OUR VIEW: Aren’t there too many bowl games?

With Christmas just around the corner, college football fans from all around will gear up for another holiday season packed with bowl games.

College football fanatics will have the chance to watch bowl game classics such as the Continental Tire Bowl, the Mazda Tangerine Bowl and the GMAC Bowl. Wait. The Continental Tire Bowl and the GMAC Bowl?

What was a system that rewarded college football teams who had stellar seasons, is now a joke. Teams with 6-5 records are now commonplace in the bowl picture, as there are now 28 bowl games on tap for the holiday season. Regular season games might as well be called bowl games.

Twenty-eight bowl games? This means 56 of the country’s 117 Division I football programs will enjoy post-season action. Six of these games will be played on New Year’s Eve alone. That’s 21 hours of football.

When push comes to shove, playing in a bowl game is usually good for the participating university and football program. Bowl games generally bring revenue to the universities involved.

But it isn’t all about the money. Bowl games were once viewed as a reward for teams that had exceptional seasons. With the number of bowl games being increased to 28, teams with subpar records such as New Mexico, Mississippi and Fresno State have accepted bids.

One problem is some conferences have set contracts with certain bowl games. All that is needed to qualify for a bowl game is a .500 record. If BYU had beaten Utah, thus finishing its season 6-6, the Cougars would have received one of the Mountain West Conference’s four guaranteed bids. It turns out only three of the MWC’s teams qualified after all.

The bottom line is post-season participation in collegiate athletics should be reserved for those teams who deserve it. In this way, credibility is preserved, and people can actually catch all of the games on TV.