January: Not What It Used To Be

So I see, dear Nigel, that you're not exactly psyched for that inevitable Champs Sports Bowl appearance that ESPN's Mark Schlabach has the 'Canes pegged for (versus Penn State, in case you were curious). There goes my Christmas present for you: A 2006 Champs Sports Bowl t-shirt featuring the 7th floor boys or whatever the resident rap group is called this year.

The fact that Miami, if Schlabach is correct (good luck, Mark) would be playing on December 29th, sharing the spotlight with a plethora of other bowl games (and if you're wondering why there's too many bowl games, consider that bowl games are "awarded" to eighth place conference finishers) shouldn't bother you as much as what I noticed today. (Not even SportsCenter's complete simulation of the 2006 college football season which went for two weeks and ended in a fictional playoff system didn't bother me as much as this.)

Do you realize, that you get a BCS game on January first (Rose), a BCS game on January 2nd (Orange), a BCS game on January 3rd (Sugar), followed by the International Bowl and the GMAC Bowl on January 6th and 7th?

Oh yeah baby! When I think College Football in January, I think Tulsa and Akron! I'm going to start marinating my GMAC Bowl chicken wings now!

How did exactly has this not registered with me until today?

I realize that television has become the Grand High Exhalted Mystic Ruler of everything that is team competition, and now that FOX has their grubby sport destroying hands on the BCS, Monday Night has been tabbed as the best night to hold a National Championship game...but you know USC and Texas had a little soiree on a Thursday night that did just fine, thank you very much.

And because FOX decided to fix what wasn't broken, we have a four day gap between the Sugar Bowl and the BCS Championship that's been unfathomably filled in by bowls awarded to MAC teams. You know in my day, January football used to mean something...like last year! Call me irrational, but I blame Jeanne Zelasko...I know her and her maternity outfits had something to do with this.

Well now that I know that all roads lead to Akron, I will set my DVR accordingly. In fact, after Akron plays Penn State this coming weekend, is there any other reason to watch college football the rest of the season? They will have practically written their ticket to the GMAC bowl, now a January bowl game...sticking out on that month's landscape like Keira Knightley at a Star Wars convention.