College football in Dubai? Yes, you read our headline correctly. It's one option that is being explored by the so-called "group of five" smaller conferences looking to add bowl games for their bowl eligible teams in the new College Football Playoff era.
Options like Dubai; Nassau, Bahamas; Ireland; Miami, Orlando, Little Rock, AR; Boca Raton, FL; Montgomery, AL; and Los Angeles are all on the table.
According to the article by Brett McMurphy, there are an increasingly small number of games available in the current bowl lineup for them (19 of the 35 bowl games will feature matchups between the power conferences) and that has necessitated a look to new homes for games.
Great… That's exactly what we need… MORE meaningless bowl games with half empty stands and poor football being played. You know, because we don't have enough of that already, right?
That's not to knock the best of the teams the smaller conferences have to offer, I rather enjoy watching some of these schools play, but often times a 6-6 Sun Belt team vs. a 6-6 The American team won't be good football. What could be interesting would be matchups between the likes of The American, MAC, and Mountain West conferences.
Could a unique spot like Dubai or the Bahamas help sell a game? Heck yes. Both are vacation destination spots, however you have to really wonder if fans are going to spend crazy jack to get to these places in order to see such mouth watering matchups like Tulane vs. Wyoming or UTSA vs. San Jose State.
The only way this kind of concept works is if the extra games are more about getting the top of these conferences together. Maybe not the No. 1 spots, but the No. 2 or 3 spots playing against each other – then you could have a few games worth selling to the fans.
