It’s the middle of May, which just might be a little bit too early to talk about college football season. Ok, it’s never too early to talk about college football season.
Specifically, ESPN has given us something to look forward to by releasing the schedule for their insane amount of bowl games coming up at the end of the campaign. Give ESPN credit for this, they’ve developed a near-monopoly over the bowl season as the only other bowls that will be played other than the ones below are the Sun Bowl (CBS), the Cure Bowl (CBSSN), and the Arizona Bowl (CBSSN). That includes 13 bowl games that are owned and operated by ESPN. So yes, blame them for the dilution of bowl season as well.
That leaves ESPN a whopping 35 games, which you can see listed in their entirely below, followed by a few notes about the playoff. It all starts with a quintuple-header on Saturday December 16th and ends with the national title game on Monday January 8th. All of the games are on ESPN except for just four on ABC and one on ESPN2.
Thank the college football gods that this year we finally return to the college football playoff semifinals on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. After a couple years of enduring the unpleasant scenario of playing the games on New Year’s Eve, finally the rotation gets it right this year and fans can return to the way things should always be.
That doesn’t mean the New Year’s Six schedule is without some quirks, though. The bowl slate will leave New Year’s Eve to the NFL on a Sunday and play their other three games on December 29th and December 30th. The Cotton Bowl will actually be played on the 29th while the Fiesta and Orange Bowls will be played on the 30th.
It’s just another step away from “changing the paradigm of New Year’s Eve” I suppose. Maybe the NFL has a better chance of competing with Seacrest.
