As bowl games kicked off Saturday, college football fans had their eyes elsewhere.
As bowl games kicked off Saturday, college football fans had their eyes elsewhere.
As the bulk of coaching carousel decisions cemented, the Heisman Trophy Ceremony took place and Notre Dame turned their omission from the College Football Playoff into a fiasco in recent weeks, Washington’s 38-10 win over Boise State in the LA Bowl on Saturday largely occurred in the background.
But these games used to mean something more.
Players, who once might’ve been overjoyed by a trip to another city and a gift package, can shrug at games that hold little meaning today in the NIL-filled college football landscape.
Coaches, who would’ve been fully committed in a postseason contest, are forced into a distracting carousel of vacancies before the season’s end.
Fans, who may’ve used part of their holiday time to travel to their alma mater’s bowl game, are increasingly skipping them as the College Football Playoff drains their prestige.
Just 23,269 fans attended the LA Bowl Saturday, the lowest in the game’s six-year history. According to a report from On3.com’s Brett McMurphy, the game will end as its contract expires. It seems to be a victim of this shift in the college football landscape, among other causes.
Hollywood Park officials postponed discussion of the contest’s future when approached by The Sporting Tribune for comment before kickoff.
“We anticipate a highly exciting and competitive matchup,” they said. “Discussions regarding any future plans for the LA Bowl will be deferred until after the game.”
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Washington beat Boise State in the reportedly final LA Bowl on Saturday at SoFi Stadium.
The result of a decliningly relevant bowl environment? Many teams will go on to play for practically nothing.
Just look at the 8-4 Huskies, whose reward for a solid season was representing the former PAC-12 in the LA Bowl before a largely empty SoFi Stadium.
Of course, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many players to compete in an NFL stadium, but if few people care to make it feel meaningful, or personnel moves diminish the contest's relevance, then what’s the point?
Leading up to bowl games, much of the discussion about the contests had been centered on the teams that weren’t playing rather than those actually in them. Meanwhile, other chatter centered on the coaching carousel as programs poached each other’s coaches and coordinators.
Look no further than Washington, whose coach, Jedd Fisch, was a hot name on lists about Michigan’s coaching vacancy as he spent two years with the program under Jim Harbaugh. Though the second-year Huskies boss reaffirmed his commitment to his current team in recent days, his remarks haven’t stopped the outside noise.
“We haven’t spent any time focused on what people are saying out in the outside noise regarding me or other coaches on our staff,” Fisch said pregame. “We know that that’s the world we’re in right now. We know our players are being talked about or talked to from other teams, and we just have to really stay focused on the task at hand, which is the game tomorrow.”
As the College Football Playoff expands, now at 12 teams (up from 4), it’s time for a stark change to bowl games — either one that revives them or sends them into permanent irrelevance.
But in their current state, they are losing relevance, quickly.
Category: General Sports
