As Scrooge would say, Bowl Humbug
Sugar, Rose, Cotton, Holiday, Sun, Gator
… Just how many damn college football bowl games are there
anyway? To be honest, I could care less.
You’d think, as a sports editor of a newspaper, that I’d want to
sit there like every other Tom, Dick and Harry in America with a
clicker in one hand and a beer in the other watching the bowl games
unfold.
As Scrooge would say, Bowl Humbug
Sugar, Rose, Cotton, Holiday, Sun, Gator… Just how many damn college football bowl games are there anyway? To be honest, I could care less.
You’d think, as a sports editor of a newspaper, that I’d want to sit there like every other Tom, Dick and Harry in America with a clicker in one hand and a beer in the other watching the bowl games unfold.
But I couldn’t care less about watching any of the 32 major bowl games that take place in this country from Dec. 19’s Poinsettia Bowl to next Monday’s BCS title game between No. 1 ranked Ohio State vs. No. 2 ranked Florida.
I really couldn’t. I don’t know what it is about college sports in general but I just can’t get into it like the pro sports.
Sure, the March Madness basketball tournament can get exciting down the stretch but that’s because of the way the tournament is set up – there truly is a national champion.
In college football, a team that maybe could win it all under a playoff format more akin to the NFL is pretty much out of it with just a single loss during the regular season. Better luck next year. See you later.
If the NFL followed this format, teams like the Eagles and the Giants would have had their seasons over before any of us could say “Trick-or-Treat.” Heck, even Indy and San Diego wouldn’t have a shot at the Super Bowl.
Now if any of those teams stay hot, any of them could win the Super Bowl. In college football, a team can’t have a bad day.
Or maybe I’m not into college football because so many players graduate each year that you can’t follow a particular athlete too long, like you can in the pros. Although with free agency and salary cap ramifications that’s not as good as it used to be in the NFL either.
I really don’t know what it is about college football but I’d rather watch the Raiders play Detroit this weekend than the BCS title game.
Just imagine – the game could be called the Toilet Bowl. And if I didn’t like it, I could just flush it. But with the collage of college bowl games that take place this time of year there is no escape from it all. All the coverage, the hype, the analysis, the breakdowns, etc, etc.
At least when they break down NFL teams and players they’re talking about guys that play football for a living. Most of these college guys will be in another line of work by the summer solstice.
What really put it all into perspective was a friend of mine who called me up shortly before Christmas to ask me if he should bet on New Mexico or my alma mater San Jose State University in this year’s New Mexico Bowl.
I told him to take San Jose State based on what trickled across my desk and into my emails for the past few months, and from what I might have heard on KNBR or somewhere else.
He took San Jose State and won. I didn’t even know it until this week. It just doesn’t interest me.
It’s probably because there are just so many bowl games and it’s so spread out. Not to mention that it seems like the sponsors change every other year – which means that the names of the bowl games change too. It’s pretty tough to follow when the name of the game itself is changing annually from Nokia this and Doritos or Tostitos that or something else.
How many times has the name of the Super Bowl changed? Never, other than that Roman numeral crap.
You’d think I’d love watching the bowl games, but quite frankly I’d rather use the time to take down the Christmas lights. Don’t get me wrong. I love football. Heck, I bore you guys practically every week on some column that’s sounding off on the goings on in the NFL, particularly with the 49ers and the Raiders, but college football I just can’t get behind.
And I figure if I can’t get into it every Saturday throughout the fall why should I jump on the bandwagon on New Year’s Day anyway?
Remember the days when most all the games were played on Jan. 1 and the “national championship” game was Jan. 2. Two days of hardcore, endless football coverage is a lot easier to get behind than a month-long frenzy.
This year I saw that the BCS title game doesn’t take place until Jan. 8. Every year it seems like they milk it out a little longer in order to generate more and more advertising revenue and media hype.
But I guess that’s the American way, right? That’s also why nearly every playoff series in professional sports is now a best of seven instead of five or three. It’s all about the almighty dollar.
Oh well, that’s another column. But as far as the college bowl games go, I’ll sum it up in a Scrooge-like fashion: Bah, Humbug.
