I was waiting until I had all of the numbers in to put up this post, but after a strong Bowl Season in terms of ratings, ESPN says they’re not looking to make any changes. In fact, ESPN college sports chief Burke Magnus said that it would be “inappropriate” to tell College Football what to do. Via the Chicago Tribune….

But even now that ESPN has partnered with the BCS, winning the broadcast rights to every top bowl game from 2011-2014, network officials say they won’t try to push college football toward a playoff.

“We will not be shy about giving our opinions, if asked,” ESPN college sports chief Burke Magnus said. “But I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to tell them what to do, just like they don’t tell us what to do.”

The “us” was represented Thursday at a Football Writers Association of America breakfast by Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford, who said he sees no compelling reason to change any aspect of the current five-bowl BCS format, even though President-elect Barack Obama has called for a playoff.

Barack Obama’s opinions aside, I think ESPN has a wonderful opportunity to do something for the fans of Football. An overwhelming percentage of people want a Playoffs system in College Football, and the “Leader” actually has the leverage to provide it to them. If you ask me, I think it’s time to start telling people what to do. If you look at the ratings below, you’ll see that while ESPN made steady gains, FOX’s results were pretty bad this year. ESPN can still keep their collection of games, and then capitalize where FOX left off.

Seems pretty obvious to me, but then again….what do I know? Here the ratings for your perusal….

ESPN BOWL GAMES:

EagleBank Bowl

2008- 2.2
2007- No Game

New Mexico

2008- 2.6
2007- 2.0

magicJack St. Petersburg

2008- 1.3
2007- No Game

Pioneer Las Vegas

2008- 2.5
2007- 2.1

R+L Carriers New Orleans

2008- 0.8
2007- 1.6

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia

2008- 3.2
2007- 1.7

Sheraton Hawaii

2008- 2.6
2007- 1.5

Motor City

2008- 2.5
2007- 2.3

Meineke Car Care

2008- 3.9
2007- 3.2

Champs Sports

2008- 4.5
2007- 3.2

Emerald

2008- 4.0
2007- 3.1

Independence

2008- 1.0
2007- 1.6

Papajohns.com

2008- 2.4
2007- 1.9

Valero Alamo

2008- 4.6
2007- 2.3

Roady’s Humanitarian

2008- 2.4
2007- 0.7

Pacific Life Holiday

2008- 4.6
2007- 3.7

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces

2008- 1.7
2007- 1.7

Gaylord Hotels Music City

2008- 2.8
2007- 3.4

Chick-fil-A

2008- 3.9
2007- 4.4

Outback

2008- 3.1
2007- 2.9

Capital One

2008- 6.4
2007- 9.9

Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi

2008- 11.7
2007- 11.1

AutoZone Liberty

2008- 2.7
2007- 3.5

International

2008- 2.1
2007- 1.4

GMAC

2008- 2.2
2007- 1.0

BCS ON FOX:

FedEx Orange

2008- 5.4 (-27%)
2007- 7.4 (Sugar Bowl in same time slot)

Allstate Sugar

2008- 8.4 (+8%)
2007- 7.9

Tostitos Fiesta

2008- 10.4 (+35%)
2007- 7.7