Mike Bianchi: From Cheez-Its to Pop-Tarts, sports fans still eating up bowl games

ORLANDO, Fla. — College football bowl season is that magical time of year when we all collectively roll our eyes at “meaningless” games, then proceed to watch them like we suddenly have an intense interest in the no-name backup quarterback filling in for the starter who just entered the transfer portal.

And here in Orlando, the two crown jewels of this festive circus — the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and the Pop-Tarts Bowl — proved that nobody does the spectacle quite like we do. Somehow, someway, we’ve managed to turn two snack-food bowls into must-see TV.

Advertisement

Sure, pundits and Twitter philosophers love to portray bowl games as irrelevant relics of the past that nobody cares about anymore. However, the TV numbers beg to differ. Across 33 non-College Football Playoff games, viewership jumped 13% year-over-year. In other words, the nation collectively shrugged, rolled its eyes, and then tuned in anyway.

Leading the Orlando charge, the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl staged a battle between Michigan and Texas that drew 9.1 million viewers — a figure that matched most of the games in last year’s NBA Finals. Not far behind, the Pop-Tarts Bowl saw BYU hold off Georgia Tech before, presumably, licking the edible mascot with all the reverence it deserves. That game pulled in 8.7 million viewers, proving that even when the stakes are supposedly microscopic, Americans will stop everything to watch teams in pastel-colored uniforms play for a toaster-pastry trophy.

That popping sound you just heard on Jan. 1 was ESPN execs uncorking champagne bottles in a windowless conference room somewhere.

It’s the ultimate paradox: we decry bowl games as trivial, yet we watch them en masse. And for networks like ESPN, the data doesn’t lie. Eleven non-CFP bowl games hit five-year highs, which means bowl games are quietly reminding the world that “meaningless” doesn’t mean “unwatched.” Actual attendance may be dwindling, but ratings are rising.

Advertisement

So go ahead and mock the bowls and insist they’re frivolous. But when Cheez-Its and Pop-Tarts lit up TV screens nationally during the holidays, just remember: Orlando knew what it was doing all along — and so did 18 million of our closest, unapologetically entertained friends.