Bowled Over by Bowls

Good morning and happy "1-1-11"!

That's the most "ones" we'll have in any date for 10 days and it's "1-11-11", but still nothing compared to November when it becomes "11-11-11".....a numerologist's Dream Day.

There's kind of a strange vibe to this New Year's Day, and much of it has to do with the bowl games today. For what seems like forever the bowl schedule would begin with the Outback Bowl from Tampa (Florida vs Penn Sate) on ESPN at 11:00AM. The Capital One Bowl from Orlando (Alabama vs Michigan State) would begin on ABC at noon, followed by "the Grandaddy of "em all", The Rose Bowl from Pasadena (TCU vs Wisconsin) at 4:00, also on ABC.

Meanwhile, the Cotton Bowl from Dallas (LSU vs Texas A&M) would start at noon on FOX, and CBS would have the Gator Bowl from Jacksonville (Michigan vs Mississippi State) around the same time. Back in the day, NBC would have the Orange Bowl from Miami (Stanford vs Virginia Tech) to close out the day, with the Fiesta Bowl from Arizona (Oklahoma-UCONN) and the Sugar Bowl (Arkansas vs Ohio State) from New Orleans either preceding the Orange on New Year's Day, or one would be played New Year's Eve.

Before the BCS, we would have final polls on January 2, and an unofficial national champion would be declared by the writer's and the coach's polls. This year the champions will be crowned after the meeting of Auburn and Oregon in Glendale, AZ....on January 10.

I know it seems confusing and a lot of gobblegook from anyone who's not a fan of college football. But the rhythm of what used to be has once again been disrupted, partially to facilitate TV scheduling, and also to maximize profit.

Something I've never heard of, the the Ticket City Bowl (I HATE the use of corporate names attached to the bowls) is being played in the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas on New Year's Day, pitting Northwestern and Texas Tech. Meanwhile the Cotton Bowl Game is NOT played in the Cotton Bowl, but in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington...and the venerable old New Year's Day classic has been moved to Friday, January 7. The Orange Bowl, not played in the old Orange Bowl Stadium (now torn down) for at least ten years, has been moved to January 3, and the Sugar Bowl will be played on January 4th.

All six of the New Year's Day Games will be on the ABC-ESPN family of networks....The Ticket City at noon on EPNU; the Capital One on ESPN at 1:00PM; The Outback on ABC at 1:00PM; the Gator on ESPN 2 at 1:30: the Rose at 4:30 on ESPN; and the Fiesta at 8:30 on ESPN.

For the first time the Rose Bowl will not be on one of the Big Four Networks, and the Gator has moved to basic cable for the first time. The Outback went from a 11:00 am regular on basic cable to a network featured game on ABC.

Are you confused yet?

Well don't worry about it... I'm a college football fan....and I'm having a hard time keeping track of all the stuff.

Quick Hits- "For The New Decade, And Beyond, Mr. Spock"

To any and all...Happy Twenty-Ten!!!!!

(1). "Y2k"....it seems like only yesterday. And obviously there are a few young readers who have no idea what I'm referring to.

(2) Biggest story of the last decade....obviously 9/11 and its aftermath. Runnerup- the economic meltdown of 2008. Also- Hurricane Katrina, the rise of Barack Obama, the collective Bush Years, Iraq, Afghanistan, the proliferation of "reality TV"....and the how technology changed our lives forever.

(3) Holding that thought about how technology changed our lives- for some reason I was thinking about 2001: A Space Odyssey- probably because we are now in the year of its sequel, 2010. Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick created a scenario in the original 2001 where the computer, "HAL 9000" actually becomes a villain when it senses that the mission of the Jupiter-bound spacecraft is in jeopardy, and begins to kill off the crew members. In the real New Millennium we don't have murderous computers trying to systematically whack us. But what has happened is a dependency on this wonderland of new technology in which we feel lost when we are denied it, even for short periods of time. Do you think that's a stretch? Well, look at what happened a couple of weeks ago with the glitch that prevented Blackberry usage. People seemed lost; some even went into a panic. How many people have the need to have their devices on all of the time, and never- ever- turn them off.

No....mankind has no morphed into robots. But there is a kind of cyborgization that is going on- the technology is starting to rule and dominate lives rather than be there to serve us. And that is dangerous on a psychological level.

"Man does not live by bread alone". But he has voluntarily added a variety of electronic appendages which it seems have taken over aspects of life...."down time" is a thing of the past, and everybody is "on", 24/7. Frankly, I don't think that's a good.....or a healthy....thing.

(4). Charlie Daniels plays a mean fiddle, Ed "Too Tall" Jones is still "too tall", and Elmer Fudd still has trouble with the letter "R". OK GEICO, we get it. The same commercials on again and again and again.

But I suppose we have to live with these new ads. The Cavemen appear to be occupied.

(5). I will give him some credit where it is due- Rush Limbaugh seems to be coming around, if ever so slightly. He was recently hospitalized for chest pains while vacationing in Hawaii. he was treated at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, and according to a report from ABC News the doctors found nothing wrong.

But here's what I found interesting....at least he is, by implication, admitting that President Obama might be a native US citzen after all.

Stay with me, OK? Limbaugh came out with this quote at his news conference...

"Based on what happened to me here, I don't think there is one thing wrong with the American healthcare system. It is working just fine".

So he admitted to the press that he was treated by the American healthcare system, while in Hawaii; therefore, by implication, the worldly Mr. Limbaugh is saying that Hawaii actually IS part of the United States.

And if that is the case, and Barack Obama has a birth certificate (plus a birth announcement in a local paper) from Hawaii he, our Chief Executive and Commander-In-Chief, must have been born in the United States.

So to any "birthers' out there....your man Rush just dissed you and your moronic theories.

So stop mouth breathing and deal with it!

(6). I went to the Rutgers women's basketball game this afternoon and watched them almost snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. A ten point lead with less than four minutes to go shrank to two with less than 15 seconds left....they survived with 60-57 win over DePaul. They still have a ton of growing up to do.

(7). The destruction in the Sugar Bowl of Cincinnati by Florida 51-24- and record setting performance by Tom Tebow- will give the critics of the Big East more fuel for their fiery rhetoric that the conference is not worthy of an automatic BCS bid. As a Big East fan, it was too much to watch. I turned it off at halftime and watched old reruns of the 1950's western HAVE GUN- WILL TRAVEL with Richard Boone for the duration. Paired with the loss by West Virginia at the Gator Bowl to Florida State 33-21, New Year's Day wasn't so good for the Big East. Today UCONN handled South Carolina rather easily 20-7 in THE PAPA JOHN's, and USF beat Northern Illinois in The INTERNATIONAL BOWL 27-3. Overall the Big East finished the bowl season 4-2. Its nice to have a winning record, and it is good for the conference. But its hard to spin a beating of the conference champion in a BCS game the way Cincy was destroyed- it was men vs boys, the Washington Generals vs the Globetrotters....it was a situation where one team didn't appear worthy of sharing the same space as the other.

And I'm pulling my punches here.

In order for the Big East to regain the respect it had before Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College bolted for the ACC the conference has to schedule out of conference better, and it has to be competitive in BCS games, year in and year out.

And that goes for my beloved Rutgers Scarlet Knights as well...no more two 1AA opponents.

(8). In closing......thank you Coach Bowden! There will never be anyone quite like you again.

"Daddgummitt!"