Take the gamblers bowling
The college football bowl season is one of the strangest animals out there in all of sports. While there is plenty of clamoring for a national championship playoff, the bowl system will never go away. In fact, I sometimes wonder why the NCAA even legislates Division I-A college football. The organization awards that same plank-like plaque to the champion of every sport -- except major college football. It just doesn't seem right.

Anyway, the reason the bowls were originally created (and some of this holds true today) is to draw tourists into a city to spend money at hotels, restaurants, attractions, etc., and oh by the way, there's a football game in town. It works well when the bowl is in a warm-weather city, but then again, in December and January, places like Nashville, Atlanta, Mobile and Charlotte aren't always the most comfortable. And what in the world would compel people to go to Shreveport? (Their Chamber of Commerce "come visit our city" ad during today's Independence Bowl had me rolling.)
The way the money is thrown around during bowl season (fans spend, spend, spend; and teams/conferences take the payout), it ain't going away. Even if a company were to front millions and millions of dollars for a tournament, it would be concentrated on just a few cities and teams, and it wouldn't help that many people out. Cities want the cash, fans want games to go to, sponsors want their name out there, teams want a reward for a good season plus practice time to prepare for the next season. Forget the perfect world of a playoff -- here's your reality check.

One comment that really threw me during one of the lesser bowls was that all of these games were like the first couple of days of the NCAA basketball tournament. It seems that way by sheer numbers, but it's so wrong as well. We know most of these games mean little, especially if you're not a fan of the team. Whereas there is a do-or-die feeling in all of the tournament games, and there's a feeling that the team you're watching could win it all. Then again, I guess both the flood of crappy bowls and crush of 32 games in two days are compelling if you're betting on games or in some type of pool. (Isn't that what's making football the most watched sport in the first place? Betting and fantasy leagues?)
The one thing that is very similar though is that the overload makes the national championship game almost anticlimactic. The ESPN commentators are already beating the Fiesta Bowl matchup to death, and there's a week to go. In the NCAA tournament, it all leads up to the Final Four -- that national championship game itself often seems like an afterthought.