Traditionally, bowl games mattered. They mattered a lot. But not any more. We went from 9 bowl games in the 50s to a totally meaningless 40+ last year. Bowl game attendance has declined every single year over the last 20 years or so. The days of a heroic BYU comeback victory over SMU mattering are probably gone forever.

And with the advent of the 12-team playoff (11 games!) this year, these non-playoff bowl games will become even more the equivalent of an NIT of CF.

This year's 36 (non-playoff) bowls allows the top 72 TEAMS WHO DID NOT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS have one extra game. Do those 72 teams enjoy some useful benefits listed above? Sure. As mentioned above it's an extra game for the players and fans, a little extra exposure, player dev, maybe a little extra cash (depends on which bowl), etc..

But that's it. Let's not exaggerate. A 6-6 record is not somehow a reflection of an extraordinarily successful season. A ~mediocre season gets a P4 team into a bowl game, and that's fine.

But make no mistake about it, both interest in and impact of these 36 non-playoff bowls will be MINISCULE, TRIVIAL, INSIGNIFICANT —compared to the 11 playoff games.

So I guarantee qualifying for a bowl game is certainly *A* worthy goal, but not *THE* goal of this year's BYU team.

Just because we went 2-7 in conference last season, does not automatically infer that going 3-6 in conference this year equals major "success". Personally, I support the Cougars win or lose. I'm not a warm weather fan. But I don't confuse that with a mislabeling of mediocrity. I call a spade a spade. Average is average. 5-4 in conference would be a very successful year.