Bowl games will be glorified participation trophies if new waiver passes

When it comes to selecting who will be eligible for a bowl game this winter, it could come down to whoever wants to take part in a bowl game will have the opportunity to do so.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still taking a toll on America, college football conferences have seen their seasons sporadically spread out with the ACC and Big 12 already playing, the SEC starting play this weekend, and the Big Ten beginning their season next month. The Pac-12 is trending toward having a season start after Halloween.

With different conferences playing a different amount of games, it’ll be nearly impossible to make it fair when it comes to figuring out what the requirement is to make a bowl game. Typically teams who go 6-6 get a shot to play an extra game and sometimes, in rare cases, 5-7 teams get a shot as well.

With schedules being so uneven this year and schedules greatly reduced, Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports reported that it’s possible any team who wants to partake in a bowl game could get an opportunity to do just that.

"“A waiver seeking elimination of all bowl eligibility requirements has been submitted to the NCAA by Football Bowl Association executive director Nick Carparelli. A decision could come as soon as next week.”"

Bowl games could still happen this winter and teams won’t be held to a certain standard minimum to be eligible to participate.

This could be a nice opportunity for programs that either don’t usually get to participate in bowl games or who are popular programs that just might be on a bit of a bad run in recent years (Nebraska comes to mind with this one). Now, this won’t mean that the NCAA wouldn’t have the final say, but chances are if a team has a good following, they’d be approved to play in a bowl game.

While bowl games are typically a staple of college football, it is a bit surprising that they’d go through with them this year, seeing how they aren’t all that necessary. Sometimes key players don’t even take the field for these games hoping to prevent injuries and with fans likely not being allowed (maybe a limited number), it takes the fun of the bowl games away.

Money talks in college football, however, so that’s why the NCAA will do whatever it takes to have bowl games this winter. If they do, we could see an unusual way of selecting the games this year.

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