How Could Anyone Say Bowl Season is Better Than March Madness?

[Husky Dad]

March madness for me when CT is in it is like Christmas when I was a little kid. A good BE tourney and a good NCAA tourney is life altering. College football isnt close to the same type of excitement.

 

[UCHuskies08]

I have to agree. I don't know if it's because UConn was so bad this year, or our CR situation, but I had little to no interest in any bowls this year. I watched part of this first half, and that's about it.

 

[Gurleyman]

When I was a kid/teen, Jan. 1 was a lot of fun, even without a team to root for. Wall to wall games, channel flipping, building up usually to the biggest one at night.

Then they realized there was more money to be made in spreading all the big games out and not splitting the tv ratings, and bowl season blows chunks now. The other games before the national title one are useless, unless you have a rooting interest with one of the two teams playing.

In hoops, you can root for your own team first, then root for your brackets, or root for teams in your way to get upset and clear your own path, or root for the Cinderella, and every game is a knockout game building up to the next round. Totally different feel.

 

[CAHUSKY]

March madness for me when CT is in it is like Christmas when I was a little kid. A good BE tourney and a good NCAA tourney is life altering. College football isnt close to the same type of excitement.

Who said it?

 

[Robertelamin]

Yeah who says that? Out of all of our big pro or college sports it has the absolute worst postseason and it isn't even close. It has a great regular season but when the payoff is a giant turd of a game like this with 30 other meaningless exhibitions sprinkled in over 35 days it is pretty obvious the playoff cannot come soon enough.

 

[msgordon]

plenty of people say this, but not in the northeast

 

[CAHUSKY]

plenty of people say this, but not in the northeast

Or the west coast. I'm a huge college football fan but think bowls are silly. Bowl season is a series of meaningless exhibitions. No one but those broadcasting the games would suggest that "bowl season" was better

 

[mauconnfan]

I watched about 1/2 total, of a game......and that was last night!!!

There is nothing comparable to March Madness in my eyes, even w/o the Huskies in it!!!

 

[dogpause]

The networks must think it is, but I sure don't.
In MM, a 15 seed can pull an upset. In BCS, the 2nd best team doesn't have a chance against #1 in many cases.

At least we learned early that we could switch channels.

 

[junglehusky]

Or the west coast.

I assume Pac12 fans still speak of "The Grandaddy Of Them All" in reverent, hushed tones?

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

I think most fans of both sports think that while the hoops tourney is better than bowls...they also think the regular season is better in football.

 

[mcs333]

I will take MM any day. The upsets, buzzer beaters, the controversial calls, coaches going crazy, the agony of defeat and the joy of victory. Plus it's anyways fun to argue with your friends about your bracket especially when you pulled a couple of upsets out of your a--.

 

[Palatine]

A 16 team playoff in football would be great!

But the opening week end of march madness is indeed a fine insanity. Hard to imagine football could pack so much drama into so little time.

 

[gampelcrazies]

Nothing beats march madness

 

[CL82]

I'm more of BB than a football guy, so put me down as part of the MM crowd. That said the pagentry of football can be very impressive when well executed. I'd love for UConn to have that type tradition and fan loyalty but it takes time.

A 16 team football playoff would be great for the fans. If it ended with the national championship game on Jan. 1 that would be perfect and would restore some of the excitement that has been missing CF in my opinion.

 

[arnie3]

This BCS Championship game was like a 1-16 match-up in March Madness. It was over by the first half! Truly a dud! Even our championship game against Butler had Butler leading at halftime.
Alabama made ND look like a mid-major team.

 

[Kitaman]

Did they say last night that one team had over a 35 day layoff?

That alone says something needs fixing.

By the way that senior linebacker from ND lost some loot last night.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Or the west coast. I'm a huge college football fan but think bowls are silly. Bowl season is a series of meaningless exhibitions. No one but those broadcasting the games would suggest that "bowl season" was better

The Rose Bowl is great. Tons of tradition and the parade is a fricken blast if youve never been. That being said, the Rose Bowl will be far cooler when its part of a playoff. Once football goes to a 16 team playoff people can start comparing it to March Madness.

 

[champs99and04]

The last couple weeks of a college football season are fascinating - there are so many things that can happen, so many different scenarios that can ensue, etc. It's extremely intriguing to look at the polls every Sunday to see who grabbed the upper-hand in the National Title race. The other thing that makes college football great, is that any one loss can end your hope of a championship - that's not the case in any other sport, especially not college basketball. There is some merit to the "the whole season is a playoff" defense BCS backers come to, but clearly there are some pressing flaws.

For starters, the BCS blows. The 30+ day layoff (ND had something like 45 days off before the game, which is beyond ridiculous) in between the final regular season game and bowl season is momentum-killing, in my opinion. I know college football fans will still tune in, but the casual fan loses interest, which is why the NFL will always be more popular in the Northeast. I get not wanting to over-tax these kids, but could a six team playoff really do that much harm? The regular season would lose little, if any meaning at all, and instead of having to wait a ridiculous amount of time for bowl exhibition games, you'd jump right into a playoff format that would rival, if not surpass the NFL's version in terms of popularity and excitement.

This year you could have had Georgia/Oregon and K-State/Stanford in the first round with ND and Alabama waiting in the semi-finals. Then when ND got exposed as frauds against Georgia or Oregon, you would have had a much more compelling title game. I said this last night - 5 of the last 7 BCS Title Games have been blowouts. You're doing something wrong when that happens, and it's an embarassment that it took this long to begin moving in the right direction.

 

[huskyjawz]

The last couple weeks of a college football season are fascinating - there are so many things that can happen, so many different scenarios that can ensue, etc. It's extremely intriguing to look at the polls every Sunday to see who grabbed the upper-hand in the National Title race. The other thing that makes college football great, is that any one loss can end your hope of a championship - that's not the case in any other sport, especially not college basketball. There is some merit to the "the whole season is a playoff" defense BCS backers come to, but clearly there are some pressing flaws.

For starters, the BCS blows. The 30+ day layoff (ND had something like 45 days off before the game, which is beyond ridiculous) in between the final regular season game and bowl season is momentum-killing, in my opinion. I know college football fans will still tune in, but the casual fan loses interest, which is why the NFL will always be more popular in the Northeast. I get not wanting to over-tax these kids, but could a six team playoff really do that much harm? The regular season would lose little, if any meaning at all, and instead of having to wait a ridiculous amount of time for bowl exhibition games, you'd jump right into a playoff format that would rival, if not surpass the NFL's version in terms of popularity and excitement.

This year you could have had Georgia/Oregon and K-State/Stanford in the first round with ND and Alabama waiting in the semi-finals. Then when ND got exposed as frauds against Georgia or Oregon, you would have had a much more compelling title game. I said this last night - 5 of the last 7 BCS Title Games have been blowouts. You're doing something wrong when that happens, and it's an embarassment that it took this long to begin moving in the right direction.

I don't know, letting Ga come in off of a loss is pretty anti climactic and takes away the drama of the SEC championship. The beauty of the four conference model, is the championship games are really the first round of the playoff, and the four winners are in the semis. Then you have a true champion, and every team knows going into the season that if they go undefeated, they will be the national champion, regardless of polls and voters. This is what exists in basketball for every division one team, and why basketball crowns a true champion that is won on the hardwood, not in the polls.