I skimmed part of the thread and got a general feel of how people feel. I think people who say there are too many yearn for the days when a bowl game meant something special. Those days aren't returning and I agree you don't have to watch games if you don't want to. There are tons of games on every Saturday and my viewing is limited to the Bama game and mostly other SEC games. If a big national game is on, I'll watch it.
I don't think the BCS hurts other game's ratings. I think the number of games is what hurts the ratings. Someone said in 1976 we had 12 bowl games. Well, four of them were on New Year's Day and the Bluebonnet Bowl was on New Year's Eve. So we only had seven other games spread out the rest of late December. (And only the one in Memphis was very important).
So if a bowl game came on, you had to watch it because there weren't many left. Now, there is no sense of urgency to see a game because there are still plenty more to watch. So a bowl game has gone from an event, must see TV, to just something else on the schedule. Also, if you didn't want to see the 1976 Peach Bowl, you only had two other choices on TV. Now there are a lot more viewing choices, which hurts ratings across the board.