Disrespectful things happen all the time. Just last night, Larry Nance Jr. sent Kevin Durant back to the Twilight Zone with a dunk that could be considered assault with a deadly weapon in five states. Baker Mayfield responded to Kansas’ utter disrespect with for-some-reason-much-more-publicized disrespect. Tennessee fans actually thought Gruden would take the head coaching job.
But none of that comes anywhere close to matching the level of disrespect the Bowl committee showed the Florida Atlantic University Owls.
In Lane Kiffin’s first season at the helm of the suddenly-best-or-second-best team in Florida, he led the Owls to a ten win season. This is a program that hasn’t won more than three games since 2013. For those of you keeping track at home, a three win season is really, very bad. On the other hand, a ten win season is really, very good.
He used his play-calling wizardry and magic on the Twitter sticks to bring this team to a ten win season and caused many of his players to be stars in the process. Sophomore running back Devin Singletary ran for 1796 yards and 29 touchdowns. 29 touchdowns, man. There are only 25 FBS programs that have more than that number. Overall, their 47 rushing touchdowns are the second best in the nation behind only Arizona’s 48.
They scored under 30 points only 2 times and one of those times was against Wisconsin, who I am on the record as saying gave me nightmares and caused me to wake up in a cold sweat. In the rest of the games where they put up over 30, which is 11 games if you are doing the math at home, they are 10-1. The one loss to Buffalo is their only loss that should not have happened because they avoided taking a single loss in Conference USA play.
All of these accomplishments have led to an appearance in The Boca Raton Bowl against the Akron Zips. I could take this in a direction of an endless diatribe about the idiocy that is the bowl system, but instead I want to take a micro approach. This is an absolute slap in the face to Lane Kiffin and a Florida Atlantic team that accomplished greatness this season. And literally everything about this bowl choice is disrespectful.
For the kids, they are literally playing a home game. When UAB and Ohio get to play a game in the Bahamas and the football team from my school, Temple, gets to leave winter in North Philadelphia in favor of St. Petersburg, Florida, FAU doesn’t even get to leave home. A bowl game is supposed to be an experience for the team. There are games in Hawaii, a game in Yankee Stadium, even a game on a blue turf field! And while mediocre teams get to take these adventures together, a team with an offense that torched basically everyone they faced other than a borderline Playoff team doesn’t even get to leave campus.
Then, that absurdity can be compounded with the fact they are playing a 7-6 Akron team that got absolutely annihilated in the MAC final by a Toledo team that is much more on par with Florida Atlantic’s skill level. If the experience of the game was taken from the Owls, but replaced with a competitive matchup, the team does not care where they play. They still get to show their footballing ability against a worthy opponent. But instead, they are 22.5 point favorites against a Zips team that did not fair very well against good offenses this season. Not only is that the biggest spread of bowl season, it is one of only two with double-digit spreads.
The only problems with the bowl system that will ever get talked ab0ut are the ones at the top. Mark Dantonio took a swipe at Michigan having a better bowl than them. People are upset without reason about Alabama making the Playoff over Ohio State. But the best reason for the bowl system being flawed is right here. It is sitting in Boca Raton where the Florida Atlantic Owls will have an unfulfilling bowl victory in their home stadium tonight.