COLLEGE BOWLS: Who needs them?

I’m through with watching college football until New Year’s Eve. Last time I checked, there were about 60 bowl games hosting about every 6-6 team in the country. The Pop Tarts Bowl? Duke’s Mayo Bowl? Seriously? I didn’t see American Standard’s Toilet Bowl in the listing, but there are many match ups that would qualify.

Hardly anybody seems to attend these 6-6 classics. When a viewer accidentally sees the number of in-person “fans,” it is apparent that it is like attending a middle school band recital. Only family and dear friends are in the seats.

“In the day,” I can only recall four bowl games: Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl. They usually featured contests between established and very competitive conference champions. All were played on New Year’s Day. There were no polls or committees deciding which bowls would be hosting which schools. One of the expected results was that a “National Champion” would never be agreed upon. (So what?) That made for great trash talk at work and in bars for maybe years to come.

These days, nothing has changed. Angst and ill feelings will continue to infest the college bowls fueled by politics and greed. And with TV money always in the mix, 6-win teams will still be playing long after they should have hung up their pads before Thanksgiving.

TOM NEILL

Coeur d’Alene