Orange you glad?
Tigers, Vols would’ve hoped for bigger stage, but still something to play for
Non-CFP bowls have lost their luster; perhaps they should consider shift
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Once upon a time, the Orange Bowl was the mecca of what Clemson could hope to achieve in a season, and after a one-year sojourn in the Cheez-It Bowl, it’s a return to a grand postseason stage for the Tigers.
Tennessee is wrapping up its first 10-win season in 15 years and haven’t played in a bowl as big as the Orange Bowl in two decades.
So why does this feel like a consolation prize rather than a fitting reward?
An unfortunate side effect of the move to the College Football Playoff system has been the decay of the prestige of the other bowl games. More and more players from the 78 of 82 teams participating in the non-playoff postseason are opting against playing in the game in favor of either starting their NFL Draft preparations or moving onto their next team.
Even Dabo Swinney, ever in search of the bright side of the equation, invoked the playoff when he was describing the Orange Bowl matchup — “To me, this is a playoff match-up,” he said — rather than playing up the setting.
Now, it’s not as if both teams will be ambivalent about their performance tonight. In fact, a large share of momentum is on the table for whoever gets to stand at the center of Hard Rock Stadium with a crystal bowl of oranges around the time the calendar flips to December 31st.
For Josh Heupel and his Volunteers, it would be the confirmation that his program has returned to the upper echelon of college football after just two seasons at the helm. New quarterback Joe Milton enters his second start hoping to stamp his credentials for the team’s starting role heading into 2023, despite the incoming five-star freshman Nico Iamaleava.
Meanwhile, Swinney doesn’t have to worry about Clemson’s place among college football’s elite after bringing home another ACC Championship and 10-win season, but another big SEC pelt to go along with more signs that freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik is the man to take the Tigers back to the playoff in 2023 would be a great way to cap the season.
And maybe, just maybe, the feel-good factor will help one or two of the Tigers who are on the fence about returning for another season on to the side that involves them running down the Hill next September.
Perhaps that means that the Orange Bowl is fulfilling its role in this non-CFP cycle, but it’s hard not to look toward the expansion of the playoff to 12 teams in two years’ time and wonder what the future of the bowl games looks like.
As a reminder, the top four conference winners will receive a bye into the quarterfinals while seeds No. 5 through 12 will face off on the campus of the higher seeded teams, but then the rest of the games will be held at the biggest bowl sites. It’s hard to imagine the quarterfinals won’t move to campuses eventually as the top teams lobby for a chance to host a playoff game to add to the prize of winning your conference and as the financial realities of three expensive off-campus trips for the final two teams and their fanbases comes into view.
At such a time, the majority of bowl games will have to look into the mirror and determine what is the best way to remain relevant. Perhaps they keep the status quo and hold onto whatever former glory they can still grasp. Or perhaps they embrace the move to exhibition status by moving their games to the end of spring practice or even the beginning of the next football season.
Wouldn’t that bring back the specialness of these otherwise odd meetings, while reducing the obligation of teams and players who would rather have made the playoff? Imagine these two teams fresh off fall practice with their influx of star freshmen kicking off the 2023 in style.
Imagine the return of the festival of football that New Years’ Day used to be, converted from a digestif for the previous season into an aperitif for the season yet to come.
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Robbie Tinsley is an award-winning columnist from his time as the sports editor of The Journal in Seneca, S.C. He now works on a freelance basis from his home in Massachusetts. He can be reached either via Twitter @RTinMan13 or email at robtinsley13@gmail.com.
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This column also appears in the GameDay edition of The (Seneca) Journal on December 30th.
