Perhaps I’m wrong, but back at the beginning of the new low-tier bowl explosion, there were a lot of games that still featured interesting matchups of decent teams. Now it seems like 85% are garbage team 1 vs. garbage team 2. Even the better teams are getting matched up against inferior competition. I really don’t give a rat’s ass to see Memphis play anyone in a NY6 bowl.

I really hope the empty seats and over-saturation come home to roost soon so we can trim back to a reasonable number of traditional bowls featuring good matchups and a high level of competition.

ESPN pays a relatively low price for holiday content, vs. what the conference rights cost.

conference tie-ins, a likely unranked UVA team may play in the Orange instead of a team like ND as in years past. ND loses millions in bowl payout (based on last years numbers, there’s a $3mm difference just between Camping World & Citrus, so I’d imagine the Orange is a very big number) and the bowl loses millions of viewers & potential advertising dollars in future years because of assuredly poor ratings this year.

Not to mention playing a lower team in a lower bowl that has potentially twice as many losses is a lose lose proposition. If camping world is our only option, ND should have some pride and stay home.

At worst, the committee will drop ND further since we don't play a conference championship.