Are there too many bowls?

Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala.

A bowl game is supposed to be a reward for a good season. Now, with the glut of postseason contests, a team with a losing record might get an invitation.

“I think it stinks,” former Nebraska player Aaron Taylor said Wednesday in a text message. The CBS college football analyst said the sport “is becoming perilously close to losing the purity and amateurism that separates it from its pro counterpart.”

Finding enough winning teams to fill bowl slots is a fairly recent concern. The number of bowl games has nearly doubled from the 18 held in 1996.

The NCAA recently licensed the Dallas Football Classic and the New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, pushing the number of bowls to 35. The International Bowl didn’t apply for a license, so there will only be one more bowl than last season.

That still means 70 of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams will get to go bowling, even if one or two happen to be 5-7.

“I’m not one of those guys that’s like, well, that’s too many bowls,” said Tony Barnhart, who covers college football for CBS Sports and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But everything can have it’s excess, and to me, I think that’s kind of where we need to draw the line is having 5-7 teams playing in the bowl games.”

Though the NCAA doesn’t think a losing team will get in a bowl game, especially with wins over FCS teams counting toward bowl eligibility, it is still coming up with a contingency plan — just in case.

“That’s what’s being discussed at this point, if you can’t fill the spots,” said Mark Womack, associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference and a member of the NCAA’s Football Issues committee that approved the new bowls.