let the FCS have their show. Not to mention the Army Navy game. December and early January can have plenty of games. My suggestion to transition this, is to let schools decide if they want a bowl game to start the year or end the year. I would much rather start the year with a big game and hope one day Virginia Tech gets back to making the playoffs. The opt out bowls are silly and figure out another way to give schools the extra practice time. Heck the practices for a post season bowl have become silly with so many opt outs. Just add an extra practice before they start the season. Some even want to end spring practice since rosters aren't set, but I am not sure about that one. I am sure if you gave many schools the option of opening the season with a big game and have an extra week of practice they would take that over the opt out bowls and practice time.

Beat a good team to start the season and it doesn’t even count? I don’t see the attraction.

You can call it an "exhibition game", but you can see where this might be going. Miami's AD..."The brands need to play each other more," Radakovich said. "That's what has to happen. Do we divide into two divisions? Who gets to play Notre Dame? How are we doing those kinds of things? And if the SEC goes to nine (conference games) we might have to go to nine as well with a bifurcated brands and non-brands [divide]." FSU's AD..."Today in college football, more than ever, it's important for strong brands to play strong brands," Alford said. "That helps our brand, as well as all of us within the conference. We've been consistent in that belief for a while now as you can see in our nonconference scheduling philosophy. It's important for our conference and our media partners."

games as game 1 of the 12 game regular season. People were excited to see the big games this past weekend because they were big brands AND had conference and national championship implications.

How and when does a team earn and get selected for the bowl bid?

do it, but if you play week zero (what they call it now) then if you don’t make the playoffs, you don’t play in a bowl. However, you get to start the season a week earlier. The original thread was about the best ratings ever for last weekend and every stadium was packed, at least when the game started 🤣, because most if not all were intriguing matchups. They can be neutral site or a home game, just like they just did, but only a few schools could do it. Many Opt Out Bowl games have half empty stadiums, and the interest is falling as the playoff is expanding. Let’s not just do something, because that’s the way we have always done it. Let’s do better!!

NCAA defines the season as ending after the conf champ games. Everything else is special post season created for tv and money. So moving the bowls would just be basically preseason games like the NFL has. And espn would still want and need content to fill up those December weeks when everyone is off of work and has time to watch content. The bowls fill a content need.

FCS and Army Navy game have their games too. Plenty of college football content to be had in December and January. This past weekend was fun, way better matchups than the Opt Out Bowls. The ratings were the best ever, the stadiums were packed and it was much better than watching the Opt Out Bowl half empty stadiums with important parts of the roster not playing. They are only going to let them play so many games, so trade preseason for the post season. ** Edited by Stech at 9/4/2025, 11:44:06 AM

I think people would just view them The same way they do the better matchups in week one now. For example, what would be the difference between Virginia Tech playing in a bowl game and Virginia Tech playing South Carolina at a neutral site for week one? ** Edited by wwhokie1 at 9/4/2025, 11:15:26 AM ** Edited by wwhokie1 at 9/4/2025, 11:16:06 AM

instead of a bowl. The opt out bowls and practices are becoming less and less useful, that's the bigger point. Replace them with an early game for everyone. Right now you can only play an early game every so many years.

to a specific location during the holiday season, I think many (maybe all) the companies that are responsible for organizing and managing the bowl games would disagree that the bowl games are becoming less and less useful. Technically there is nothing in the bylaws that limit the number of times a team may play in a Week 0 or Week 1 neutral site game. If you want to talk about limitations, then you may want to focus more on the limitations of the interest from bowl organizers to manage an event and/or the interest level of corporate sponsors. If you move the bowl games to the beginning of the season, then it is very likely you would have to deal with the same issue. Heck you might even seen a decrease in the number of bowl games because the locations don't need a boost in tourism during the month of August.

first preseason practice. "17.11.3.1 First Practice Date. An institution shall not commence official preseason football practice sessions, for the varsity, junior varsity or freshman team, before 31 days before its first scheduled intercollegiate game. Before its first scheduled intercollegiate game, an institution may not engage in more than 25 on-field practices. (Revised: 1/11/89, 4/14/03, 4/24/03 effective 5/1/03, 4/28/05, 1/18/18, 6/11/18, 5/18/22)" I doubt that rule would change even if bowl games were moved to the beginning of the season because of "safety" reasons. Remember where majority of the bowl games are played and the temperature/humidity of those locations in late July and August when factoring in that players may be wearing their full equipment for an outdoor practice. Even if teams are practicing on campus, they will likely be dealing with those same conditions whenever they practice outdoors. ** Edited by VTHokie2000 at 9/4/2025, 11:06:29 AM

CFB calendar is being looked at for change. The only constant is change. The last 5 years the speed of change is at an all time high. So it's your call, but I would not write it off just because it has not changed before, but maybe that's just me.

then are the schools and the NCAA willing to assume the risk that more players could die or suffer mental/physical damage due to heat exhaustion/stroke? Remember not every DI football school has an indoor practice facility and the calendar would impact both DI subdivisions (FBS and FCS). So I am not writing off just because it has not changed before, but for those reasons.

why not let the school make the decision. If you want to play a preseason game, do it, if want to play a postseason game, you can do that. I do think the preseason neutral site games could give us some great matchups. It keeps people talking about the sport in the offseason. It is easier for fans to plan the trip and you could do some lost rivalry games like Oklahoma Nebraska, Virginia Tech West Virginia etc. The postseason bowl games are so boxed in as to who can play who, l used to love the bowl games, but with the Opt Outs they are getting sillier and sillier. If we go to the likely 16 playoff, that’s 15 playoff games, plus you have Army Navy and the FCS playoffs.

were more neutral site games in Week 0 and Week 1. At the same time, I do understand the economics of the situation and why there may not be more of these types of games. Particularly when you factor in that a lot of these stadiums have a NFL team as their primary tenant and their preseason games may take priority over college football. Plus, I do get why an organization (i.e. Independence Bowl Foundation which manages the Independence Bowl) may not think there is a lot of interest in organizing a neutral site game in Week 0 or Week 1 (assuming it could find enough corporate sponsors for the event). If you are going to visit Shreveport, LA, as a fan of VT who is participating in a game there, then would you rather go there in August or December? If you look at the origins of the Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowl, which saw the economic impact the Rose Bowl football game had on tourism, then it becomes clear why more non-profit organizations decided to go in the college bowl game business. Plus, it is much easier for fans to attend a game during the day in the middle of the week during the holiday season, when most people are off from work and school, than in late August. It is probably another factor when you consider content for the networks. For the schools, the economic question becomes simple; will the school make more money participating in a neutral site game vs. a home game or an away game (think money game)? It is an important question if you want every DI-FBS team (I think 134 teams now) to have the opportunity to participate in a neutral site game at the beginning of the season.

season. One thing I would like to mention is preseason it’s warm pretty much everywhere, the postseason Bowls in NYC and Boston, seem more like a penalty than a reward. 🤣 ** Edited by Stech at 9/4/2025, 1:51:34 PM

think it was cold in Nashville for the Music City Bowl and the rain only made it worse.

are cold that time a year. For me if I am at slopes, winter is good, but otherwise, I am working to get the first three months of the year in Florida. I’m literally migrating my business to do just that.

I would even go as far to say the weather was quite comfortable for that time of the year.

enough, especially with the game in the Dome. ** Edited by Stech at 9/4/2025, 2:29:04 PM

flirted with low 80s once or twice. On the flip side, I think New Orleans was the site of the NFL's "Ice Bowl" when the game was played in Tulane's stadium (Tulane I or Tulane II because I think their current stadium is the third attempt to have their own outdoor stadium).

I think it’s partly because of the changes in Nielsons tracking. Somebody posted an article about that below.

It’s now big data plus the old school panel where they have boxes in people’s homes. About Big Data + Panel Big Data + Panel National TV Measurement combines Nielsen’s unique, high-quality representative panel measurement with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices. Nielsen is also incorporating first-party data from participating streaming services to help measure audiences for live streaming events. These are massive datasets that capture TV viewing at the device level.