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Bowled over

Just for the record, and this is a post mainly for my fellow college football fans, the main thing wrong with the BCS isn't the stupid, interminable, year-end, "mythical national title" debates. It's not even the fact that the voters in the polls are unduly influenced by those debates, over-ranking the conference champions of down conferences so that the BCS bowls end up looking better than they actually are.

No, the biggest problem is that the BCS bowls make all the other ones look like small potatoes. Case in point was today's Capital One Citrus Bowl, which pitted Iowa against LSU. I'm a total Iowa homer, I know, but this was one of the most exciting bowl games (and finishes) I've seen in a long time. Both teams are somewhere around the tail of the top 10 (depending on the poll), neither had a real chance at a "big" bowl, but both teams came to play, both have great coaches, and the result was a back-and-forth game that was decided on a last-second 56-yard touchdown pass to Warren Holloway, who scored the first and last touchdown of his career at Iowa. Wow.

And it wasn't just this one. Michigan-Texas? Great game. Boise State-Louisville? Great game. Unfortunately, the BCS guaranteed that Utah would not have a worthy opponent in the Fiesta. Ditto for tomorrow's matchup of Auburn and ACC champ (?!) Virginia Tech. Hopefully, Oklahoma-USC will be decent.

March Madness is still my favorite time of year, but the 2-3 days of Bowl intensity are pretty good in themselves, as long as I get to spend them watching good football (as opposed to bubbleheaded announcers droning about the BCS). Oh, and didn't Keith Jackson retire once already? Isn't it about that time again?

Comments

Amen. Profit drives the system. Once you buy in, you have to pay for the seats and tv does that, more than the inflated reserved seats. Luckily I was around when it was still a sport, at least college ball was, as "Papa Bear" makes clear.

Yeah, but how 'bout them Hawkeyes? They seemed to me to be in the process of running out the clock so they wouldn't have time for a field goal when they scored a touchdown. Lucky bastards... If Iowa gets a running game next year, they'll be pretty damn good, IMO.

The fact that they are still playing college football and on a TUESDAY keeps me away from most of it. I did watch Texas and a little of the Iowa game but missed the big finish. I've been in favor of a "tournament" for some time, but give the $$$ it'll never happen. I think each Rose Bowl team got $14 MILLION dollars. Whew.

Actually, I was a little surprised to hear Terry Bowden on last night's broadcast announce that he's now for a playoff. So many of the ABC announcers are basically tools for the BCS that this was kind of a shocker. But if you think about it, an 8 team playoff means that there are 7 games that matter for the nat'l championship, instead of 1. I would think that, at least from the broadcasting side of things, that this would mean more money.

cgb

ps. I still don't care much for Terry Bowden