Oklahoma football: How postseason bowl picture will change with CFP expansion?
By Chip Rouse
The first college bowl game on record was held in 1902 in Pasadena, California — in what continues today as the Rose Bowl — to help offset the costs associated with the Tournament of Roses parade. The first appearance by an Oklahoma football team in a postseason bowl didn’t come for another 37 years, in 1939.
The Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl came on board in 1935, and the Orange Bowl was Oklahoma’s first bowl destination in 1939 (1938 season). In 55 postseason bowl appearances, Oklahoma has been to the Orange Bowl 19 times, largely because of the longstanding contractual agreement the Big Eight and its previous conference iterations had with the Orange Bowl.
Those of us in the fourth quarter of life can remember when there were just six bowl games to service all of college football. The Gator Bowl, introduced into the postseason menu, in 1946, became number six in the lineup. Bud Wilkinson’s second Oklahoma team played in the school’s second-ever bowl game in the second annual Gator Bowl game, defeating North Carolina State 34-13.
Today, some 75 years later, the number of postseason bowl locations has grown to 41. That’s up from 18 bowls in 1992 and 28 in 2002. This year 82 out of 131 teams at the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) level participating in a bowl game between now and January 9, when the national championship will be decided at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
Don’t tell this to the teams and their players who have earned the opportunity to play in one of the second- and third-level bowl games this season — like the Oklahoma Sooners in the Cheez-It Bowl — but there are still only six or seven bowl games that truly have any major relevance, and some would narrow the list down to three: the two national semifinal games and the national championship contest.
All the other bowl games merely serve as window dressing and opening-act status for the four teams in play for the national crown and to a lesser extent the four other premier bowl assignments that are part of the so-called New Year’s Six bowls.
The bowl games obviously have a big impact on the individual communities and serve as a season highlight for players and teams, like the Sooners this year, whose seasons were more hit and miss, but at least enough hits to become eligible to receive a bowl invite. And with opt-outs, injuries and the transfer portal, the bowls and matchups at the lower end of the spectrum become of less and less relevance.
For a number of Power Five programs with playoff aspirations foiled, there is declining excitement about playing in a bowl beyond the top six bowl assignments that are part of the New Year’s Six.
If you are a Group of Five school, however, any bowl berth can become a crowning achievement of the season and a chance for national television exposure.
This disparity is likely to become even greater when the College Football Playoff is expanded from the current four teams to 12 beginning next season.
Those 11 games within the new playoff format, over three-plus weeks, capped by the winner-take-all national championship game, are going to be the ones that all college fans pay attention to and really the only bowl games with real meaning and something big to play for.
The first four games in the expanded 12-team format, matching seeds 5 through 12, will be played on campus sites, but they will still draw huge national following.
When the expanded playoff moves into the quarterfinal round, the games will be played on a rotational basis at four of six designated bowl sites (Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Peach Bowl).
The viability of the current college bowl structure with 41 different bowl possibilities and up to 62 percent of all FBS teams participating will continue to be challenged and debated, but it is reasonable to assume that some changes will become necessary.
“The viability of bowl games will rest solely on the players’ interest in participating,” said Troy Danen, athletic director at Tulane and a member of the Division I Football Oversight Committee, told staff writer Scott Dochterman of The Athletic.
Television also will have a big say in bowl relevancy and viability of bowl games going forward. Nick Dawson, vice president of programming and acquisitions at ESPN told The Athletic that viewership and attendance are the primary indicators of whether the system needs alterations.
Whichever way this ongoing debate goes, Dawson believes the next few years will better define college football’s postseason beyond the College Football Playoff.