I know this is going to shock you, but Detroit became the latest to shutter its doors to the college football postseason.
I’m sure players are distraught at the thought of missing a few days in D-Town, in the dead of winter, to play in front of a couple thousand fans in an utterly meaningless bowl game.
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Here’s a novel idea moving forward: Cut loose more struggling, straggling bowls, and make bowl season great again.
That’s right, I said it.
Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve reached the point where — I can’t believe I’m writing this — the idea any December ball is good ball is now a wild miscalculation.
Most December bowl ball is unwatchable.
When you’re begging teams with losing records to play in bowl games that are nothing more than content for ESPN — and when some of those teams with losing records are turning down invitations — it may be time to start rethinking this process.
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Detroit’s exit earlier this week followed game cancellations from the LA Bowl, and the Bahamas Bowl. A full-blown tragedy, I know.
Northwestern played Central Michigan in December in the (insert sponsor) Detroit Bowl, and won 34-7. For those who pine for the pristine bowl age of days gone by, a Northwestern-Central Michigan game in September is called a body bag game.
In other words, Northwestern is paying CMU to come to Evanston and take a whipping. But three months later, whoa, buddy, now we’re talking.
Flat out electric.
Can we cut to the chase here? If you’re watching Troy play Jacksonville State in the Salute To Veterans Bowl from Montgomery, Ala., on a random Tuesday in mid-December, you may have a problem.
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Want a Salute to Veterans? Don’t make them watch that slop.
Or how about the 68 Ventures Bowl, where Louisiana and Delaware played to see who could reach seven wins first. I’m gonna venture to say no thanks.
There’s the Xbox Bowl and the Myrtle Beach Bowl. The Gasparilla and Boca Raton Bowl, and yep, something called the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl.
And who could forget the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl? Want to impress me, Doggfather?
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Bring your pals Ricky, Bubbles and Julian to the joint, and make the trophy a replica sterling silver double wide. Way she goes, bud.
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Seriously, it’s almost as though those running college football — for the 1,000th time, the presidents of the SEC and Big Ten — are giving the non-SEC and Big Ten schools a ball of yarn stuffed with catnip and calling it bowl season.
There were 41 bowl games this season, everyone. Forty-flipping-one.
Let’s do some quick math, shall we? That’s 82 of the 136 FBS teams playing in the postseason, or 60%.
The elite of college football haven’t separated from the pack as much as they’ve allowed bowl season to water down the postseason — and by proxy, the sport itself.
College football was once built and sustained on its irreplaceable regular season of every game matters. Now it doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean you reinforce that now huge blindspot by underscoring it in the postseason.
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The new CFP is the marquee product of college football, and shouldn’t be dragged down by five-win Mississippi State praying coach Jeff Lebby gets a bucket of mayo dumped on his noggin — and avoids an eighth loss. He didn’t, for the record.
Playing in a bowl game is a reward, not a right depending on how many random cities can convince donors to come up with enough cash to pay teams and keep the stadium lights on.
You want a December to remember? Lop off 20 bowls, leave 16 (not including the CFP bowls) and watch how important those games become to programs trying to find a way to the elite of the game.
Watch how important it makes November — the regular season — with teams vying for one of those spots.
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Watch attendance increase, and television ratings jump and college football postseason popularity take off like it never has before. Watch cities compete for games, and get creative with financial packages ― and watch college football make even more money.
Watch something good come out of this hellish train wreck of the past five seasons of paradigm change in the sport.
Make bowl season great again.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Get rid of more bowl games, watch college football postseason flourish
