Like it is

80 teams of varying merit spread far by bowls

Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen, left, and Arkansas football coach Bret Bielema confer prior to their teams meeting in an NCAA college football game in Starkville, Miss., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen, left, and Arkansas football coach Bret Bielema confer prior to their teams meeting in an NCAA college football game in Starkville, Miss., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

In 10 days it all begins.

Across the span of 16 states and the Bahamas, 80 college football teams will compete in postseason football games over 23 days.

Some will be sold out. Most will not. ESPN -- which will broadcast 34 of the 40 bowls -- will do a yeoman's job of not showing the empty seats, although asking them to completely not show the emptiness at some of the bowls would be mission impossible.

It would be too easy to rail away here that there are too many bowls, pointing out 20, or one fourth, of the teams had records of 6-6 or below. Does a team deserve a reward for winning just 50 percent of its games?

There was a time when teams had to win seven games, but that was before the regular-season schedules went to 12 games.

It also was before the College Football Playoff became a reality, and with the NCAA in charge of those three games, it lifted the mandate on how many bowls there could be.

When the limit was taken off, Little Rock tried to get a bowl, but we lost out to Orlando, Fla., and Montgomery, Ala.

Orlando, which now has three bowls, needed another bowl like it needs more traffic, but it will be a nice trip for the Arkansas State Red Wolves, who will get free admission to Disney World before playing in the AutoNation Cure Bowl.

The Red Wolves face Central Florida -- which just happens to be located in Orlando, giving it a huge home-field advantage.

For those who are curious, AutoNation is the world's largest automotive retailer. It gives boatloads of money in the search for a cure for cancer, so while it is considered a lower-tiered bowl, let's all hope it has a long and storied history.

ASU is one of six Sun Belt Conference teams playing in bowls, and some (not yours truly) may point at South Alabama as a team that doesn't deserve to play in a bowl.

The Jaguars got to 6-6 because their game with LSU was canceled and they picked up Presbyterian -- the college, not a church -- and won. The Jaguars were 2-6 in conference play, and two of their victories were against FCS teams, so they had to get a waiver to play in the Arizona Bowl in Tucson against Air Force. The game is televised by something known as ASN.

While the Big Ten scored the most prestigious bowls with Ohio State in the playoff, Penn State in the Rose Bowl, Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl and Michigan in the Orange Bowl, the SEC landed 12 of its 14 teams in bowls.

Mississippi State at 5-7 filled a slot in the Fort Lauderdale Bowl because of its APR. Academic Progress Rate basically means graduation rate.

The Bulldogs are one of 18 teams playing in a bowl in Florida. The Sunshine State hosts the most bowls with nine, followed by Texas with six.

Probably one of the biggest winners of the bowl sweepstakes was Middle Tennessee State, which at 8-4 was invited to Honolulu to play the Hawaii Rainbows.

And Memphis did not pass over the SEC when it chose Georgia (not Georgia Tech as reported here Tuesday) to play TCU in the Liberty Bowl.

Charlotte, N.C., where the Arkansas Razorbacks will take on Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl, is the headquarters for two bowl games, but the Bahamas Bowl is played in a 15,000-seat stadium in Nassau, Bahamas, which has more to do with college spring break than it does college football. But going to a nice, warm and sunny place is a reward for football teams, especially if they deserve it.

Sports on 12/07/2016

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