Was any football fan really surprised to learn that viewership for the six bowl games that ESPN brought us on New Year’s Day was down by 18 percent from last year?

For many years in the last century there were only four bowl games, the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Cotton, and competing in them were pretty much the best eight college teams in America.

But then the bowls exploded to where today there are more than 30, including a number of teams, like 6-7 UConn, with losing records.

The only thing left is to bring together the two worst teams in the country in what could obviously be called the Toilet Bowl.

Henry E. Josten

Old Saybrook