Funny but true about the Independence Bowl

[isufbcurt]

Shreveport: The Grandaddy of Bad Bowl Games - NCAA Football - Yahoo! Sports

[SuperCy]

We only had two wins?

[Jeremy]

That's a good read. It goes to show some of the problems that have come over College Football. Going to a bowl game isn't the prestige that it used to be, it's now just about sponsors trying to have their name attached to something, even if it's two crappy teams playing in crappy places in front of crappy crowds. As much as I love ISU going to bowl games, I'd much rather see there be fewer bowl games where each meant something.

[SeattleClone]

We only had two wins?

Well, before halftime of the Colorado game we did only have two wins... Maybe he quit watching us then and made some very fair assumptions about how we were going to finish the season.

[pulse]

I totally agree. The only good destination bowl we've been to recently is the Insight in Phoenix, and what happened... 30,000 ISU fans showed up! These bad bowl destinations have got to end. If the destination is good, our fans will come flooding in.

[theshadow]

I totally agree. The only good destination bowl we've been to recently is the Insight in Phoenix, and what happened... 30,000 ISU fans showed up! These bad bowl destinations have got to end. If the destination is good, our fans will come flooding in.

It was also the first postseason appearance in 22 years, which made it pretty monumental. The fact that it was in Phoenix helped the crowd size, but wasn't the main reason.

[cyclonenum1]

32 bowl games this year...what a joke. The reality is that the proliferation of bowl games will not end...the fundraisers at the schools love them (even for less than desirable locations), the conferences love them (exposure), the cities hosting love them, television loves them (it gives them content), and most of all the coaches love them (so they can tout how many bowls they have been to).

Just dreaming here but if you were to cut any bowls the cutting should begin in two areas...those with paltry payouts (under $1 million) and those that are second bowls in the same city...this list includes Poinsettia ($750k and 2nd bowl in SD), New Orleans ($325k and 2nd bowl in NO...actually third this year), PapaJohns.com ($300k), New Mexico ($750k), Motor City ($750k), Champs (2nd bowl in Orlando), Emerald ($850k), Texas ($750k), Meineke ($750k), Armed Forces ($750k), Humanitarian ($750k), Insight (2nd bowl in Phoenix area), International ($750k), GMAC ($750k). That's 14 we can axe right off the bat.

I'm certainly not a big fan of Shreveport but it actually has become a "destination city" for gambling...a huge number of people from the Dallas area travel to Shreveport on a regular basis for the gambling! If you cut out bowls with either questionable December/January weather or that you don't consider a "destination city" or both then you have a long list of bowls in cities that would be cut...Birmingham-PapaJohns.com (Shreveport with no gambling), Albuquerque-New Mexico, Detroit-Motor City, Charlotte-Meineke, Memphis-Liberty, San Antonio-Alamo (I'm sorry...there is not that much to do in SA and the weather in December/January is typically lousy but kudos to their travel and convention people for really doing a wonderful job of "selling" this city as a destination), Shreveport-Indy, Fort Worth-Armed Forces, El Paso-Sun, Boise-Humanitarian, Nashville-Music City (only a destination if you are into C-W music), Atlanta-Chick-Fil-A (just a big city...not really any destination type activites and usually very "raw" weather in December and January), Dallas-Cotton (see Atlanta-Chick-Fil-A), Jacksonville-Gator (I lived in Jax and I love it but the weather in December / January is typically not too good...really the city is like a larger version of Shreveport with no gambling), Toronto-International (see Atlanta and Dallas), Mobile-GMAC.