Syracuse Football: Want bowl games to matter more? Let's have some fun themes

Let's be honest, there has been criticism for years about the abundance of bowl games. Teams with .500 records (or sometimes even worse) getting bowl bids to fill slots. Most of it is likely generated by the TV revenue as executives know football brings better ratings than most other options, even if it's teams who barely had winning seasons.

For many programs, the sign of success is often tied to whether the team was bowl-eligible or what bowl game they were able to play in that season. Or in the case of the Syracuse Orange football program, the bowl win gave the Orange a 10-win season and that's something to be proud of, and the Holiday Bowl had an Eggnog dump overseen by famed competitive eater Joey Chestnut.

But along with all of those bowl games now, you also have players declaring for the draft and opting out or in some cases, entering the transfer portal (or coaches leaving for other jobs or fired) and not attending the games. I mean what is the incentive for a player who is leaving anyway, right?

I know many in my generation especially will point to team camaraderie but when it becomes about money and financial security, those lines can often be blurred. So unless you have some incentives financially or otherwise for those players to play, be prepared for more to opt-out.

And the same can be said for casual fans to care about bowl games. I believe it's time for bowl games to find some catchy gimmicks that fans latch on to and make them care about them more. For instance, Twitter/X loves bowl games like the Duke's Mayo Bowl, where mayo is poured on the winning coach, or the Pop-Tarts Bowl, where they do a cool thing with a giant pop tart and fans suddenly start conversations about their favorite pop tart (frosted strawberry is the only answer here).

Let's have more creative themes during the annual bowl game season.

Yes, sports bars will play the games in the background, fans of the teams playing in it will likely tune in and the ratings will be better than many other programming options, but what if they were better and more appealing to more people?

I don't have a marketing degree nor am I a TV executive but I think it would make the bowl games more appealing if those who did worked with business sponsors to find more fun ways to make them interesting. The financial incentives might help attract teams and even some players but I don't think it will your casual fan. And nobody can know in advance if it will be a fun and competitive game but what they can know is what fun idea might be tied to the game or its results.

What about a WWE-sponsored bowl game where the WWE has talent there participating in events and maybe even a pregame match or postgame Raw show live from there? What about an Xbox Bowl Game where instead of a coin toss, the winner is determined by who wins in a head-to-head Madden matchup and graphics throughout are done in Madden style or at least replays?

Or since some people seem to like hot dog eating contests, what if halftime was a Hofmann's Franks hot dog eating contest or see who can eat the most Big Macs? Or maybe a Jello Bowl where the winning team has to send one player into a giant Jello pool to retrieve the trophy?

Again, I am obviously not talented at this stuff and just throwing out a few different examples of some fun, innovative ideas that might make tuning into games more fun, especially to many fans who think they don't mean anything to anyone. Instead of just accepting this is the system and especially now with there being a playoff system in place, try to think outside the box and make them more like events to go with the game instead of settling for okay.

What would you do to incentivize players to play in the bowl games and what would you do to make bowl games more fun to follow on social media and watch?