Last week we spoke about our disappointment in the Cure Bowl match-up between two Group of Five conference champs. UTSA (11-3) and Troy (12-2) met in that one. Definitely, this contest pitted two very good football teams in the first bowl week of 2022. Our disappointment lies in the fact that we would like to have seen both take on Power Five teams instead. We believe such games would show that the Group of Five is not that far removed from most of the teams among the SEC, Big Ten, Big XII, ACC, and Pac-12.

Regretfully among 43 postseason games, only five feature teams from these two categories play one another. Three have been played already. The Group of Five holds the upper hand already. They’ve triumphed two wins to one. Fresno beat Washington State and Air Force defeated Baylor for the “Group”, and Louisville won over Cincinnati for the “Power”. Duke will take on Central Florida in the Military and USC meets Tulane in the Cotton. We look forward to both.

How about these?

Instead of 9-3 Florida State against 6-6 Oklahoma, how about the Seminoles against 11-2 UTSA. Or, how about 9-3 Oregon State playing 11-2 Troy instead of 6-6 Florida? Let the Sooner and Gator fans go watch their teams in a game against each other for nothing but pride. How about 9-4 Central Florida taking on 7-5 Oklahoma State instead of the Cowboys taking on 6-6 Wisconsin?

If Coastal Carolina QB Grayson McCall didn’t go down with an injury late in the season before losing its final two, how about a better Coastal Carolina at 9-3 against Kentucky 7-6 instead of ECU. A shame is that 9-3 James Madison is sitting out. Some weird rule determined “no first year in FBS bowl rule”. Let’s see what they could do against 7-5 Iowa with a tough defense? Fans would like to see more of these rare match-ups. Two lower level Power Fives going against one another mimics an exhibition game.

Cold wave amongst cold shoulders

Glad we decided to sit at home and watch games on TV this week. Good timing rather than sit in the freezing cold weather starting to come in all over the country. We’ll be at games in Memphis and Nashville next week where weather will warm up. However, rain is forecasted for the Music City next Saturday for the already dreary Kentucky-Iowa game. However, we give the players a lot of credit for some their great performances despite few fans in the stands. Remember when bowls convened on holiday weekends and their fans looked forward to going away somewhere? They traveled to see their favorite team celebrate the end of a GREAT season playing a game that meant something!

Let’s start the 12-team FBS playoffs next year and recapture that before 2024! We look forward to student bodies and avid fans back in the stands, bands playing rousing fight songs, and cheerleaders leading the student bodies getting fired up! On television, now all you hear are players yelling at one another on the field or a few fans in the stands close to the press-box. Depressing seeing so many empty, cold bleacher seats throughout various stadiums. The bowl in the Bahamas attracted a few close friends and family members on short notice from Alabama and Ohio. College football just isn’t what it was without college “spirit”. Now spirit relies on turned-up, excited broadcaster voices with echoes from within the stadia off empty aluminum seats.

Signing overhype

The media tries to make such a big deal about high school kids de-committing from one school for another during the recruiting process. They like to highlight press conferences. An 18-year old feigning one hat and replacing it suddenly for another isn’t original anymore. First of all, get used to de-commitments. Loyalty went out the window. All of this NIL stuff is getting out of hand. Millions of dollars for college students for their name, image, and likeness. So many kids in the past started off the same way without the benefit of the NIL. Eventually, they fell into oblivion on the bench due to overhype of regretfully, injury.

Secondly, a year from now, the kids that go on to whatever school they choose will probably be reported in the transfer portal and seeking another school. Either because someone offered them more money, a coach dissed him, or because they didn’t start any games. Coaches always seek somebody else to play every position better. If you pay attention to this stuff in the media, your head will spin off. If you think that particular player is going play for your school for the next three years, good luck! In three years, he’ll be off to the pros.

Others now will now make so much money off just their potential because of the NIL, never graduate, possibly transfer once or twice at least, and you will probably never hear of them again. If a player has any fiduciary capabilities, he’ll be retired before he ever graduates Great work if you can get an NIL deal when you go to college. What a system! Over-paid coaches still coach or possibly lose their job. Seems like over-paid student athletes don’t even have to play.

Bowl game observations

Regarding what Deion Sanders did for HBCU’s in his two-year career at Jackson State, please fill me in on what did for any other program besides his JSU Bulldogs. By the way, as a heavy favorite, he lost both Celebration Bowl games his team made it to. Will his son QB Shedeur Sanders and WR/DB Travis Hunter go to Colorado for a year and then consider the transfer portal? How long will Deion remain at Colorado?

Western Kentucky HC Ty Helton convinced QB Austin Reed to exit the portal consideration and stay. He did. Already a D2 transfer from a national champion, West Florida, in his first season at WKU, he followed in the footsteps of Bailey Zappe, former Hilltopper QB now with New England who set NCAA passing records for yardage and TDs in one year with the coaching staff there. This year, Reed threw for over 4,000 yards, second best in the nation finishing 9-5 and beating South Alabama easily in another Group of Five bowl game. Why should he even consider another program? One more year in the right system , he’ll have such a distinct resume that even Mel Kiper, Jr. can’t be wrong regarding his potential.

Self-serving bowl?

Found it very difficult to listen to the Jimmy Kimmel bowl broadcast. We muted it as we couldn’t take the self-promotion of the game’s namesake we never pay any attention to. Already know he’s not guy we would want to hang out with over drinks and eats at a tailgate party. All about him -boring.

Dial up the transfer portal

During the Toledo-Liberty Boca-Raton game, the broadcaster did their jobs promoting the strengths of the two teams defenses. What we saw, despite what stats say, that the two QBs made for one of the most inept QB matchups we’d ever seen. Toledo’s Soph QB Dequan Finn sat out a series supposedly injured early . While he sat the sideline, his sub came in and finally put points on the board on a very efficient drive leading to a field goal. The Rockets seemed to have life. Finn came back in the next series much to our surprise. The edge seemed to come off despite winning the game, 21-19.

Liberty’s frosh QB Kaidon Salter showed little knack for following through on any plays to set up deceptions for future plays as the game progressed. He would hand-off and just stand still. Granted the HC Hugh Freese left for Auburn, but you’d think coaches remaining could still coach. Both could use new QBs.

Creighton soars with Eagles

Eastern Michigan HC Chris Creighton is a HC to keep an eye on for upcoming opportunities. His Eagles manhandled San Jose State overcoming a 13-0 deficit sparked by an extra point return for two to defeat the Spartans, 41-27. He’s taken a very drown trodden program the last nine years to a 46-71 record with its first bowl win in 35 years. Consider his first two season after taking over this lackluster program went 4-20 the first two seasons. Since, its record is 44-41. The Eagles have gone to five bowl games the last seven years under him. Creighton looks to be program builder. He should start gaining more recognition with his climbing Eagles.

Baylor froze, literally. Air Force is good, but the Bears seemed to cower in the cold air nearby in Fort Worth. The Falcons probably had the benefit of some survival course training all cadets at USAFA get exposure to. Pardon the pun.

Gotta have “Hartman”

Wake Forest QB Sam Hartman played and led his Demon Deacons (8-5) to a win over Missouri, 27-17 ( the SEC is 0-2 in bowl play thus far – SEC! SEC!). He overcame serious medical issues this season. He didn’t opt out “to wait for the draft.” If we drafted for a pro team, we’d take him any day over Kentucky’s QB Will Levis. If anybody needs to prove himself to the pros, it’s this QB. We saw him against Georgia in his team’s 16-6 loss. His accuracy prevented a Wildcat upset within reach that day. Don’t go by what Mel Kiper, Jr. says. This guy needed to show what he’s made of against a good Iowa defense. He opted out. He relies on hearsay, not actions. Hartman has guts.

2024 proposal: Playoff games, Bowl games, and consolation games

We categorize post-season matchups between mediocre teams (6-7 wins) as “consolation” games, not “bowl” games. We hope the NCAA would take some of the luster off these teams who consider themselves “bowl” teams despite being among 80 schools with very mediocre seasons playing for accolades associating themselves among the best teams competing over the course of the season. Starting in 2024, at least fans will be able to discern a teams’ status between a “bowl team” and “playoff team”. Now, when a team says we have three playoff teams on our schedule, it will far outweigh a team who declares “we play seven bowl teams next year.” The meaning “bowl team” won’t be the same as it is now. That take the luster off the bowl status that it currently implies.

To categorize Playoff, Bowl, and Consolation games, we propose that team records based on total wins separate the pools of teams to be assigned to a bowl or consolation game after the twelve CFP teams are selected. As we proposed in the past, eliminate contractual relationships between a specific bowl game and two conferences. Instead, based on payouts by each bowl, highest to lowest, establish a selection order of bowls to be assigned in order. Then similar the the NCAA selection for the basketball tournament, establish a committee to select two teams to compete in each bowl from the two remaining categories depicted here after the CFP participants have been selected.

Ponder this

Example of our proposed process: 80 teams qualify among the 134 future FBS teams to play in the post season. The playoff selections bring the Bowl/Consolation teams down to 68. The 68 teams are ranked in order by their total wins. Looking at records of teams remaining after the four going to the CFP this year (UGA, Michigan, TCU and Ohio State), five teams have 11 wins this season. From among Clemson, Troy, Tulane, USC, and UTSA, the committee would pick four of these to play in the two highest paying bowls.

The remaining team gets added to the next pool and has to be the first selected to play a team with 10 wins. This year includes Penn State, South Alabama, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington. This same process continues through nine-game winners and then through eight-game winners. Once the selections are down to seven-win teams, the games are considered consolation games.

Might as well let every team have chance to play a game. Teams can opt out due to excessive injuries, changes in coaches, no interest, etc. When there’s not enough bowl/consolation sites available, “flip a coin” to determine which of the lower seeds would host a game. This allows lower-win schools to get some extended practice time like the winningest teams get every year, if they want the opportunity. It also pits two lesser schools whose fans perceive playing against a team they could possibly beat after a low-win season. This year could be Every game is televise throughout the season to begin with. Let them all play! That’s what the current “bowl” season trends to. Four teams with 1-11 records among Colorado, UMASS, Northwestern, and South Florida this year could be paired off to get another game and more practice.

Our 2022 bowl teams roll

Nine teams we watched play this season have mustered a bowl record of 6-3 through Christmas Day! Two of those losses came against two other teams we saw play this season. Troy beat UTSA in the Cure Bowl and Houston defeated Louisiana in the Independence Bowl. Louisville, Western Kentucky, Wake Forest and Middle Tennessee all came up winners. Only Baylor fell on a freezing, cold night not far from their campus in Waco, TX to Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth..

Ten more teams on our 2022 slate play in upcoming bowls. Among them, No. 1 Georgia plays No. 4 Ohio State at the Peach Bowl CFP Semi-final. Utah State, Texas, South Carolina, Clemson, Kentucky, Alabama, Purdue, and Penn State return to bowl action against teams we did not see play this year. Enjoy the rest of Bowl season!

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Ed. by Steve Koreivo, Author of Tales from the Tailgate: From the Fan who’s seen ‘em all!  If you like our stories, read all our tales when we saw all 120 FBS teams (at the time of publication) play for the first time.  Or, start thinking Christmas gifts for your favorite college football fans!  We also encourage you and whoever you buy for to submit a review for us. Please click on the title or copy of the cover on our right sidebar to go to our Amazon page to buy and review.  Thanks!