Some of you may remember when there were just a few bowl games on New Year’s Day, Rose, Cotton, Orange, Peach, and Sugar, were some of the games that come to mind. They were spaced at regular intervals and you could actually watch a full halftime show with the marching bands of both schools involved in the contest. We didn’t have to watch sixty-something men and twenty-year-old nearly naked girls parade themselves and their pyrotechnics on television so that when elementary age grandchildren walk into the room you feel you have to clap your hands over their eyes. We didn’t have to listen to former football jocks turned commentators tell of their own past glories and coach the players on the field as to how a play should have been run.
The 2011-2012 bowl schedule lists thirty-five major and minor bowl games that begin before Christmas and end Jan. 9th. Try these on for your viewing pleasure: The San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, The Insight Bowl, Tempe, Arizona, (insight into what?), the uDrove Humanitarian Bowl, Boise, Idaho (complete with blue turf), the Autozone Liberty Bowl, Memphis, Tennessee, (free car parts at the door?), and finally, the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl, Nashville, Tennessee (say that 18 times real fast!)
Even the old stand-bys are no longer listed as they once were: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl presented by VIZIO, the AT&T Cotton Bowl, and the Discover Card will treat you to an Orange Bowl.
Ladies, an in depth listing is found on the Flickr website. Print it for the spouses with snacks sports fans. Settle back and watch the granddaddy of all the BCS Bloopers, the Allstate BCS National Championship Game, on ESPN Jan. 9th at 8:30 ET. It features a flawed selection system arranged by sporting experts who need to be shot at sunrise. One year we couldn’t watch the championship game due to a power outage in our neighborhood. My husband nearly had to have CPR as a result. I am a diehard sports fan, but I think I’ll spend New Years at the Walmart.com Shopping Bowl. Care to join me?