Back in the 1990s when I actually had single friends, male and female, I used to throw a hellacious bowl-game party on Jan. 1. Anyone who had recovered from New Year’s Eve or wanted to keep fueling their buzz would come over.
We’d have booze, food and lots of football. Good football, back when all the top games were on New Year’s Day. I once served barbecued buffalo when Colorado played Oregon, my alma mater, in the 1996 Cotton Bowl.
If all the BCS games were on Jan. 1 now, I couldn’t get a dozen people to whom I owe money to drop by. This bowl lineup isn’t worth a bowl of saltless pretzels or a box of brussels sprouts.
I’m sorry, folks, but besides the classic Texas-Alabama showdown for the title, the other matchups left me wanting to reshuffle the deck.
I blame the Fiesta Bowl. They blew it. I told executive director John Junker on Sunday night’s conference call that one of the few beauties of the BCS is the possibility of a champion from a non-BCS conference proving its worth against a powerful, tradition-rich — can we say arrogant? — BCS conference.
We had not one, but two party crashers, in Boise State and Texas Christian. I wanted to see Boise State from the WAC thrash Iowa and prove to the country what kind of farce the Big Ten is this season. As an Oregon high school buddy raised on Pac-10 football and who now follows the SEC from his Georgia residence texted me one Saturday, “Thank God the Iowa-Penn State game ended so I can take this gun out of my mouth.”
I wanted to watch TCU’s top-ranked defense turn Georgia Tech’s triple option into the high school offense that it is. I wanted the country to see that the WAC and Mountain West can play really great football and they deserve shots at a national title.
But instead, TCU and Boise State will play each other. What does that prove? Nothing, except some nominal bet between Colorado-based commissioners Karl Benson of the WAC and Craig Thompson of the Mountain West. Is there a non-BCS national championship trophy? Maybe they can throw that in.
The two teams played last year in a bowl named for a flower. If Junker is looking for TV ratings, what sequel will be watched more, “Caddy Shack II” or Poinsettia Bowl II?
So, don’t bother calling me the first week of January. The party is called off.
