As usual, I was listening to,sports radio yesterday and I thought the host had a interesting and good idea for bowl games. According to him, some schools who play in some of the more obscure bowl games actually lose money by going to the bowl game. Lack of fan travel, i.e. Ticket sales...... such as Birmingham the day before Christmas. Also TV viewership is continuing to decline on many of the bowls. In nut nutshell here's his idea.

Currently there are 40 bowl games, reduce that number by 15 to 25 bowls a year.

Raise the bar, for a team to be eligible they have to win 8 games during the season. Thus, better quality of teams playing.

Teams that reach 6 wins a season will be rewarded by being allowed the "bowl prep extra 15 practices". No bowl but extra practices.

I liked the idea, it would help bring interest back to football, both college and NFL. I know some of you may watch football every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday....... I don't, especially later in the season.

I agree the number of bowls should be reduced, although I'm not sure of the logistics in telling a city they can't host a bowl game.

Regarding the "bowl prep extra practices" concept I see several hurdles. First, why would a senior without NFL aspirations want to participate if no game is scheduled? Do they hold practice with 20% of the team missing?

Second, most schools play their last regular season game around Thanksgiving and winter break starts a couple weeks later. When finals are figured in how do you fit 15 practices into that time frame? I believe Oregon only practiced half of their allotted number this year.

Finally the annual coaching turmoil. How many are changing jobs during that period? What about recruiting? Is it really an advantage to have a 6-6 team running practice just before the early signing period while the staff of an 11-1 Alabama or Clemson is free until mid December?

I think the number as it's set now is actually pretty OK. Does it make sense from a fiscal standpoint? No, but neither do $6 million coaching salaries. Spending money on extra practices (aka development) and experiences for college-age players is great. Raising the bar to 8 just gives fewer of these opportunities all around.

I'm not sure why anyone would push to restrict the number of bowl games. As far as I know, teams/schools are able to decline the invitation to play in them, corporate sponsors can decline the opportunity to participate, and of course we are able to decline the opportunity to watch and/or travel to see them. I, for one, love bowl season and if I had it my way, there would be more of them. If I don't want to watch OSU take on Kansas in the Pile-O-Crap Bowl, I don't have to, but if these teams want to play, so be it. The fact that only the most die hard and masochistic fans want to watch them, or that some of the bowls don't make money, or that some schools make the wrong choice to participate may be an indictment on the choices, but why not leave that to them?

Too many bowls. No school should accept losing money and paying to play in them. I would like to see bowls only take place after Christmas, especially now with the early signing period. I'd rather have my coaches out recruiting rather than preparing for a crappy bowl game. The lesser bowls really are a waste of time and resources in the great grand scheme of things. I kinda like the idea.

I'm with you groundswell. No bowls until after Christmas. Gives the kids time for finals and coaches time to get ready for early signing period. 40 bowl games? Not a big fan. Maybe In conjunction with the no bowls until after Christmas idea, limit them to 30 bowls?

I'm on the fence...

I like giving as many schools as possible a chance to play on the bowls but honestly I think having so many is really watering down the product. Also when you have so many that you are playing during work hours that is really hurting attendance and viewers which cuts into everyone's money.

I'm watching the Texas A&M game right now and the stands are ridiculously empty

You know one thing that is tricky is that not everyone is taking finals at the same time. In example, LSU starts school weeks before Oregon, thus we are done with finals way sooner.