NEW YEAR’S DAY AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE FOOTBALL-WISE! - MIKE IN DA - DECEMBER 27, 2010

NEW YEAR’S DAY AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE FOOTBALL-WISE!

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 12/27/2010

When listening to sports talk shows, the following topic may came up every once in a while: "What is the greatest day in sports each year for you?

 

We get the same answers each year depending on the respondents' likes, such as: Super Bowl Sunday, the BCS Championship Game, Daytona 500, Final Four Saturday, MLB Opening Day, the Kentucky Derby, the final day of the Master’s Golf Tournament, the last day of Wimbledon Tennis or the U.S. Tennis Open, the Breeders’ Cup Races, etc. I'm sure you get the idea.

One of the days not mentioned above is New Year’s Day with regard to the college bowl games. Years ago, when I was a teenager and into my 20’s through around the time I went into the Army, New Year’s Day was the best sports day of the year to many, especially football fans. Remember that pro football wasn’t that big then compared to today.

 

In those days of the 50’s and 60’s there were only four games on TV on January 1: the Cotton Bowl (CBS) and the Sugar Bowl (NBC) in the early afternoon; the Rose Bowl (NBC) in the late afternoon; and the Orange Bowl (NBC) at night. These were the four major bowl games at the time.



A smorgasbord of games

Of course, back in those days, there was little TV coverage of games compared to today, as there was no ESPN, Fox Sports, weeknight college football, etc. We were happy, if we saw two or three games on TV a week. Therefore, we were more hungry for college football on TV and New Year's Day was a smorgasbord of it for us.

From 1956-67, the New Year’s Day menu included a minimum of four teams in the Top 10 each year, including #1, and all eight teams were in the AP Top 20. Sometimes as many as seven teams were in the Top 10.

During most of those years, the Heisman Trophy winner’s team played on New Year’s Day along with several of the top Heisman runner-ups. You also could see a bunch of All-Americans and a number of potential top NFL draft picks. And in those days, since the schedule was limited to a maximum of ten regular season games, most teams went into the New Year’s Day game either undefeated or with one or two losses. The bottom line here was that you were basically getting the "cream of the crop" on January 1.

Checking out the New Year’s Day bowl schedule for 2011, it got me thinking how lame this year's menu of New Year's bowl games is. In 2011, there are six bowl games on New Year's Day, but take a look at the games and you'll see that there's not much worth waking up for from your New Year's Eve night out, unless you have wagering action on the games.

There's a bowl game being played in the Cotton Bowl, but it’s not the Cotton Bowl. It's the TicketCity Bowl between unranked Northwestern (7-5, T7 Big 10) and unranked Texas Tech (7-5, 5th in the Big XII South). Then look at some of the other "prestigious" matchups on the one day of the year that is supposed to spotlight college football:

Outback: unranked Penn State (7-5, 4-4 Big 10) vs. unranked Florida (7-5, 4-4 SEC)
Capitol One: #7 Michigan State (11-1, T1 Big 10) vs. #15 Alabama (9-3, 4th SEC West)
Gator: unranked Michigan (7-5, T7 Big 10) vs. #21 Mississippi State (8-4, 5th SEC West)
Rose: #3 TCU (12-0, MWC Champs) vs. #4 Wisconsin (11-1, Big 10 Champs)
Fiesta: #9 Oklahoma (11-2, Big XII Champs) vs. #25 UConn (8-4, Big East Champs)

There are two games worth watching here - certainly the Rose Bowl, and possibly the Capitol One Bowl, if Alabama of the first half of the Iron Bowl vs. Auburn shows up and not the second half team vs. Auburn. Six bowl games and only two that feature a matchup of Top 20 teams. Five unranked teams are playing on New Year's Day and seven teams with at least four losses. If they knew that, my father, uncles, and grandfathers would turn over in their graves, if they could.

As I told you above, New Year’s Day football in my day was college football at its best. Back then, New Year’s Day bowl games meant something. It used to be the matchups that no football fan wanted to miss. You woke up in the morning and since there wasn't much to do that day, you were going to spend the whole day in front of the TV starting off with the Tournament of Roses Parade. It was one of the top three sports on TV days of the year, according to the Nielsen Ratings.

Since most HMW readers are not familiar with the teams of 45 to 55 years ago, I will go back just 20 years to January 1, 1991, and show you the difference in the quality of the teams competing then and now. The January 1, 1991 games were the following:

Hall of Fame: #14 Clemson (9-2) vs. #16 Illinois (8-3)
Orange: #5 Notre Dame (9-2) vs. #1 Colorado (10-1-1)
Citrus: #2 Georgia Tech (10-0-1) vs. #19 Nebraska (9-2)
Fiesta: #18 Louisville (9-1-1) vs. #25 Alabama (7-4)
Cotton: #3 Texas (10-1) vs. #4 Miami (9-2)
Gator: #12 Michigan (8-3) vs. #15 Mississippi (9-2)
Rose: #17 Iowa (8-3) vs. #8 Washington (9-2)
Sugar: #10 Tennessee (8-2-2) vs. Virginia (8-3)

Eight bowl games with only one unranked team and only one team that had four losses with six matchups between Top 20 teams! Not only that, but look at all the great cross-conference matchups. This year, there is no shortage of three Big 10 vs SEC matchups and five Big 10 teams playing on New Year's Day. That’s nice if you live in Big 10 country or the Deep South, but I'm not sure the rest of the country is as excited.

Even less than a decade ago, the New Year's Day Bowl situation wasn't this bad. In 2005, there were six games featuring no unranked teams and only one four-loss team. But, the last few years have been real ugly, as follows:

2008: 6 Games, 2 unranked teams, 4 four-loss teams
2009: 5 Games, 4 unranked teams, 6 four-loss teams
2010: 5 Games, 3 unranked teams, 5 four-loss teams
2011: 6 Games, 5 unranked teams, 7 four-loss teams

Of course, there are reasons for this. First, the BCS takes two of the top five bowl games off of New Year's Day to extend the bowl season. This robs New Year's Day of the Sugar and Orange Bowl this year, which are two good matchups. Of course, the BCS title game takes the top two teams off of New Year's Day as well. Don't worry though, if you're concerned about the TicketCity Bowl becoming the laughing stock of January 1; Conference USA shows up next year to take on the 6th Big 10 team! What better way to bring in the New Year than Purdue vs Central Florida in 2012.

Many are hoping that this convinces someone out there in charge that the BCS and the entire system needs to be changed, because it's negatively affecting our TV sports experience. At this point, I would much rather go back in time to the old system of 1991 where there were bowl games that actually mattered instead of this slop that we'll have to witness on January 1. This year, the greatest accomplishment of the BCS is screwing TCU and making millions of college football fans watch a hockey game from Heinz Field on New Year's Day.


The people in charge should some time in the future get back to making New Year's Day special again. The NHL Winter Classic has taken the day over a little and there is also a UFC event that day, too. There's also plenty of NBA and NHL action in the evening. In the good old days, the NBA and NHL had off because of the competition from the four major bowl games. 

The big mistake they made was putting all the BCS Bowls into a package and putting them into one network, because on that schedule from 1991, you had three networks carry those games and whatever day it was on, it was called "Championship Friday" or Saturday.


To me, I wish they would go back to the old way, have the BCS give you the title game like it's supposed to, and have the main bowls on New Year's Day and the title game a day or two after, and not on ESPN. With the games on ESPN, some people who don't have cable, will only be able to watch the Outback Bowl (ABC) or the hockey game (NBC), and I imagine most people may choose the hockey game because it's being played at an outside venue.

I really think the NCAA made a mistake in spreading out the bowl season into the second week of January. They once OWNED New Year's Day. Owned it. At this point, the Rose Bowl is the only real good viewing game you can count on.

College Football on New Year’s Day was fuckin' awesome when I was much younger. But as always happens, things always get worse before they get better for sports fans in general.



MIKE IN DA


HMW

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