Every Bowl For Itself

As we are currently in the prime of college football bowl season, I take this opportunity to highlight a major difference between football's and basketball's respective postseasons.

I speak not of the fact that there are 63 less college football teams that are eligible for the national championship three weeks before it is decided. Rather, I take note that college bowls are all more or less independent entities with their own self-interested motivations whereas March Madness is one unified, coherent tournament with no competition.

What should be the goal of a postseason? To reward the best teams? To formulate the most interesting matchups? To sell the most tickets? To maintain an enjoyable tradition? Different bowls pursue different objectives. The Rose Bowl slavishly insists on matching up the best available teams from the Big Ten and Pac-10, even if will inevitably result in a one-sided blowout. Boston College, despite enjoying a top ten ranking for half the season, was relegated to the Champs Sports Bowl largely because people in the Northeast are unaware that college football exists, making bowl games reluctant to invite a team whose fans (or lack thereof) will leave a stadium half-empty.

In a classic example of game theory, each individual bowl is concerned only with making its own game as successful (however they choose to define it) as possible. Individual bowls care little about ensuring the postseason as a whole is entertaining. No bowl wants to take one for the team when those other bowls aren't about to share their gate receipts.

When it comes to March Madness however, the NCAA takes the 31 automatic qualifiers and the 34 best-qualified non-champions, puts them in a bracket, and allows mayhem to ensue. Good games are inevitable -- you just never quite know where they'll spring up. Fans will, by and large, fill the seats, ensuring a healthy bottom line. And as for tradition? The line of succession that includes Valparaiso, Gonzaga, Butler, and George Mason is one of the greatest traditions in sports.