What do you call a college football fan who maps out plans to watch all 34 holiday bowl games?
A psychotic couch potato.
This holiday gridiron marathon begins at 2:30 p.m. Saturday with the New Mexico Bowl (Fresno State- Wyoming) on ESPN and ends Jan. 7 with the BCS championship (Texas-Alabama) at the Rose Bowl, aired on ABC but produced by ESPN.
While a few viewing conflicts exist along the way, a creative couch potato could use a VCR, a DVR or some other electronic device to keep his psychotic 34-game schedule in play.
Recall 20 years ago?
That’s when the bowl season featured about a dozen televised games on NBC, CBS, ABC and an occasional independent television operation.
That was before ESPN began flexing its financial and programming cable muscle.
If you include ESPN’s production of two games aired on ABC (the Rose Bowl and the BCS championship game), the cable outlet will air 27 of the 34 games, including two on ESPN2.
CBS has two contests — the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31 and the Gator Bowl on Jan. 1.
Fox, which has broadcast the BCS championship game the three previous years, will broadcast four prestigious bowls — the Sugar (Jan. 1), Cotton (Jan. 2), Fiesta (Jan. 4) and Orange (Jan. 5).
ESPN recently outbid Fox for the BCS championship game and will air it on ABC.
If my math is accurate, 33 games have been accounted for.
This means the NFL Network again will invade the college scene, airing the Insight Bowl from Tempe, Ariz., on Dec. 31.
In addition to its TV coverage, ESPN Radio will cover 18 games in a move to make Dennis Franchione a household TV name. The former Texas A&M coach will be involved in six contests.
How powerful has ESPN become on the college football scene?
Beginning in 2011, ESPN will televise, for four years, all major BCS bowl-sponsored games — Fiesta, Orange and Sugar, along with the national championship game.
And in a separate deal, ESPN will also begin airing the Rose Bowl.
Amid all this football glory — and profit — ESPN should show a sense of humor and a change of pace by creating a special bowl attraction in 2011 — a game in a sunny setting featuring two major colleges that sport the season’s worst records.
Many bowl contests have widely known sponsorships in the titles — Little Caesars Pizza, Outback, Papa John’s, Capital One, etc.
Perhaps a company, such as Lysol or Comet, could pick up sponsorship rights for this special attraction, host a huge party for game attendees, give away numerous products and make financial donations to the teams’ athletic departments.
Thus, the Toilet Bowl would become a college football holiday tradition.
Five-pronged career.
Kevin McHale has moved to another stage of his basketball-TV life.
He was on television regularly while starring at the University of Minnesota and for the Celtics. Viewers then saw him as the coach and then general manager of the Timberwolves. McHale recently joined NBA-TV as a studio analyst.
Quotable.
“Nothing says football like old guys from Britain who love soccer.” — Fox’s NFL comedian Frank Caliendo, on The Who being picked for the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.
MLB steals a star from ESPN
The MLB Network, which will celebrate its first anniversary on Jan. 1, has given its baseball viewers a holiday present by luring Peter Gammons away from ESPN.
The all-star journalist, who worked 20 years as ESPN’s most notable baseball analyst, joined MLB after the recent winter meetings.
He will provide ongoing analysis and commentary on the cable outlet and on . Regarding his decision to change channels, Gammons said, “I was swept away by the concepts that were offered to me.”
Before joining ESPN, Gammons won numerous awards covering baseball for The Boston Globe. His baseball writing and broadcasting career put him in the Hall of Fame in 2005.
Ratings roulette.
A record 18 million viewers saw the Dec. 5 Southeastern Conference football title game between Alabama and Florida. According to Sports Media Watch, the CBS coverage had more viewers than the Daytona 500, every game of the 2009 NBA Finals and the men’s NCAA basketball championship, aired last spring.
