Big East Looking to add a bowl in Florida?

The news continues to flow out of the Big East Media Days. The Tampa Tribune reported today that Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese is interested in potentially locating a Big East bowl in Florida during the next round of Bowl Agreements.

With the Big East looking to expand its bowl lineup, Commissioner Mike Tranghese said the league "would have to look strongly" at having a Big East bowl in Florida, perhaps even in the Tampa Bay area, when its current bowl cycle expires in 2009.

If a new bowl was added this would be the 33rd, yes the 33rd bowl to be approved. Remember when Bowls used to be a reward at the end of a successful season? This year with 32 Bowls in play, 54% (more then half) of all NCAA Division 1A teams will reach the postseason. Can you say overkill? Contrast that Men's Basketball where only 34% of all NCAA Division 1 teams will reach either the main tournament field or the NIT. Couldn't we maybe cut back on some of these bowls? The Houston Bowl couldn't make its payments last year, the Las Vegas and New Orleans Bowls have had serious attendence issues. Two years ago there was only one bowl eligible team that didn't go to the postseason (for the curious that was Akron, South Carolina and Clemson suspended their football teams from bowl competition that season). Four new bowls were added this year. The Big East has bowl tie-ins for up to 6 of its 8 members (7 in the extraordinarily unlikely event that the league placed 2 teams in the BCS and Notre Dame wasn't bowl eligible). To say the bowl system has gotten bloated would be a bit of an understatement, its time for the NCAA to "trim the fat" and stop certifying new games. I'm waiting for that first season (maybe it will be this year) when there aren't enough bowl eligible teams to fill out the 64 bowl berths.