SEC home field advantages in bowl games

by Scott
(Washington, DC)

As a Big Ten fan, the one thing that really annoys me listening to commentators compare the conferences is that they don't take into account, year after year, that our teams are basically playing road games in the bowl season, often in conditions more suited to their opponent. Most Big Ten teams have to be built to win cold-weather games in November, something SEC teams don't need to worry about in the current college fb system.

The SEC teams (and other good teams from states like Texas, Florida, and California in other conferences) obviously are talented. But I'd like to see a five-year period where all the bowl games are played in northern cities, and these pass-happy, "speed" based teams have to come up and play in 30 degree weather or snow/sleet, and sometimes in their opponent's stadium or state.

Let USC come out to Chicago or Detroit to play the Rose Bowl a few years instead of their back yard in LA. Let LSU come up to Ohio, let Florida play outdoors in Michigan in December/January.

Maybe this will happen someday if there is a college fb playoff.

Anyway, the very nature of the way teams are paired for bowls dictates that there isn't a lot of separation in talent between the two opponents. Thus, I think it's a huge edge that these southern teams often don't travel far, thus get more of their fans to the game, play in their ideal conditions, and sometimes even their own stadium!