They’ve completely gutted the meaning of a bowl game. I remember when getting to the Cotton Bowl or the Citrus Bowl meant you had a real season, a real identity. You’d spend December practicing with the same guys you bled with all year, not a bunch of mercenaries who just showed up. Now with this 12-team playoff, they’re talking about expanding it even more, and the bowls are just consolation prizes for teams with fifty new faces. It’s a participation trophy for a fantasy draft roster.
We used to have traditions. The old Southwest Conference matchups in the Cotton Bowl, the trip to Orlando for the Citrus, those were rewards. You built toward something tangibe. Now it’s just a pit stop for guys waiting to enter the portal or a meaningless exhibition before they declare for the draft. The Liberty Bowl used to be a big deal for us. Now? It’s just another TV slot to fill. They’ve stripped all the soul and history out of it for television money and playoff expansion.
The sport has lost its anchor. A bowl game was a celebration of a specific team’s journey. This current model, where half the roster turns over before the game even happens, makes the whole exercise a farce. They’ve traded tradition for a bloated, meaningless postseason structure that only benefits the networks. The heart of college football is gone, and the rotting corpse is dressed up in bowl game logos.