So taking a quick break from our regularly scheduled programming ( I should do this more often) to talk about something I saw a few days ago. First off, if you are not familiar with the FCS page on STATS it is pretty good and has some stuff that in the future I will be talking about more often. Craig Haley has been at the FCS game for a while now and this latest article is pretty interesting. If you want to read it click here.
In the article, Haley references a Football Gameplan (another website that does some good stuff) and they bring up the three-week break between the semi-finals and the national championship. Needless to say, that is way too long and basically kills whatever momentum the playoffs have. And then add on the fact that its the day before the FBS semi-finals it gets lost completely. Seriously if you don't believe me, just watch ESPN coverage of the National Championship, its a joke. I'll take about that more at a later date. But what the people from Football Gameplan suggest, bowl games to fill the void.
Ok, first off, let me say this...there needs to be some solution to this issue. Like a said, three weeks kills whatever momentum you could possibly have. With that being said, bowl games to fill that void is a bad idea. Here is why...the biggest and most obvious reason is that it will pit teams that nobody really cares about. The unfortunate truth about FCS football is that on a grand stage outside of a few programs most teams aren't that well known. Of the matchups purposed the only names that jump off the page are Southern, Howard, and Eastern Washington. Which sucks because the only real uneven matchup would have been Austin Peay versus Eastern Washington. Now there a ways to fix the problem (ESPN looking at you) but for now the reality is that it just sucks.
Problem number two...where are you going to play these games where you can get a crowd? On campus versions of these games would be a poor draw due to the fact that a majority would be on holiday break. Now you could have one or two central location for all of the games but what would make the most sense? You could do it in Frisco but that would take some sting away from the National Championship, plus kill the playing field. Other options like Birmingham, Orlando, Houston, LA, Atlanta, or Salem, VA do exist which would work.
Oh, lets for a second talk about the third major problem...if we played these games it would over a month between games for those programs and that is just way too long of a break just to kick up the tires and get going again.
Something that would make more sense would be instead of placing the bowl games during the three-week break, you could play the bowl games around the same time as the Celebration bowl and push back the start of the playoffs an extra week. Would it suck for the seeded teams, yeah but two weeks off to get healthy and give the young guys more practice time would be welcomed long term.
At the end of the day, while the idea of this is all well and good, the problems with this are way too many. We haven't even discussed the money aspect or ratings or who would broadcast the games (though CBS Sports Network or FS1 come to mind). Is this something that down the road could happen, yeah I think it really could. Giving a few teams who came up short some consolation would be nice, it wouldn't take away the sting but ending the season on a high note is never a bad thing...right? Lets not throw away this idea but put in that "i'll think about it later" file
In the article, Haley references a Football Gameplan (another website that does some good stuff) and they bring up the three-week break between the semi-finals and the national championship. Needless to say, that is way too long and basically kills whatever momentum the playoffs have. And then add on the fact that its the day before the FBS semi-finals it gets lost completely. Seriously if you don't believe me, just watch ESPN coverage of the National Championship, its a joke. I'll take about that more at a later date. But what the people from Football Gameplan suggest, bowl games to fill the void.
Ok, first off, let me say this...there needs to be some solution to this issue. Like a said, three weeks kills whatever momentum you could possibly have. With that being said, bowl games to fill that void is a bad idea. Here is why...the biggest and most obvious reason is that it will pit teams that nobody really cares about. The unfortunate truth about FCS football is that on a grand stage outside of a few programs most teams aren't that well known. Of the matchups purposed the only names that jump off the page are Southern, Howard, and Eastern Washington. Which sucks because the only real uneven matchup would have been Austin Peay versus Eastern Washington. Now there a ways to fix the problem (ESPN looking at you) but for now the reality is that it just sucks.
Problem number two...where are you going to play these games where you can get a crowd? On campus versions of these games would be a poor draw due to the fact that a majority would be on holiday break. Now you could have one or two central location for all of the games but what would make the most sense? You could do it in Frisco but that would take some sting away from the National Championship, plus kill the playing field. Other options like Birmingham, Orlando, Houston, LA, Atlanta, or Salem, VA do exist which would work.
Oh, lets for a second talk about the third major problem...if we played these games it would over a month between games for those programs and that is just way too long of a break just to kick up the tires and get going again.
Something that would make more sense would be instead of placing the bowl games during the three-week break, you could play the bowl games around the same time as the Celebration bowl and push back the start of the playoffs an extra week. Would it suck for the seeded teams, yeah but two weeks off to get healthy and give the young guys more practice time would be welcomed long term.
At the end of the day, while the idea of this is all well and good, the problems with this are way too many. We haven't even discussed the money aspect or ratings or who would broadcast the games (though CBS Sports Network or FS1 come to mind). Is this something that down the road could happen, yeah I think it really could. Giving a few teams who came up short some consolation would be nice, it wouldn't take away the sting but ending the season on a high note is never a bad thing...right? Lets not throw away this idea but put in that "i'll think about it later" file
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