College football’s power conferences are considering a plan that would pool their best teams left out of the proposed 24-team College Football Playoff and place them in a tiered bowl system, Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli confirmed to The Athletic.
One idea, which was discussed this week at the ACC spring meetings, is for each of the four leagues to supply five bowl-eligible teams — 20 total — to the 10 top non-CFP bowls. There are plenty of questions remaining about the selection process and which bowls would participate, but it’s a proposal that’s gathering interest among the leagues.
“We think it’s a great idea,” Carparelli said. “When you’re talking about the numbers of teams who have played in the postseason — even at the biggest number that the CFP is contemplating — that still only accounts for less than half of the bowl-eligible institutions from the Power 4 conferences.
“If you take the next group of teams that just missed the Playoff, and you provided a system that allowed for flexibility, promoting the best matchups, taking geography into the situation, we could have some really exciting games that complement the College Football Playoff and fill those time slots in between each round.”
Based on last year’s final CFP rankings, the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC each would have had at least five teams to furnish the bowl pool, while the SEC would have sent three. Whether the two remaining spots in the arrangement would go to the four other power-conference teams that were bowl-eligible (three ACC, one Big Ten) or to a pair of five-win SEC squads is far from being determined.
The conferences would determine which bowls would join the tier, with payouts, location and history likely playing a role. Among the bowls that currently offer the highest payouts for appearances are the Citrus and Pop-Tarts (both Orlando, Fla.), Alamo (San Antonio, Texas), ReliaQuest (Tampa, Fla.), Music City (Nashville, Tenn.) and Duke’s Mayo (Charlotte, N.C.). The Sun (El Paso, Texas), Pinstripe (Bronx), Gator (Jacksonville, Fla.), Texas (Houston), Holiday (San Diego, Calif.), Liberty (Memphis, Tenn.) and Las Vegas bowls are in a similar range. The number of teams and bowls involved could shift as discussions become more serious.
Carparelli stressed that the bowls’ health remains strong despite the uncertainty over the future of the CFP field, which will remain at 12 teams for the upcoming season. Eight non-CFP bowls generated more than 4 million viewers last winter, with the Citrus Bowl (9.1 million) and Pop-Tarts Bowl (8.7 million) leading the way with their Michigan-Texas and BYU-Georgia Tech matchups, respectively. All four of those teams would have qualified for a 24-team CFP.
But there is still interest in games not involving the best available teams. The Pinstripe Bowl between Penn State and Clemson featured teams that opened the year with national championship aspirations but combined for 13 regular-season victories. Still, their game generated 7.6 million viewers.
“That was between two teams that under any format that’s currently being contemplated, they would not have been in the Playoff,” Carparelli said.
There are 41 bowls scheduled for this fall, with Puerto Rico and a second bowl in San Diego, Calif., replacing games in Los Angeles and Detroit. It’s possible the bowl system could shrink in the future with a larger Playoff.
“I think the market will dictate that,” Carparelli said, “and the bowl system will be ready to react and respond to what the market requests.”
