Kirk Herbstreit apparently threatened to quit Gameday if Mcafee left

[selmaborntidefan]

I’m just saying that this idea that bowls stopped mattering during the playoffs is just coming more from an anti playoff point of view and not really from the truth. Bowls really started to matter less and less when we started to see more of an effort to find a true national championship game.

And that aspect I agree with.

Look at it like this:
Rose Bowl Exhibition Only 1902, 1916-34
Bowl Exhibitions 1935-1965-68 (except for 1966)
National Championship Factor Bowls 1969-1998
BCS and NY6 1999-2014
CFP Three-Bowl Setup and NY6 2015-now

In reality, the only times more than one bowl game really mattered (save the 1966 bowls ending the 1965 season) was the brief 30-year span from Texas winning the last all-white team title in 1969 to Nebraska begging for votes after smoking Tennessee in a bowl like they were marijuana.

 

[81usaf92]

And that aspect I agree with.

Look at it like this:
Rose Bowl Exhibition Only 1902, 1916-34
Bowl Exhibitions 1935-1965-68 (except for 1966)
National Championship Factor Bowls 1969-1998
BCS and NY6 1999-2014
CFP Three-Bowl Setup and NY6 2015-now

In reality, the only times more than one bowl game really mattered (save the 1966 bowls ending the 1965 season) was the brief 30-year span from Texas winning the last all-white team title in 1969 to Nebraska begging for votes after smoking Tennessee in a bowl like they were marijuana.

Correct me if I’m wrong but the continued use of the system of bowls as national championships was mostly used because it took forever to get ND and MSU to even agree to play in the bowls in the first place.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Correct me if I’m wrong but the continued use of the system of bowls as national championships was mostly used because it took forever to get ND and MSU to even agree to play in the bowls in the first place.

There's no singular reason, but there are several overlapping ones of varied importance, but there's one that always talks: money.

1) the Rose Bowl conferences vs the College Football Association (CFA)
Back prior to 1984, you could only appear on TV a limited number of times per season (excluding the bowls), which had the net effect of driving up TV rights fees. EVERY SINGLE SCHOOL understood that they had to negotiate as part of a PACKAGE because who outside of the 100-mile radius surrunding Ames gives a damn about Iowa State? So the non-Rose Bowl conferences combined into the CFA and sold themselves to the networks as a package.

Their fears came true when all games could be shown, and the rights fees plummeted at the same time the NFL, NBA, and MLB were making big money. Indeed, the reason Tide Pride exists in the first place is that it was put in place to make up for the economic shortfall that the mammoth drop in TV revenue of the mid-80s caused.

2) the simple big money the Rose Bowl paid out
The Rose Bowl - with those schools in most of the largest US states population-wise back in the day - paid a bundle more than the other bowls could. And it was A LOT more. In 1985, Iowa met UCLA in the Rose Bowl and the schools took home $5.8 million each back to their conferences. That's more than twice as much as the $2.25 million the Orange and Sugar paid out.

That's why the Big Ten (or Pac 10) wasn't going to throw in for a national championship game - not until the day they could be guaranteed revenue exceeding the big haul they were gathering.

3) the bowl agreement locking in the Rose Bowl teams affected every other bowl
The Sugar Bowl owes its continued existence to some guy in a houndstooth checked hat. If he had not been willing to sign on and agree that the SEC champion would play in New Orleans, then in all honesty, the Peach Bowl or Gator Bowl might be the bigger game now. Once schools were locked out of the Rose Bowl - but the Orange and Sugar would guarantee big money - the conferences needed financial security.

What basically brought the Big Ten and Pac Ten to the table was that Roy Kramer set up the SEC title game AND pulled that old trick of "bowl agreement here, bowl agreement there" to run up the dollars he could pocket.

4) ABC controlled access to the Rose and Sugar Bowls was the other big problem.
Why would ABC want CBS, who had the Cotton, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls - to beat them in the ratings with a national title game?

Part of what brokered the deal was the Citrus Bowl agreed to a contract matchup between competitive SEC and B1G teams, a contract that lasted from 1992 to 2015. The money from that game softened some of the prospective loss from the declining dollars at the Rose Bowl if the B1G or Pac was excluded.

 

[Power Eye]

I didn't care until his disrespect of CNS during the UGA TCU game.

I never liked Pollock. The way he talks is like nails on a chalkboard to me. The constant use of bro language and corny slang terms, I get second hand embarrassment for him.

I will never forget him declaring us “done” when Waddle went down in 2020. Considering we didn’t have a game that was ever in doubt that season beyond maybe the Florida game, it was such a ridiculous take, but that’s kind of his thing.

 

[Tide-one-on]

I enjoy Gameday! I hate Coach Corso is ailing, but it is a big part of my Saturday mornings. Don't always agree with everything they say, but they do a good job with the features and storys that make our game so special..

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

I don't think anyone likes the announcers that we get stuck with on network TV regardless, and for most, they want the "voice" of their own team. It doesn't bother me a bit who is announcing because sometimes one of them is going to make a comment out there that I don't like, and it doesn't matter in the end. Third-party announcers are not there to cheer lead for my team, and I understand that. I absolutely enjoyed Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football; many didn't.

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

I have to say that I haven't liked any of Bama's announcers since John Forney, Doug Layton, and Jerry Duncan were on the air together. I would much rather listen to Herbie than Eli Gold or Chris Stewart.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Correct me if I’m wrong but the continued use of the system of bowls as national championships was mostly used because it took forever to get ND and MSU to even agree to play in the bowls in the first place.

THE ONLY BOWLS THAT EVER MATTERED FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
(note: the year cited is the SEASON, meaning the 1968 season would refer to the 1/1/69 games)
1968 - Rose Bowl (1 Ohio St vs 2 USC)
1969 - Cotton Bowl (but 3 others would have mattered if Texas lost)
1970 - Cotton, Rose, Orange (#3 Nebraska's win made them AP champs when UT and Ohio St lost)
1971 - Orange Bowl (1 Nebraska vs 2 Alabama)
1972 - Rose (1 USC vs 3 Ohio St)
1973 - Sugar (1 Alabama vs 3 Notre Dame; #2 Oklahoma ineligible and had a tie)
1974 - Orange (1 Alabama vs 9 Notre Dame; Tide wins, a title; Tide lost? Probation OU wins it)
1975 - Rose, Orange
1976 - Sugar, Rose (2 vs 3 but only mattered if 1 Pitt lost Sugar)
1977 - Cotton, Orange, Sugar, Rose (the latter if events broke a certain way)
1978 - Sugar, Rose, Orange
1979 - Sugar, Rose, Orange
1980 - Sugar, Orange, Gator (last 2 only if UGA lost Sugar to N Dame)
1981 - Cotton, Sugar, Orange
1982 - Sugar (1 UGA vs 2 Penn St)
1983** - Cotton, Orange, Sugar, Rose
1984 - Holiday (BYU vs 6-5 Michigan)
1985 - Orange, Sugar if Miami won and OU won Orange
1986 - Fiesta Bowl (first-ever ensured national title game before it was played)
1987 - Orange (1 vs 2)
1988 - Fiesta (1 N Dame vs 3 unbeaten WVA)
1989 - Orange, Sugar (#3 Michigan was not going to be champ if Irish beat CU anyway so no Rose)
1990 - Citrus, Orange, Cotton (if Tech lost Citrus)
1991 - Orange, Rose
1992 - Sugar (1 Miami vs 2 Alabama - first Bowl Coalition ordered matchup)
1993 - Orange
1994 - Orange, Rose if the pollsters weren't impressed by Nebraska
1995 - Fiesta (1st Bowl Alliance ordered matchup)
1996 - Rose, Sugar (if Arizona St lost Rose)
1997 - Rose, Orange

Notice that you usually have NO MORE THAN TWO bowl games that had any full-blown effect on the national championship. In 11 of those 30 years, you had a de facto national championship game in one bowl, either 1 vs 2 OR 1 vs 3 with 2 elsewhere but 3 is undefeated. In a 12th, Texas played the early game and ended the speculation.

In nine other seasons, you had MAXIMUM two bowl games that mattered - and sometimes one only mattered if the team ranked #1 lost.

You had one season where the national champion played on December 21 (1984), but they were able to present the bowls as "the games that might decide the national championship."

When people are talking about "when bowl games mattered" in reference to the national title, there are only TWO time periods they can even be talking about:
1) 1977-83 (excluding 1982)
2) 1990

Now that doesn't mean the bowls were not PERCEIVED as important, but gee.....

1975 - 11 bowl games
1996 - 18 bowl games
2000 - 25 bowl games
2007 - 32 bowl games
2012 - 35 bowl games
2017 - 40 bowl games
2022 - 42 bowl games

In a 26-year span, we added 25 bowl games...and if you eliminate one year for Covid, we added an AVERAGE of one per year.

 

[BamaInBham]

And that aspect I agree with.

Look at it like this:
Rose Bowl Exhibition Only 1902, 1916-34
Bowl Exhibitions 1935-1965-68 (except for 1966)
National Championship Factor Bowls 1969-1998
BCS and NY6 1999-2014
CFP Three-Bowl Setup and NY6 2015-now

In reality, the only times more than one bowl game really mattered (save the 1966 bowls ending the 1965 season) was the brief 30-year span from Texas winning the last all-white team title in 1969 to Nebraska begging for votes after smoking Tennessee in a bowl like they were marijuana.

I'm not exactly sure what you are saying regarding the bowls from 1916-65 being exhibitions, but I know that many teams, probably most, took them very seriously. Maybe you're not saying that they weren't taken seriously, but it seems so.

 

[BamaInBham]

Here is another set of bowls that mattered regarding the NC. This was because of the timing of the last AP poll changing to be taken after the 1965 bowl season.

1965 - Orange Bowl, #4 Alabama beat #3 Nebraska; Rose Bowl, UCLA beat #1 Mich State; Cotton Bowl, LSU beat #2 Arkansas. Note: the AP poll was taken before the bowls thru 1964, but when NC Alabama lost the 1964 Orange Bowl to UTx, the "Joe Namath game", the AP changed to taking the final poll after the bowls. Hence the 1965 Orange Bowl, the last game of the day, a highly entertaining game for multiple reasons, after the developments in the Cotton and Rose, surprisingly became the game for the NC - winner-take-all, and the whole country knew it. It was high drama and Alabama performed remarkably on the big stage again and pulled off the win with a brilliantly played game. Though most of the country was dazzled by the display put on by Alabama, there were many in the media who were outdone by Alabama's good fortune in how the polls had worked in their favor for two straight years. IMO, that was as big of a reason for the 1966 denial as general "Northern bigotry", though It's impossible to know what is in everyone's mind.

 

[rolltide_21]

The only time I’ve seen Pat Mcafee was the SECC Gameday. Not given his podcast a listen nor have I watched Gameday this year except for the SECC game. He called the dawgs & then picked Bama. I thought that was hilarious. I’m sure he’s quite entertaining.

 

[alabama mike1]

He definitely brings an energy the show is lacking. Des is average at best, Kirk does a very good job and Coach Corso is just getting old but I have so much respect for that man.

 

[CraigD]

Bowls were meant to be rewards anyway for almost all teams that participated. They were never meant to be an extension of the season. Yes, they served that purpose for a few decades, but before and after that era, they are and were just rewards.

Exhibitions is a term I’ve heard used