Are Football Bowls Worthless?

I’m going to answer yes for a variety of reasons.

1. When more than half of all Division I football teams qualify to play in a bowl; when teams that barely had a winning record get a bowl invitation; when we get treated to the likes of Houston vs. Air Force or Louisiana Tech vs. Northern Illinois, then bowl games have become worthless.
2. Except for one game - the National Championship game - bowl games mean nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  No one’s conference standings change.  For the most part they aren’t even real games.  Nothing next week, or next month, or next year depends upon the outcome.
3. There is very little interest in them.  There were 34 bowl games this year.  How many did you actually watch from beginning to end?  Even as announcers would tell of a “sold-out” game, the overhead blimp cam would reveal lots and lots of empty seats.  Even at some of the more interesting ones.
4. They foster the continued and agonizing debate over “who really deserves to be number one?”  So far I’ve already heard Tyrone Wittingham of Utah and Mack Brown of Texas say that they will be voting their own teams number one in the final poll and every on-field announcer seems to feel the need to ask every winning coach and every winning player in every BCS game who they think deserves to be number one.  [Side note to all of the Texas and Utah fans out there: Neither Texas nor Utah will be crowned National Champions at the conclusion of this bowl season.]
5. Many teams realize that the game is meaningless and simply go to the bowl destination to have a good time.  Nine times out of ten Oklahoma will beat Boise State, but not when Boise is playing for pride and Oklahoma is playing for nothing.  They simply aren’t real games.  The week heading into bowl games is not a “normal” week of preparation.  Focus is often on things other than the game.  Things like interviews.  Limo rides.  Party spots.

So, except for the National Championship game, in any given year there is only one bowl game that matters and that is the National Championship game.