I started watching a couple games yesterday and ended up channel surfing instead. I'm glad these players get a reward for having a decent season but these bowl games are really struggling for attention and viewership and relevance.
None of that is new of course. The posts here are reflective of the low level of interest even among rather ardent fans.
Then we get to NYD and there often are 2-3 games at the same time one would wish to watch.
It's an interesting question about spreading the games out, though it's not like folks ever get super jazzed about say the Holiday Bowl, which was long the best bowl pre-NYD.
Out of curiosity, I looked at the overlap moments
Purdue-Zona vs Texas-Mizzou Dec. 27,
TCU-Standford vs MSU-WSU Dec. 28 (Both at 9 EST)
A weird Dec. 29 stacking of 1 p.m. WF-A&M, 3:30 NC State-ASU, 4:30 Kentucky-NW
Dec. 30 Louisville-MissSU, Iowa State-Memphis at 1,
NYD morning of Mich-SC, UCF-Auburn and ND-LSU starting noon-1
Only 1-2 of those are things I'd be mad to not split screen, and mostly you'd just have to reduce the Big Ten's NYD inventory to solve that.
(As for the relevance part, it just is part of the structure. Many of these games are TV wallpaper, a more attractive fill-in than college basketball bodybag games. I deeply enjoy Troy-North Texas, but the sport as it is has the natural gap that fans don't totally care about good teams. Then you have the weird split that a 7-5 Iowa team gets more attention that 10-2 Troy, and what can you do? Granted, the Las Vegas Bowl has been toiling in obscurity since 1992, and was the Fresno-based California Raisin Bowl before that. )
