The Cotton Bowl felt like a watershed second for anybody watching — or casually following alongside on gamecast. The latter would’ve been the popular methodology for a slap battle that featured 16 punts. Missouri mercifully gave followers a landing to begin the fourth quarter, and would add one other rating for a 14-3 win over Ohio State.
And that’s it. That’s all of the recap wanted. Mizzou outlasted a staff on its third quarterback, and with out its Heisman finalist.
The Buckeyes, who got here into Friday planning to see what backup QB Devin Brown may do, misplaced him within the first quarter to an ankle sprain, and the following man up was freshman Lincoln Kienholz. Earlier than kickoff, Marvin Harrison Jr. introduced he would sit out, presumably to protect his draft inventory although he hasn’t formally declared.
Whether or not it was apathy for not making the School Soccer Playoff, or the zombie roster their staff fielded for a New 12 months’s six recreation, Buckeye trustworthy solely purchased lower than two-thirds of their 12,000-seat allotment. Jerry’s World in Arlington, the location of the Cotton Bowl, holds 80,000, with standing room for as many as 105,000.
Whereas it’s irrefutable that the departure of Kyle McCord to Syracuse through the switch portal, and one other disappointing loss to Michigan, factored into the dearth of enthusiasm, this can change into the norm for non-playoff applications going ahead. Oh, certain, the CFP contests can be closely watched and attended by the dozen colleges to make it.
The income, rankings, merch gross sales, and so on. can be bananas for these 9 video games, but will or not it’s sufficient to offset the drop-off for the opposite 74 universities taking part in in numerous condiment-sponsored contests? The only real goal of bowl season is cash. That’s why the mid- and low-tier bowl video games battle one another for the preferred groups. Tulane and SMU every gained 11 video games throughout the common season, and had been rewarded with journeys to the Navy and Wasabi Fenway bowls, respectively.
Sure, each of them misplaced to dangerous ACC colleges, however that’s not the purpose. There are solely so many fanbases loony sufficient to journey to certifiably crap locations for meaningless exhibitions, and even then, higher hope departures and holdouts don’t additional deter journey and viewership. Maybe success-starved Tiger followers saved the sponsors’ nuts. That’s not a dependable enterprise mannequin for superfluous bowls. Their solely hope is that the accompanying postgame celebration is gross, or morbid sufficient to inspire followers to look at the on-field motion.
Anybody who follows the game may’ve learn the tea leaves surrounding Harrison; first-round receivers don’t danger accidents, or return for his or her senior seasons. Was the cloudy nature of his participation intentional to lure Buckeye followers to Dallas? That’s not for me to say (however sure).
I’ve prevented going full Mr. Blonde on bowl season as a result of nearly all of gamers aren’t going to the following degree, and will be capable of benefit from the expertise. Including one other rant to the echo chamber is piling on, however my god, 12 punts in a half is triggering. There have been seven whole three-and-outs. This was two-year-olds taking part in Patty Cake.
The Tigers and Buckeyes mixed for 533 yards of whole offense. Mizzou surpassed the 500-yard mark 5 occasions this 12 months by itself; OSU did it twice. Nonetheless, the Cotton Bowl was all the time going to be unwatchable. These in Columbia selected to disregard it, however folks in Columbus knew it, and had been good sufficient to save lots of their cash.
