With a bit of a heavy heart, we have to announce that Varn Football Fest will no longer take place.

Since 1992, in some form or the other, we (Sam, Adam, Jean) have put together an annual tradition of friendly rivalry in picking the winners of college football bowl games. What began as trading faxes back and forth, moved to printed out sheets that were circled or highlighted by hand and then entered into a spreadsheet, to then taking it online with form submissions, user accounts and much much more. Varn Football Fest has always been a labor of love, with hours of work going into to update records and bowl matchups, sending out newsletter updates and answering tech support email, all of which we were always happy to do because it brought out the best of all of those who participated to share in this fun little competition.

We know it made many of us pay attention to teams we never would be for, rooting for Miami (OH) or on the edge of our seat for the outcome of the Gasparilla Bowl, with games always on the TV throughout the holiday season, hoping we would pick up another win to stay in the competition or even take the lead. It was always nerve racking and exciting and great way to close out each and every year.

But 34 years is a long, long time. We've had literally thousands of players in that time, some every year and some just once. People lost interest in college football, changed emails, retired or sadly passed away. The ebb and flow was expected every year but the last few years saw fewer and fewer entrants and we started to really tell it was time to sunset this.

College football itself has changed dramatically too. What used to be a dozen bowl games, led to dozens more, to the BCS, to a 4 team playoff, a 12 team playoff and soon a 24 team playoff. Players opted out of games, teams declined bowl invites, coaches left and the game became less about fun exhibitions and more about random match ups for the sake of TV (though we will always love the Pop-Tarts and Duke's Mayo bowls!). And with a broader playoff, bowl games may fall by the wayside entirely in the future, so we felt that it was time to close VFF for good.

Thank you to each and every person for all of the years of fun and competition, the silly screen names, the long winning (and losing) streaks and all of it. We loved every minute of it, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for playing in our silly little game.

We appreciate all the support through the years and hope your team has a great season!

Sincerely,
Sam, Adam & Jean Varn