Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

Hall of Fame Promoter Hopes to Launch 'Irrelevant Bowl' for CFB's Worst Teams in 2024

Tyler Conway

College football bowl games are usually designed to celebrate the sport's best teams.

One promoter is looking to celebrate their worst.

Promoter Roy Englebrecht announced his plan to launch an event he's deemed the "Irrelevant Bowl," which he hopes will feature the two worst teams in college football going head-to-head.

"No polls, no rankings, no controversy, just two winless or near winless teams looking for redemption and one elusive win," said Englebrecht. "Knowing that the NCAA has become more flexible with the number of team's wins to qualify for a bowl, I will petition the NCAA asking them to grant a waiver in 2024 so that two teams would be eligible to play in the inaugural Irrelevant Bowl."

Englebrecht is a renowned promoter in the boxing and mixed martial arts world and was also part of the brain trust that founded the Laker Girls in 1985.

While his latest innovation is a novel idea, it's almost certain to not gain any traction within the NCAA. College sports' governing body tries to restrict all bowl games to teams with at least six wins and only chooses the top below-.500 teams when there are not enough qualifying bowl-eligible squads.

A game glorifying the "worst" of college football seems unlikely to garner much support given bowls are supposed to be awards in achievement.

That's all without accounting for the potential unwillingness of teams to participate in a game that highlights their poor performance during the regular season. The "worst" teams in college football regularly see coaching firings, player transfers and undergo the type of sweeping changes that does not lend itself to playing in a postseason game.

The "Irrelevant Bowl" would have featured Vanderbilt vs. Akron in Englebrecht's hypothetical for the 2023 season. Vanderbilt fired its offensive coordinator and demoted its defensive coordinator this season. It's likely coach Clark Lea wants his program focused on a turnaround from its 2-10 season, rather than spending weeks preparing for a bowl game.

Same goes for Akron coach Joe Moorhead, who will head into 2024 on the hot seat after consecutive 2-10 seasons.

Players may also push back on the game given many high-profile names are already sitting out bowls to prepare for the NFL draft or explore the transfer portal. In all, this seems like an idea that's fun in theory but has no chance of happening in practice.

   

Read 0 Comments

Download the app for comments Get the B/R app to join the conversation

Install the App
×
Bleacher Report
(120K+)