Rewarding mediocrity comes at a cost, and evidently the NCAA is more than happy to be paid the price. For the 2015 season, the Football Bowl Subdivision will need 80 spots to fill 40 bowl games. You might hear there are 41 games, but that includes the national championship. Still, as of this week there are only 70 teams that have reached the bowl-eligibility threshold of six wins this season. No, they aren’t going to cancel the games. Title sponsorships have been secured for most of them, television deals have been signed for most of them, and there are teams ready for most of them. The good news for the NCAA is there are 17 teams still who can get to the six-win minimum. Five teams have a pair of games remaining; two from the Big 12 (Kansas State and Texas) and three from the Sun Belt Conference (Louisiana-Lafayette, Georgia State and South Alabama). None of the five are favored by the oddsmakers in both their remaining games. Of the 12 teams currently at 5-6, only three (Indiana, Tulsa and Buffalo) are favored in their final games. Three other Big 10 teams can get to six wins this weekend; Nebraska hosts No. 4 and unbeaten Iowa, Illinois has to beat Northwestern, and Minnesota will have to win at home over Wisconsin. By the way, two of the 40 bowl games are new this year. Can you name them and where they will be played? The answer at the bottom of this column. Why would the NCAA want so many bowl games? Isn’t that like handing out participation medals to everybody who plays? If we’re going to reward college football players with a participation-type of game, shouldn’t the NCAA solicit sponsorships from Go-Gurt or Capri-Sun? And yes, players from both teams should get a snack after the game. There’s only one rea$on for so many postseason games. Yes, the cash helps pay for some non-revenue sports, and bowl games help provide travel opportunities for players who otherwise might not get them. But I’ve not heard many people regret never having visited Boise in the winter, and no one is paying big bucks for a rowing coach these days. What’s especially disconcerting is there are plans to add as many as six more bowl games, some of them in exotic locations such as Dubai, Ireland and Little Rock. And as many as three games may become reality as early as next season. Perhaps this season is an anomaly; last year nine bowl-eligible teams stayed home. There’s been a history of adding bowl games over the last 60 years, and since 1995 the number of games has more than doubled. Every time games have been added, accusations of watering down the product have followed. This time, when multiple teams with even and non-winning records are rewarded with postseason games, the critics have a legitimate point. By adding even more games, more mediocrity will be rewarded. Other thoughts for the week: The NFL has long sought parity, and this season may just be the utopian version of that goal. Nine teams, or a quarter of the league, have winning records. Another 15 teams, two of them division leaders, are at .500 or a game below. Seven franchises have won three or fewer games, and two of those are within two games of the division lead. I was wondering if I was going to get another Indiana-Kansas college basketball matchup this week, live from Hawaii. It’s been several years since the Hoosiers and Jayhawks have played, and I was looking forward to spending a late night before Thanksgiving watching the Maui final between the two. Well, that’s not going to happen, but maybe they’ll play in March, when it’d be a lot more interesting. Lastly, in this week of Thanksgiving, it seems to me there’s more to be thankful for than ever, and more to pray about than ever. I’m not sure if that’s a product of the times, my age and awareness, or some combination thereof. But I’ll keep on being thankful (even for an abundance of bowl games) and praying. And the answer I promised you, new bowls for 2015 are: AutoNation Cure Bowl in Orlando, Fla. on Dec. 19, and the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl in Tucson on Dec. 29.
