Musings of a Dead Parrot

The NCAA has given approval to four new bowl games for next year - the fifth Bowl Championship Series game plus the International Bowl (in Toronto), the Birmingham Bowl, and the New Mexico Bowl.

This will bring the total to 31 bowl games not including the Houston Bowl which needs some resolution to its uncertain future. As of now OVER 50% of D1-A schools (62 of 120) will play in bowl games next year.

Accordingly, the NCAA has had to loosen the qualification criteria. It is reasonable to expect a bowl game may have to take a team with a .500 record or even a losing record because that is the only school available. So the NCAA board of directors also just approved a proposal allowing teams with .500 records to qualify for bowl games if the conference has a contract with a bowl game. Also, teams with .500 records could earn bowl bids if all other Division I-A teams with winning records have been taken and postseason spots still remain vacant.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/ncaa/04/27/bowl.games.ap/index.html

Any program that does not play in a bowl game must be pretty pitiful given how low the bar is set.

I won't even bother to comment about the attractiveness to fans of the teams that play in the new bowl games of travelling to Toronto, Birmingham or Albuquerque in mid-late December to watch one's team play.

# posted by The O'Brien's Team @ 9:47 AM