College football is coming to Lambeau Field this fall, when Wisconsin hosts LSU in a season-opening, College GameDay extravaganza on September 3.
A bowl game at Lambeau Field would be awesome. Here’s who should play in it
Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images
If the boss of the stadium’s primary tenant has any say, it won’t be the last time college teams visit Green Bay. Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy, via ESPN’s Jason Wilde:
“I’d still like to host a bowl game,” Murphy said. “We’ve talked about it.”
But college football has approximately a million bowls already, and the NCAA has slapped a three-year moratorium on the addition of new ones.
So this would take some time, not to mention league partners.
“There’s a plethora, an abundance of bowl games,” Murphy said. “If you’re going to start a bowl, you want to have a connection with a conference.”
Hello, Big Ten. Murphy said the Packers “had some discussions” years ago with the league about hosting such a game.
There will be some detractors who will criticize this idea, on the grounds that we have too many bowl games, or that these teams might be bad, or that Lambeau Field is cold. We could not disagree more. A college football bowl game at Lambeau Field has the enthusiastic support of the SB Nation college football desk. Consider:
- It’s a college football game, and those are good. How much would you pay to watch Middle Tennessee State play Ohio, like, right now? Let us not artificially limit the supply of our glorious sport, especially at a time when so many of us are looking for practically any excuse to avoid spending time with family.
- If there is an NFL stadium that could come close to replicating a college football environment, it’s Lambeau Field.
- Bowl games in the snow are good.
- C’mon, don’t get all indignant about protecting the sanctity of bowl destinations with me. We let Shreveport have one. Green Bay can have one, too.
But in order to have a bowl game, we need some conference tie-ins. Allow us to make a few humble suggestions:
Big Ten vs. SEC: There is nothing that a Big Ten fans want more than to make an SEC team play a bowl game in snow. After all, most of the other bowl games are in SEC country. After all, once players from the South are forced to play in cold weather, they lose all of their talent and speed. The SEC would probably counter by perpetually sending Vanderbilt to this game, but as Big Ten fans, we wouldn’t mind. That still counts.
Big Ten No. 10 vs. Big Ten No. 11: Not sure there’d be any more glorious display of Midwestern football than Minnesota and Illinois duking it out on the Frozen Tundra. We don’t even care if these teams get to six wins. Make them exempt.
Big Ten vs. MAC: Sure, these two conferences already play fairly regularly, and already have a tie-in for the Detroit Bowl. But let’s be honest. These are the fan bases that are best equipped to handle a football game in late December in Green Bay, and we want people to actually go to this bowl game. Let’s see if Western Michigan can Row The Boat once it’s completely encased in ice.
Wisconsin vs. Whoever: If the Badgers win between six and eight games in a given season, bind them to the Lam-Bowl. They’ve made enough trips to Orlando, anyway.
Texas vs. Texas A&M: No particular reason. We just happen think this might be a fun bowl matchup. Sure would be neat if these teams could get together on the ol’ gridiron.
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