You Should Be Pissed This Bowl Season

If there's one thing that's annoying about college football besides the letter B-C-S, it's the absurd number of bowls out there for undeserving teams. Sure, I know the champions of the smaller schools deserve bowl bids; it's the crappy bowls that I just absolutely hate. You know, the consistently crappy ones that nobody will watch.

Take, for example, these match-ups for the 2007 bowl season (taken from ESPN.com):

Cincinnati vs. Southern Miss- And the Bearcats got royally screwed why?

New Mexico vs. Nevada- Although I find in interesting New Mexico's kicker has no ACL in his plant leg and still went 26-of-29 on FGs, that's the only thing I find interesting here.

BYU vs. UCLA- Mismatch, plain and simple. BYU deserves better.

Boise State vs. East Carolina- See BYU

Boston College vs. Michigan State- Really? The 8th-place team from the Big Ten against an ACC Championship game participant?

However, these screw-ups are nothing compared to what REALLY pisses me off:

#1- USC vs. Illinois: *cough* blowout *cough*...Juice Williams hasn't seen a defense as scary as what the Trojans bring to the table. Illinios-Hawaii would be better suited, or the Fighting Illini against maybe Virginia Tech. Screw tradition, I'm young.

#2- Georgia vs. Hawaii- So, arguably the hottest team in the nation, albeit 2 or 3 weeks off, can't face the other arguably hottest team in the nation, USC? Instead, we have a top-5 Georgia team against unproven Hawaii? While I will watch this game because it intrigues me and I want to see how the mid-major does, Georgia vs. USC would be so much more fun.

#3- Missouri vs. Arkansas- See #4

#4- Virginia Tech vs. Kansas- Okay, let me think here: Missouri was #1 in the BCS before Saturday, and are currently two spots ahead of #8 Kansas in the BCS standings. Oh, and the Tigers beat the Jayhawks.

Somebody should be fired. Right the heck now. What are you thinking, Orange Bowl morons?!?!

Now, some games will be a boatload of fun to watch, such as Arizona State-Texas, Tennessee-Wisconsin, Oklahoma-West Virginia, and Clemson-Auburn. But the rest of the games either suck or aren't that interesting. Anybody getting amped for Colorado-Alabama? What about Fresno State-Georgia Tech?

To finish this rant, here are my solutions to this problem:

First, get rid of bowl tie-ins. All bowls should be set in an order of best-to-worst, in terms of payout/date played (if there's a tie, flip a coin or something). Then have each bowl select the best possible two teams from whoever's available after the BCS bowls get their choices.

Next, eliminate the crappiest 10 bowls. A standard should be set for college football, and 6-6 ain't it, I don't care if when you were 6-5 the Rose Bowl was a slight possibility (UCLA) or if at 5-6 your bowl streak was in jeopardy (Louisville, who didn't make it). If this is about money, stop boring people to death and pay attention to the ratings. Give the deserving teams their shots, including smaller schools from mid-major conferences, and let what the fans want happen. (Which would mean a playoff, but I spoke of that last post)

College football: The only sport that may not listen to its fans at all.