Let’s Move College Football’s Bowl Season to Labor Day Weekend

I love bowl games. I always have. I always will. But their time may be coming to an end.

There have been reports that if covid19 limits bowl games ability to take place, or more likely the ability of fans to travel, that many may cease to exist. Yeah, that’ll suck. However, there might be a solution to keep bowl games alive and make the sport even better.

Right now, there is a weird dynamic on the front end of the college football season, with a few high profile neutral site games to kick off the season on Labor Day weekend, mixed in with traditional on-campus games. There is a problem with those on-campus games though, as many fans are away for Labor Day weekend and many schools aren’t even open yet.

I have pushed a 16-team playoff for years at the ultimate future of college football. That vision includes a 13-game regular season and just a handful of postseason bowls. Ultimately, the number of postseason games need to be reduced dramatically in any timeline for any future.

For the postseason to matter, there needs to only be about 30–40 teams participating. Either 16 teams in a playoff with another 20 playing in 10 bowl games, or the current 4 team playoff with about 15 bowl games — the New Year’s Six and about 10 other bowl games.