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SPORTS
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Empty stadiums won’t stop number of bowls from going up
By ERIC OLSON
AP College Football Writer
OMAHA, Neb. — Six
bowls this season had their
smallest crowds on record,
with section after section of
unoccupied seats a yawning
indication of just how lit-
tle buzz there can be for the
long, long list of postseason
games on the schedule.
Half-empty stadiums?
Teams with tiny fan bases
and mediocre records? Too
many bowls?
They aren’t going away:
There will actually be three
more next year, bringing the
total number of bowl games
to 42. That means approxi-
mately 65% of the 130 Bowl
Subdivision teams will go
to a postseason game next
season.
But ... why?
Attendance isn’t neces-
sarily the measure of suc-
cess. The bowl system gen-
erates hundreds of millions
of dollars that conferences
distribute to their schools.
The games are inventory
for television program-
ming, and even if the rat-
ings are modest, almost any
bowl will draw more eye-
balls than something else,
particularly on a weekday
afternoon.
That’s why ESPN owns
14 bowls, and the network
AP Photo/Roger Steinman, File
This Dec. 30, 2019, fi le photo shows empty seats as Western Kentucky and Western Michigan line up for the snap during the
second half of the NCAA First Responder Bowl college football game in Dallas.
will add two more to its
portfolio in the 2020 season
even though viewership has
trended mostly downward
since the playoff era started
in 2014.
“It’s an indication of col-
lege football’s strength that
you could have games that
really don’t matter between
teams people don’t typi-
cally watch that can get
over a million viewers,”
Sports Media Watch edi-
tor Jon Lewis said. “There
are diminishing returns,
but there’s a long way to
go before you would see a
reduction. In fact, I doubt
you’ll see a reduction any
time soon. You might see
other networks try to get
into having their own bowl
games.”
Lewis added, “We might
be up to 50 bowl games in a
decade.”
Regular-season college
football attendance has been
in decline for years and hit a
22-year low in 2018. While
there have been some empty
seats at the New Year’s Six
bowl games — those associ-
ated with the College Foot-
ball Playoff — the bigger
postseason blow has been
seen elsewhere.
Of 33 second- and third-
tier Bowl Subdivision games
analyzed by The Associated
Press, 23 were played at ven-
ues where the announced
attendance was less than
75% of capacity. Of those
23, eight were under 50%.
The AP did not include the
New Year’s Six games in
its analysis because of their
rotation in the CFP semifi -
nal lineup.
The Football Bowl Asso-
ciation reported attendance
for all 39 bowls at 1.661 mil-
lion, an increase of 27,000
(1.6%).
FBA executive director
Wright Waters acknowl-
edged the attendance woes
for many of the bowls not
among the New Year’s Six.
Part of the issue, he said, is
there are schools with fan
bases that 20 years ago were
excited about going to most
any bowl that now are disap-
pointed if their team isn’t in
the CFP mix.
Waters said the FBA
plans to form a task force
to generate ideas on how
to grow attendance, with
ticket pricing, matchups and
the proximity of fan bases
to bowl sites among the
factors.
“That’s your atmo-
sphere,” Waters said of
crowd energy. “Would you
rather have one person pay-
ing $1,000 or have 1,000
people paying a dollar to get
in the stadium? I’d rather
have 1,000 people paying
a dollar just because of the
atmosphere.”
Protecting Wilson? Seahawks won’t know who until Sunday
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — The
identity of the player who
will be protecting Seattle
Seahawks quarterback Rus-
sell Wilson’s blind side will
remain unknown until just
before Sunday’s NFC divi-
sional playoff game against
Green Bay.
Duane Brown and George
Fant were listed as question-
able Friday, leaving questions
about who will start at left
tackle against the Packers.
Coach Pete Carroll wasn’t
in the mood to share infor-
mation about either one.
“We’ll fi nd out on game
day,” Carroll said.
Brown is less than three
weeks removed from minor
knee surgery, while Fant suf-
fered a groin injury in last
week’s opening round play-
off win over Philadelphia.
Brown and Fant were limited
participants in practice Fri-
day, increasing the chances
one or both could play. For
Brown, it was his fi rst prac-
tice time since undergoing
surgery on Dec. 23.
Jamarco Jones — who
started one game at left
tackle late in the season — is
likely to be Seattle’s starting
left guard with Mike Iupati
listed as doubtful because of
a stinger.
Seattle’s fallback option if
Brown and Fant are unavail-
able may end up being Chad
Wheeler, who was added to
the active roster this week
after spending half the sea-
son on Seattle’s practice
squad.
Wheeler started 19 games
earlier in his career with the
New York Giants, including
14 of 16 last season. He also
played for Seattle offensive
line coach Mike Solari as a
rookie and understands his
blocking schemes. But most
of those starts came as a right
tackle, with only one of his
starts with the Giants coming
on the left side.
Throwing him into the
pressure of a playoff game
with the pass rush skills of
Preston Smith and Za’Darius
Smith on the other side would
present Wheeler with a chal-
lenging task.
“We would tell him to do
what he’s capable of doing,
don’t try and do stuff that is
not in his wheelhouse,” Car-
roll said. “He’s a good, smart
football player, he’s been in
the system and he knows what
we’re asking of him and he’s
been really solid throughout.
The main thing is just doing
what he’s capable of doing
and not overreach.”
One encouraging sign for
Seattle is that defensive end
Jadeveon Clowney seems to
be feeling better than he did
a week ago while dealing
with a lingering core muscle
injury. Clowney played one
of his better games last week
against the Eagles with fi ve
tackles and one of Seattle’s
seven sacks.
“As the week progressed
he felt much better than he
did last week so he’s in good
shape and ready to go,” Car-
roll said.
Seattle also listed defen-
sive ends Quinton Jeffer-
son (ankle) and Ziggy Ansah
(neck) as questionable, along
with safety Marquise Blair
(ankle). The Seahawks will
get some depth back at wide
receiver with both Malik
Turner and Jaron Brown
expected to play after miss-
ing last week.
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