The bowl season is here, and there are plenty of signs that there are too many games.

I mean, come on, nothing says “Great season, fellas!” like a berth in the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl. People complain about the BCS system for determining a champion, but there are flaws in the entire bowl selection system.

First, the conference tie-ins screw up the whole lineup. The six major conferences and their leaders are the architects of the system to begin with, and they want to make sure they control the big bowl dollars.

With Boise State being excluded from the BCS, the Broncos were forced all the way down to the Poinsettia Bowl, which is the secondary bowl in its own town. As it turns out this year, fellow Top 12 BCS reject TCU was matched up with Boise, making this one of the most appealing early bowls.

But the game will be played on Dec. 23. Why couldn’t we get these teams matched up in a New Year’s Day Bowl of some sort? Because somehow, somewhere, someone thinks Iowa vs. South Carolina is a more interesting game.

By the way, speaking of Boise and the BCS, how does a team that finished ahead of Ohio State by three times the margin that Florida beat out Texas in the standings get frozen out of the Fiesta Bowl? While we are on the topic, follow me here. If the Big Ten is so bad that Penn State is No. 8 after just a one-point loss on the road to a Jan. 1 team, why does it need two teams in the BCS? Further, if Ohio State is a full point behind the Lions in BCS average despite playing USC on its schedule, I repeat the same question. Boise proved its mettle as a Fiesta Bowl team, and it should have been given another shot.

Some other gripes I have about the bowls this year:
- Why is Clemson playing on New Year’s Day? They barely qualified for a bowl at all, and they haven’t had an impressive win all season.
- I don’t like the fact that everyone assumed – even during the MAC championship game last week – that Ball State would beat Buffalo. That assumption screwed up all the MAC bowl pairings because the Bulls already were essentially committed to the International Bowl before the game. They deserved better.
- Wake Forest vs. Navy was not a terrific game to watch the first time. Do we have to watch it again? And to kick off bowl season no less…
- Texas Tech should have been a BCS team, but the Red Raiders might get a better game from Ole Miss than they expect.
- Vanderbilt didn’t get a true bowl “trip” in its return to the postseason, but it did get homefield advantage. There is a team that was a win over Duke away from the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day.
- Western Michigan vs. Rice – where do I get my tickets?
- The Independence Bowl has a proud tradition, one that is not bolstered by Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech.

More on these games as the bowls crank up. Next week, I will do my bowl picks against the spread and I will link the column here.