pissed I was at the CFP. However, I'd rather have those same teams playing in a playoff game instead, like they would have if it were 24 teams.

[u/gatman19 → u/shouldajustsaid_yeah]

I’d be more than just disappointed. That was some bitch-made, crybaby ass shit. If I were a ND fan I’d be pissed that my team and staff were that soft

[u/shouldajustsaid_yeah → u/gatman19]

Show me on the doll where ND hurt you.

...realizing that's probably not the best joke from a Catholic university

[u/OnlyZac → u/Signal_Tip_7428]

Yeah I love the crazy bowls lol

[u/Roscoe_Filburn]

Counterpoint: I like going home for Christmas and watching dumb gimmick bowls between random MAC and Sun Belt teams.

[u/ChrisRhodes789]

Bowls suck..

Get rid of all of them..

Only degenerates care about the Hawaii Bowl..

[u/uwpxwpal → u/ChrisRhodes789]

Everyone should go to Hawaii at least once.

[u/shouldajustsaid_yeah → u/ChrisRhodes789]

*sickos

[u/44035]

Exactly

[u/CrOS2012]

Inflation.

[u/StallsAndCamps]

More bowl games = more football More football = good thing

[u/saltytradewinds → u/StallsAndCamps]

I used to agree with this, but with players opting out of bowl games and teams playing bowls with skeleton rosters, it's not always a good thing.

[u/shouldajustsaid_yeah → u/StallsAndCamps]

That's how I feel about the 24 team playoff. If the bowls stick around, whatever it's more (mostly sickos) football, but if a bunch of the newer ones fold I'm not gonna cry any tears over their 20 years of corporate sponsorship history.

[u/p1ckledilly → u/StallsAndCamps]

Would you rather have five rancid meals or one good meal?

[u/StallsAndCamps → u/p1ckledilly]

Its more like 10 good meals 30 average ones and 10 mediocre ones. No football is rancid

[u/Real_Statistician538]

Mom used to say she thought there were too many bowl games. The more I think on it and the older I get, I agree.

[u/Euphoric_Dot3443]

Playoffs are tradition.

[u/uwpxwpal]

Sports reporters have had a major brain drain in the age of private equity take overs and media consolidation.

[u/TheBigMcD]

Since when do people like bowls with unranked teams? Everyone i know only cares about the rosebowl dieing. Nothing else matters.

[u/themanfromacme → u/TheBigMcD]

ESPN likes them because they provide programming at a time of year where it's difficult to obtain.

[u/ImNotTheBossOfYou → u/TheBigMcD]

Rose Bowl is and always will be a part of the CFB, even if it moves to SoFi

[u/Freidhiem → u/TheBigMcD]

Watching some weird matchup in a robe with some whiskey hot cocoa and pizza in December and January was just kind of a vibe.

[u/Pinewood74 → u/TheBigMcD]

Since always. People just are more likely to complain. The folks who enjoy Eastern Michigan vs Minnesota in the Quick Lane just go about their business. But the folks who want it yeeted out of existence go shout it from the mountains.

We got a guy in here saying the 1999 Rose Bowl "didn't matter." Even though no one thinks that.

[u/StFuzzySlippers → u/Pinewood74]

I mean, people watch because most of what else is on TV is dogwater, and they're home for the holidays anyway. The only people actually enjoying most of these bowls are Sickos.

[u/JakeSteeleIII]

What about in 2017