Did the 2015-16 bowl season really have more blowouts than usual?

“This was a horrible bowl season.”

“I can’t believe how bad these bowl games have been.”

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve heard either those exact words or something to that effect over the past few weeks. The bowl games following the 2015 college football season included a number of high profile blowouts.

A 38-point shutout in a College Football Playoff semifinal. A 29-point boat race in the Rose Bowl that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. A 28-point Sugar Bowl that was effectively over at halftime. Those leave an imprint on you that can color your entire point of view about bowl season.

But was it really true? Was this the worst year of bowl games in recent history, or were we letting a few clunkers color an otherwise normal set of games?

I looked at the margin of victory for every bowl game played over the past decade, starting in 2006 and ending with Alabama’s 45-40 win over Clemson in the College Football Playoff Championship. And when you look at the average margin of victory in bowl games over that stretch, 2015 did have the largest average, if only slightly.

This year’s margin of victory was nearly a full two points higher than last year’s games, and almost a half point higher than the next-highest mark over the past 10 years. There were 15 games that were decided by more than two scores -- 17 points or higher -- which was tied for the highest mark over the past decade.

But is it true that those complaining bowl season wasn’t fun just didn’t start watching soon enough?

When you reduce the sample from all bowls to only New Year’s Six, College Football Playoff and BCS games, the 2015 season had by far the biggest margin of victory over the past decade, coming in at over three touchdowns per game.

The only other season to hit 20 points per game in the same timespan was in 2007, and we’re only two years removed from the only season where the margin of victory was less than 10 points.

The Playoff title game between Alabama and Clemson and TCU’s improbable comeback against Oregon in the Alamo Bowl were probably the most memorable games, and the latter was one of the best games of the year. But that doesn’t change the fact that only two of this year’s New Year’s Six bowl games were decided by less than 20 points, and none were closer than 14 points.

So yeah, automatic tie-ins in big bowl games probably made things a bit worse than usual towards the end of the postseason. Onto the next one!