Collin Carroll, the long-snapper on the Virginia Tech football team, penned a surprising but terrific column for ESPN this week, writing that it’s time to eliminate bowl week. So much for all of the players loving the idea of being the toast of the town, right, Bill Hancock?

For the seven days we spend in New Orleans, we received a per diem check totaling $450.71. That equates to $64.39 in daily spending cash, when we already receive roughly two meals and two snacks from the team per day. The Sugar Bowl committee also brought us to a bowling alley, New Orleans’ finest steakhouse and a Mardi Gras float parade that included a visit from the Saints’ cheerleaders. What on Earth could we possibly need all this money for?

Carroll will probably be called a variety of names by opposing players – and even his teammates – for this column, and perhaps he’ll be quietly reprimanded behind the scenes. But it’s a smart column for Carroll, who writes for the Virginia Tech student paper and seems to harbor dreams of a journalistic future. I’d love to see him debate Bill Hancock on this topic. At some point, Hancock would break down and say, “without bowl week, how would the BCS suits justify those half a million salaries?”

My advice: Do away with bowl week. Schools should practice at their respective universities just as they would any other game week, arriving at the bowl destination the night before the game. No coeds on campus, no strip joints, no casinos, no extravagant gifts or cash rewards, and no creepy bull-riders with redhead fetishes. Just film, practice, more film, meals and some more film.

What a novel concept. Football. You mean make the focus the game, and not lining the pockets of the BCS cartel while gauging the schools?

Thank goodness a +1 playoff is coming in 2015. Won’t be much longer after that before the playoff is expanded to 8 or 16 teams.

Previously: 2011 College Football Bowl Game Gifts: Hair-Dryers, Belt Buckles, Pens in Boxes
Previously: College Football Bowl Gifts For 2010
Previously: Economic Experts Ask Department of Justice to Investigate the BCS For Antitrust Violations