It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are to.

Be careful what you wish for.

Lately, I've admired the stance the Big Ten and Pac 10 took for years - refusing to let go of the Rose Bowl and join any kind of championship alliance. When they ultimately gave in and we go the BCS in 1998 everyone was so happy that we'd finally get a #1 vs. #2 every year. Well that was great but it has rendered every other bowl game a meaningless exhibition. The excitement of New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day left the building. There were several times that more than one game had an impact on the National Championship in those days before the BCS.

This new playoff system is only going to make that worse. Oh sure, 4 teams means two more games that will impact the championship. But all the rest of the bowls will be even less appealing than they are today. We're making a ton more money but IMO the product has become more corporate, more watered down, and less exciting than before.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are to.

Winning ten games out of eleven was a phenomenal accomplishment that used to sometimes bring a title. Winning ten out of 14 isn't even worth bragging about.


Part of this is because there are way too many bowl games. Whether you win six or 11 games, you go to a bowl game now. Another reason is that once you've had extreme success, lesser success doesn't feel so great. LSU won 2 national titles in five years and had a shot for three in nine. Don't expect them to get hyped about a mid-level bowl. Same thing happened last year with Florida.

This was a "great" year for Miss State. For Vandy. Even Ole Miss. Not so much for some other schools.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are to.

I don't believe it (the BCS, that is) would have changed if the SEC hadn't gotten to and won sooo many championships. And I think that 2012 (when 2 teams not only from the same conf. but also same division of said conf.) was the proverbial straw. We in the SEC have long thought we were the best conference and this long string of wins just proves it (and the other conferences don't like it). I can understand that but I agree wholeheartedly with the OP's assessment. And I don't like it. Used to be it was exciting to go to Sugar Bowl, now, not so much.....

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are to.

Have friends on the Outback Bowl Committee and they have told me that this is one of the lowest selling games for the SEC representative in many years. The Iowa tickets are going faster and will outsell the LSU allotment by a long shot. I have met Coach Ferentz on several occasions (and the Iowa fanbase) here in Tampa and have always been so impressed with him. He is a great guy and very down to earth. Their fan base reminds me of the Michigan State fan base (met some of them at their last Outback Bowl appearance and the Cap One Bowl versus Bama) - great people, who know football and don't talk smack. The Iowa fans are the polar opposite of the LSU fans.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

I read somewhere that LSU returned a portion of its ticket allotment. I don't remember how much though.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

Blame the NCG. Gone are the days when a team finishing 5th in the final regular season standings could jump up and win a NC after the Bowl games were done (1977 when ND even jumped above the winning #3 team that beat Ohio State convincingly). It's all between the perceived #1 and #2 now. So, all of the other Bowl games are like the ones pre '72(?) when a lot of them were just rewards for a good season and it was all for fun and show. Not even taken very seriously by some, as a National Champion had already been named by one of the major awarding organizations. The non-Championship Bowl games now are meaningless other than team pride. Otherwise not a whole lot of anything else matters (I realize there are some other considerations when winning/losing Bowl games such as recruiting, but hopefully you all get my drift).

Roll Tide, Roll...A'ight!

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

Coaches will always like bowl games for the extra practices.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are to.

TideEngineer08 said:

Be careful what you wish for.

Lately, I've admired the stance the Big Ten and Pac 10 took for years - refusing to let go of the Rose Bowl and join any kind of championship alliance. When they ultimately gave in and we go the BCS in 1998 everyone was so happy that we'd finally get a #1 vs. #2 every year. Well that was great but it has rendered every other bowl game a meaningless exhibition. The excitement of New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day left the building. There were several times that more than one game had an impact on the National Championship in those days before the BCS.

This new playoff system is only going to make that worse. Oh sure, 4 teams means two more games that will impact the championship. But all the rest of the bowls will be even less appealing than they are today. We're making a ton more money but IMO the product has become more corporate, more watered down, and less exciting than before.

Click to expand...

Precisely. I have been against the BCS and playoffs for several years because it has killed the excitement of going to a bowl game unless it's the BCSCG. It used to be that the bowls were all exciting to watch but there were fewer bowls back then so the teams and matchups were usually better than they are now. New Years day was my favorite day of the year because I could watch college football from morning until night and every game was exciting. Now, I barely watch any of them because they are mostly meaningless.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

I think a big part of the problem was all of the placating the BCS did to the non-BCS conferences, resulting in a lot of terrible bowl match-ups.

It used to be that the lesser bowl games were simply an appetizer to whet your appetite for the amazing, big-bowl games that were yet to come. Now, very few of the big-bowl match-ups will blow up the skirt of even some of the most die-hard college football fans.

The big-bowl match-ups should be games that pretty much everyone would wish would have happened during the regular season. Stanford and Michigan State is pretty good. Alabama versus Oklahoma isn't half-bad. Clemson versus Ohio State is okay. However, Baylor versus UCF? Seriously? Okie State and Mizzou is a pretty good match-up but these teams are only a couple of seasons removed from having played each other every year for decades. Wisconsin versus South Carolina and Texas A&M versus Duke may be good match-ups on some levels but most people aren't getting excited over either game.

Imagine the following hypothetical, non-BCSCG Bowl Game lineup:

Rose: Stanford vs Michigan State
--- Pac12 #1 vs B1G #1
--- The Rose Bowl as The Rose Bowl

Sugar: Alabama vs Baylor
--- SEC #2 vs BigXII #1
--- The (perceived) ultimate Offense versus Defense match-up

Fiesta: Ohio State vs Missouri
--- B1G #2 vs SEC #3
--- Each team lost their Conference Championship Game, aka the "Battle of the Almosts"

Orange: Oklahoma vs Clemson
--- BigXII #2 vs ACC #2
--- Probably the "worst" of these BCS match-ups but still a world better than the current iteration of the Fiesta Bowl.

Cotton: Oklahoma State vs LSU
--- BigXII #1 vs SEC #5
--- The Mad-Hatter against his old school? Priceless.

Capital One: Texas A&M vs Oregon
--- SEC #6 vs Pac12 #2
--- Manziel vs Mariotta. No defense, sure, but who wouldn't want to watch that?

Outback: UCF vs South Carolina
--- AAC #1 vs SEC #4
--- The AAC gets the stiff by not making a BCS Bowl but, really, they don't deserve it anyway.

Other bowl match-ups:
Duke vs Arizona State
Georgia vs Texas
UCLA vs Louisville
Wisconsin vs Georgia
USC vs Fresno State


Now, who wouldn't get excited about the entire bowl season due to the excitement building up toward some of those big games? Almost all of them are Top 25 versus Top 25 games, are fairly evenly matched, and many have interesting story-lines.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

As Bill said, and my rant for years is that there are too many bowls. You win 6 games and you got a spot in the Famous Idaho Potato bowl in lovely Boise, ID on a fake blue field. 35 bowl games, 70 of the 124 FBS teams is ridiculous. I know, everybody on here says they will watch any college football bowl game regardless of who is playing.

The BCSNCG has made all other bowls meaningless with fan apathy if their team isn't in the big game. The bowls should be limited to the top 30 teams based on the final polls. At least with the new playoff format coming next year there will be 4 fan bases excited rather than the current 2.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

BB, you must be in Shreveport and listening to Tim Fletcher. I heard the same thing this morning.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

I can understand it being difficult to get all hyped up about your bowl opponent when your SEC West opponents have won 6 (maybe 7) recent NCs and SEC East Florida won another 2. When you have that kind of competition in the regular season and you are set to play Iowa, I can understand the lack of interest in the game. When anyone of 4 teams can win the SEC West each year and possibly 5 if Old Sis does another amazing recruiting job, it is hard to be excited about any team from the Big 10 or Big 12.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

I have a lot to say on this subject, and the reasons why should be obvious. Some have been stated already but I have some others.


1) The BCS automatically means the bowl games mean less.

In 1965, there were nine bowl games. Three of them had direct bearing on the national championship. In 1985, there were 18 bowl games. Three of them had direct bearing on the national championship.

But in 2005, there were 28 bowl games and only one that meant anything at all.

2) The domination of the bowl games by ESPN has caused a lot of this.

The simple fact of the matter is that you have all of maybe a month to get everything ready. And btw - it used to be that the season ended on January 1 with the big feast. A lot of people go back to work on January 2. So let's say you're an LSU graduate who relocated to Texas (as my boss did years ago). First, you have no idea until early December which bowl game you get. You don't know if you need reservations in Dallas, Tampa, Jacksonville, or wherever. And you probably didn't even pay attention that your game might be days after (or before) January 1.

What are the odds you're going to be able to suddenly announce on December 5 that you're taking a week off after new years to go whatever city (and good luck getting hotel reservations btw)?

Let me put it this way - if the Sugar Bowl was being played on Monday rather than Friday, how many Bama or OU fans would bother to go? Let's just say it would be a lot fewer than with the game being on Thursday.


Furthermore - the bowl schedule is dictated by the fact that ESPN shows virtually all of them. Long ago the lesser games were syndicated by Mizlou and other groups and the NYD bowls were always on the same network. And that feast always ended on January 1 (or a few times the Peach Bowl was January 2, but anyway) - it didn't drag on for another week into the NFL playoffs, Baseball Hall of Fame election, and nearly to the point where juniors have to announce whether they're entering the draft.

3) Realignment has changed the calculus.

There was a time when Nebraska versus Michigan would have been a huge deal. It's not anymore. And because this was recent, it's not a big deal for Nebraska to play any of the Big 12 teams, either. So you now have about 25 teams that people yawn about if Nebraska played them in a major bowl game. You have another 30 or so that nobody cares about. And if they draw Colorado out of the Pac 12, same thing.

Or Texas A/M playing a Big 12 team - they were just there two years ago. And they're in the SEC. So you've just eliminated about 20 opponents anyone would even really care about (except perhaps Texas).

The number of intriguing match-ups you could only get in a bowl game is gone. The one nugget with potential here is a Pac 12-SEC matchup (other than the Auburn-Oregon game, these two conferences have not played a bowl game since 1989). But once these teams start meeting in the Four Team, even this draw will be reduced.

But there's a catch here, too.......how many bowl games would load up evenly with fans of both teams? Most SEC fans would not go to the Holiday Bowl any more than Pac 12 fans would go to the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

4) Context is everything.

As I noted earlier, LSU has won 2 national titles in the last decade and nearly won a third. Same with Florida. Shocking as this is going to sound to some Tide fans' ears, if Auburn wins this game we can say the same about them (2004, 2010, 2013). Alabama has won three in four years.

Why would fans of any of these programs want to go to a consolation game?

I have a buddy who lives in Eugene, Oregon (the one I brought down for the Arky game). He has watched the fan base expectations change like they've been shot full of adrenalin. A few years ago, just going to the Rose Bowl was enough. Then they won one. Then they came within one play of winning the championship. He noted that when they lost the Rose Bowl a few years ago (Wisconsin?) their fans were sad for about ten minutes.

These are the same fans now who get emotional about 2012 and will angrily and huffily insist they would have blown out the 2012 Crimson Tide.

It's everywhere folks - like Santa Claus.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

RJ YellowHammer said:

I read somewhere that LSU returned a portion of its ticket allotment. I don't remember how much though.

Click to expand...

6000+. That's a lot to return.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

Winning has a way of destroying a fan base's sense of humility. In 2008 I was hurt by the loss to UF but was so excited about the direction of the program. I'm not tired of being on top by any means, but one's perspective does change. I felt like it may have been a crushing or embarrassing loss that was needed to stir the program. As good as coach Bryant was he seemed to run into the same issues as coach Saban. Keeping players hungry and not believing they are entitled is difficult. I notice this even on my job.

I began when my company was a startup. We had a lot of trial and error and struggles. That allows me to appreciate the success. 10 years later, the newer hires take for granted the successes but overlook the effort it took to get there. It's not their fault but frustrating none the less trying to get them to understand why we do what we do.

I can't forget those years of post Stallings and per Saban. I have enjoyed the ride and have becomes spoiled and sometimes unrealistic as a fan.

Re: It's not just Alabama fans who are "spoiled". A lot of other fanbases are too.

I do not agree that the BCS made smaller bows meaningless. They were already meaningless. The Music City Bowl (insert any other small bowl here) has never had a meaningful game in terms of the National Championship and it never will.

I think people forget just how asinine the old system was. Often times, two teams that had clearly set themselves apart from the rest of the country were stuck playing opponents who themselves had no shot at being champion. It was absurd that we coined the term Mythical National Champion because we had no means of determining an actual champion of the field. That's fine, I guess, for 8th grade debate team tournaments but not for major college sports. The BCS gave us that. A true, undisputed champion. College football is better for it.

Part of the problem is the pure number of bowls. The bowl season is saturated with uninteresting games from teams that barely had winning seasons. Reducing the number of D-I teams would help in this regard and, most likely, improve the matchups in the bowl games that remain part of the D-I format.

The real problem, IMHO, is the fans themselves. Fans aren't spoiled by their teams success. They're unrealistic, ungrateful, unappreciative fair weather fans who need constant and instant gratification. Oregon is the perfect example. Their probably the most recent team to gain that "elite" status in the CFB world. Their fan base is young and the school has no real tradition or history. So every year when they lose their annual November game, the players and fans just give up. That's the real problem in CFB, imo, THE FANS.