A bowl game featuring the two worst teams in college football? That's exactly what a Southern California-based promoter wants to see happen in 2024, though sources told the Action Network's Brett McMurphy there is "no chance" the NCAA would issue the necessary waiver allowing for a proposed "Irrelevant Bowl."
Proposed by Newport Beach, California-based promoter Roy Englebrecht, the bowl game would feature a pair of college football teams that are either winless or close to it. Cities would put in bids within the first quarter of the year to host the "Irrelevant Bowl," according to the release. The city selected as the host site would retain all event revenue, including ticket sales, concessions and parking fees.
"No polls, no rankings, no controversy, just two winless or near winless teams looking for redemption and one elusive win," Englebrecht said in a press release. "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."
While the proposed bowl game would provide a postseason opportunity for two teams who would otherwise be nowhere close to the six-win bowl eligibility mark, it immediately poses questions about the integrity of competition. As one source told Action Network, "a conference or team is not going to mock itself for going 1-11 or 2-10."
Regardless of the Irrelevant Bowl's fate, the 2024 college football bowl season will still feature sweeping changes as the College Football Playoff expands from four teams to a 12-team field. But as it stands, don't get your hopes up over the sport's two least-inspiring teams squaring off next December.
