Texas and South Carolina looking to add more bowl games

Think there are too many bowl games?

Well, get ready to add more.

Groups from Austin, Texas and Charleston, South Carolina, are pushing to add their own bowl games this winter. That would raise the total number of bowl games to 43. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina also is looking to add a bowl game at a later date.

“We're trying,” said Lance Aldridge, executive director of the Austin Sports Commission. “We're trying every way possible.”

A year ago, fans, coaches and commissioners were dismayed because college football wasn’t able to fill all of the bowl slots available with teams bearing at least a 6-6 record. Two teams from the Mountain West ended up playing each other and three five-win teams ended up in bowl games just to fill space.

In 2015, 63 percent of the teams in college football played in the postseason. According to CBSSports.com, “The past six years produced the three most lopsided bowl seasons since 1998. Bowls were decided by 15.8 points per game last season, the highest in 18 years.”

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who is also chairing an NCAA working group examining the amount of bowls available, is exasperated with the number bowls and is at his wits end on how to limit more from joining.

“It's a double-edged sword,” Bowlsby told CBSSports.com. “If we don't go down far enough to make sure all of our schools find a postseason home, then the smaller conferences backfill behind us and we have eligible teams that get left home. Everybody is acting in their own self-interests, and I don't think our committee is charged with solving all of the problems of the postseason.”

Bowlsby’s bowl group is currently studying bowl-eligibility records, finances for different bowls, selection processes and uniform experiences. The group, which includes 10 members, are advised by bowl directors from the Alamo Bowl and Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, and Football Bowl Association (FBA) executive director Wright Waters. Those parties will make recommendations to the NCAA council.

While the NCAA can approve participation rules, it can’t tell a bowl whether it can exist, which creates a problem for those trying to limit the number of bowls available.

“Part of this is if you start to limit who can have a bowl, you start having accusations of restraint of trade again,” Bowlsby told CBSSports.com. “Down the road, maybe the FBA can do some self-regulation that the NCAA can’t do. Right now, it’s a lot simpler deciding who is eligible to play in a bowl.”

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

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