TWO OF THREE PROPOSED GAMES WERE SLOTTED FOR SOUTH CAROLINA
There will be no new NCAA bowl games for at least three years, according to a new report from ESPN. Instead the powerful association – which governs collegiate athletics’ most lucrative economic engine – will commit to studying the “postseason issue” with an eye on reforming current eligibility requirements for football teams.
The NCAA’s decision directly impacts the state of South Carolina – where groups submitted paperwork for bowl games to be held in Charleston, S.C. and Myrtle Beach, S.C. The other proposed bowl game impacted by the decision was to be played in Austin, Texas.
South Carolina’s proposed bowl games were considered far more likely to receive approval after the Palmetto State’s legislature voted last summer to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the S.C. State House. The NCAA had long penalized South Carolina for the flag’s presence on the State House grounds.
Obviously this website has some very specific views on the NCAA – and what sort of format collegiate athletics should take moving forward. Our basic premise? The entire system needs to be scrapped and started from scratch as an exclusively private sector operation – doing away completely with the government-subsidized slave trade that’s currently in place.
Anyway …
South Carolinians aren’t going to like it, but the NCAA’s moratorium does make sense from a supply and demand perspective. Following the 2015 season there were so many bowls that three non-qualifying teams (a.k.a. teams with losing records) were invited to participate in the postseason.
That’s ridiculous …
The games are also struggling to maintain fan support. An average of 52,961 fans attended 33 bowl games following the 2009 season. Last season an average of 43,817 fans attended 41 bowl games.