What’s the Point? BC’s Bowl Game Called Off
The Story: The First Responder Bowl, played at the historic Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas between Boston College and Boise State, was canceled yesterday afternoon after lightning struck in the first quarter and a thunderstorm lasted more than three hours.
A WATERED-DOWN SYSTEM: Imagine the Huskies traveling halfway across the country to play an unimaginative opponent with whom they have no common history. (Oh, wait, you don’t have to — that happens every week in the American!) They prepare for the game for three weeks, only to be forced from the stadium after just 10 minutes of action.
We have a long history of covering the UConn football team and its bowl games in Charlotte, Toronto and Birmingham and, eventually, the Fiesta Bowl in Scottsdale, Arizona. These were great experiences for the players and the program, which matched up against teams such as South Carolina and Oklahoma. The Huskies’ first bowl appearance, the Motor City Bowl in Detroit in 2004, was a big deal, and for much of college football’s 100-year history, an invitation to a bowl game was prestigious. Even when the number of bowl games exploded, the ratings were good, fans packed the seats and the games were memorable experiences for everyone.
We’re just not sure that’s the case anymore. Look — the American has or will send seven teams to bowl games this winter, with four playing a Power 5 team (including UCF representing the Group of 5 in the Fiesta Bowl, which isn’t an annual guarantee). These aren’t the marquee battles of the past in which the Big East measures itself against the Big Ten or the ACC; these are often games against teams from the Sun Belt or Conference USA in far-flung, rather uninspiring locations (hello, Shreveport!). In UConn’s most recent postseason appearance, in 2015, it lost to Marshall in the St. Petersburg Bowl.
UNINTERESTING GAMES: One of the great fears College Football Playoff detractors had was in regards to the collateral damage suffered by the bowl games. If a game was not part of the CFP, it was nothing more than a useless exhibition. The games used to be special and served as championships in their own right. Now? They seem like a hassle. Television ratings have dropped in recent years, and while some are up from last year, it doesn’t compare to the audience for games several years ago. It does make you wonder about the feasibility of playing these games over the long term. As the romance of going to a bowl game fades, so do the games’ viability.
PLAYERS DON’T WANT TO PLAY: Coaches already bail on bowl games when they take new jobs, and now, another strike against the bowl games is that players themselves don’t want to play. Leonard Fournette started a trend by sitting out his final game at LSU to try to avoid an unnecessary injury affecting his NFL Draft value. Now, healthy players are opting out of playing in bowl games to get ready for the NFL. Imagine if Donald Brown, who was a first-round pick, decided to not play in the International Bowl? He ran for 261 yards against Buffalo in that game in one of the greatest performances in UConn history. These days? It might never happen. We aren’t asking players to play in the games. We just wonder if having players play in them has any value.
BEST REGULAR SEASON, WORST POSTSEASON: College football has the best regular season in all of sports. A loss in September can doom you just as much as one in November. That makes the entire season a playoff atmosphere until the bowl games.
That is, of course, if you’re a school in one of the Power 5 conferences. As UCF has proven the last two years, the big issue going forward concerning UConn and the AAC is that its champion seemingly has no access to the College Football Playoff as it currently stands. There is no incentive, other than pride, for UCF to face LSU in the Fiesta Bowl — its reward for going 25 games unbeaten. For a century, college football has avoided this rational thinking by not having a legitimate playoff. Now, with the CFP at four, all other games are secondary.
So, what’s the goal for UConn, or for any other program outside of the Power 5? It seems impossible to get into the playoff, and the bowl games, as we are seeing, are losing almost all value and intrigue. At what point do these games go away? Schools typically lose money on bowl games — we won’t get into UConn’s Fiesta Bowl bloodbath — and players have to go away for Christmas to prepare for these games. Then they don’t play it?
A cynic might say the bowls will disappear when they start losing money, which, given how they’re constructed, seems unlikely anytime soon. We reckon it might happen when the players decide that these things aren’t worth playing in. If yesterday’s lessons didn’t teach you what a charade bowl games have become, well, we have a ticket to next year’s First Responder Bowl to sell you.
Moore Exonerated On Christmas Eve
The Story: UConn great Ricky Moore, formerly an assistant coach under Kevin Ollie, was under a cloud of suspicion stemming from Ollie’s alleged NCAA rule improprieties, but he wrote on Twitter that he received word from the organization that he is not part of the investigation and may continue to seek coaching opportunities.
OUR TAKE: Moore, who has spent eight seasons as a college assistant — the last six at UConn — is the only member of Ollie’s staff from last year out of work. He vented about his situation to Hearst Connecticut Media in the spring, and hopefully, this is the thing he needs to get back on the bench somewhere next season. No one wants to hire a coach under NCAA investigations, imagined or not.
Morning Read
ASSISTANT’S SON CAN BALL: Jaylin Hunter, son of UConn men’s basketball assistant Kenya Hunter, has come from Nebraska to East Catholic High School and is taking Connecticut high school hoops by storm. (Hartford Courant)
THE CALHOUN BUMP: Hiring Jim Calhoun has paid off for Saint Joseph. The West Hartford school, which recently started accepting male students as undergrads, has seen an 83 percent spike in applications since he was hired. Who says athletics aren’t important? SJU is 7-4 under Calhoun. (CBS News)
WILLIAMS FIELD BY FAILURE: Freshman Christyn Williams has always been tough on herself — a characteristic that began when she was a third grader. (Hartford Courant)
SHERMINATOR STARS: A first Pro Bowl selection has old-school fullback Anthony Sherman plowing the way for the Kansas CIty Chiefs as they ready for the NFL playoffs. (Hartford Courant)
CROCKER DONE RIGHT? Mike DiMauro staunchly defends former defensive coordinator Billy Crocker, a New London-area native, who was fired by UConn earlier this week after a season in which the Huskies set NCAA records for defensive incompetence. (The Day)
EDSALL IN HOLIDAY SPIRIT: Randy Edsall addressed the Huskies’ recruiting class as well as his holiday traditions. (WTNH)
