If they had a worthy record but were simply voted out, what is the up-side in playing a post-season game that won’t matter?
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I think this is a GOOD reason not to play. All the top flight teams — if they don’t get in the playoffs, why don’t they let other teams across the country get a chance to build their programs and maybe go to a bowl game they rarely get a chance to play in.
With the establishment of the NCAA playoff system for football, these bowl games have lost a lot of their appeal. One of the downsides of accepting a bowl bid is that the schools that compete have to take on a sizable cost that is offset by ticket sales, and in recent years the attendance at many of these minor bowl games has been atrocious. For 2024, many of those games drew fewer than 15,000 fans.