Big-Time Bowl Access for the Small-Conference Schools? No, Of Course Not

Well, so much for that rumored seventh big-time college football bowl game.

A few months back, college football insiders started talking about a possible plan to create a seventh so-called "access bowl"--a game that would serve as the equivalent of a BCS bowl, once the vaunted new college football playoff system hits in 2014 (there are already six such games, though the locations of each have yet to be nailed down). The idea, according to reports at the time, would be to create this game with the goal of providing greater access to a big-time bowl game for programs from the smaller conferences (such as the mighty Ohio Bobcats). As such, the game seemed like a grand idea, not to mention a kind gesture from the big-school behemoths to the smaller fish below.

Alas, it now seems that the gesture was simply that. Because Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com, possibly the most connected college football writer in the business these days, reported on Tuesday that the seventh-bowl-game proposal has seemingly hit a dead end.

According to McMurphy's report, the seventh game once seemed all but inevitable. But now, according to his sources, the game has less than a 50 percent chance of ever happening.

The reason? Well, you won't believe it, but the reason, it seems, is (wait for it ...) money. Yes, money!

When the college football powers-that-be started running some numbers on the proposal, McMurphy reports, they basically came to the conclusion that the game wouldn't attract nearly as much interest (i.e., money) as the other access bowls would. And heck, if this thing wasn't going to make any money, they certainly weren't going to pursue it.

This is college football, after all. Where it's money first. Everything else second. Including fairness.

So, hey, too bad for you, small schools. You remain on the outside looking in. Just like you've always been.

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