Editors Note* This is our newest weekly segment where writer Peter Huguenin, aka Monk, will be giving you a top 10 list of anything and everything on his mind. Due to our hectic schedule we were not able to get this edited and posted until Thursday, however these articles will be coming to you every Wednesday so be on the lookout!

Why was Bowl Season so Bad this Year?

This year seemed to be a lackluster year for bowl season. It is normally one of my favorite times of the year, but this year it seemed that there were very few competitive games. So why was bowl season so bad?

10. Close games in the beginning of the bowl season – This bowl season got off to an amazing start. Utah competed with their rival BYU in a 35-28 thriller of a game. Arizona outlasted New Mexico 45-37, Appalachian State’s game against Ohio came down to a game winning field goal, and those were only the first three bowl games of the season. It set the bar extremely high for this years bowl season, and unfortunately the rest of the bowl games could not match.

9. The excitement of the regular season – The regular season was filled with meaningful games, controversial finishes and loads of excitement causing the bar to be raised to a higher standard of games during the bowl season. Michigan State’s games against Michigan, Nebraska, and Ohio State were three of the craziest games all season, all conference rivals with post season implications. Ole miss upsetting Alabama was another example of anything being possible in college football. It was an amazing regular season which brought unrealistic expectations to the bowl games.

8. Key players getting injured, ejected, or left home – There were tons of stars leading up to bowl season, unfortunately we didn’t get to see a lot of them play. Trevone Boykin was left home after a bar fight, Joey Bosa who is projected as a top 5 pick in the 2016 NFL draft was ejected after a questionable targeting call. Jaylon Smith of Notre Dame was injured early on in the Fiesta Bowl. Even on the smaller stage, players were missing throughout the country; Air Force was without their best player on the defensive side of the ball, Weston Steelhammer, and Boise State’s third leading tackler Tanner Vallejo missed the team’s trip to the bowl game along with many others. This bowl season was like putting on a Broadway show with a high school drama department.

7. The argument of if the right teams were in the playoff (again) – Last year it was TCU, this year it’s Ohio State and Stanford. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but it does take away from the bowl season when everyone is arguing about if the right teams got in. Of course, you will never make everyone happy no matter what system you implement, but expanding the tournament so all Power 5 conference champions get in would go a long way in resolving this issue. Clemson and Alabama cruising into the championship at 1 and 2 did not help anything, far from Ohio State proving the playoff system right in its first year, last year, winning a championship as the last team selected.

6. The nonexistent crowds – Crowds are getting smaller and smaller at bowl games. For the fifth straight year bowl attendance is down. 5 games had less than 40,000 fans, with the least being 17,000. Compare that to the 80,000 plus that most Power 5 programs play in front of each week, and it’s no wonder why the bowl games seem flat when you watch them on television.

5. The three 5-7 teams that made it into the bowl games – Now I’m not going to go off on a tangent about how there are too many bowl games. I love football and the more the merrier, but when teams with losing records are making it into the bowls we have a problem. No one wants to see San Jose State, Nebraska, or Minnesota in a bowl game. Especially seeing that those 3 teams were chosen off of their Academic Progress Rate. I’m okay with all 6-6 teams making it into a bowl game, but no teams with losing records deserve to be in the games. Bowl games are something that should be earned, not given.

4. The fact that the semifinals of the playoffs were on New Year’s Eve – I don’t know what they are thinking by having the playoffs on New Year’s Eve. I am one of the biggest college football fans you will ever meet, and I wasn’t even able to finish the 2nd half of the Alabama game (granted I didn’t miss much). New Year’s Eve plans will normally trump college football for most people. The NCAA would be smart to rethink their approach. A simple one day switch to New Year’s day would generate a huge increase in ratings, as proven by this years numbers.

3. The average margin of victory was 16 points – There was a lack of competitive games this year, which takes away from the enjoyment of watching. There were many blowouts, and unless your team was playing in the game you just couldn’t care less. If your team isn’t playing, no one wants to watch a team blowout another team. The gap in talent of teams was far too great in many of the games this year.

2. The average margin of victory in the New Year Six bowl games was 24 points – It is okay to have a few blowouts during the bowl season, everyone expects that, but for all of your marquee games to be such one-sided affairs is horrible. The closest result was a 14 point win by Houston. Not a single NY6 Bowl ended in a one possession game, and that takes away from the excitement of college football.

1. The hype leading up to the bowl season – The biggest reason to blame this lackluster bowl season is that the hype was so huge for the bowl games, especially the New Year’s 6 Bowls; there was no way to live up to the hype. Every game, that was televised on ESPN Network this season, hyped up the playoffs. I was so excited for the playoffs before they started. The games could have gone to OT or they might not have lived up to they hype. It started with the 4 hour bowl selection show and continued with non-stop coverage on ESPN between then and the games.The bowl season did not live up to expectations, though expectations were probably too high.

PS. Trying to live up to the incredible performance of the first ever playoffs were going to be a tall task regardless.